Actress Kyoko Fukada's (31) sexy underwear photo will be in the magazine FRaU which will be released on the 12th. She comments: "I have started to look at my body sincerely now. I can't just tone it up. I also started to feel that it needs to be flexible. I am grateful to everyone for looking at the me right now in this light.". Her photos were shot in Rome on December last year. This picture will be included in her photo book (un)touch to be released on March 13.
Actress Mirai Shida (20), who wore a kimono to the launch of her photo book Arigato, explained the reason behind the title: "It's my way of expressing gratitude to my parents and my agency who have raised me up to now that I'm 20", as tears suddenly started falling down from her eyes. The reporters also looked baffled, but Shida followed this up with: "My tears have been pretty shallow these days... I never thought that I would still be working in this industry until I'm 20... I'm truly grateful." Shida who has been in the industry since she was 6 says: "I feel that I still have a long way to go. I don't even have that feeling of reality that I'm an actress. I'm just doing this because I love acting...". When asked about which project has been the most memorable for her, she answered her first serial drama Joou no Kyoushitsu, which was when she was only in 6th grade. She comments: "As a gradeschooler, I did get to understand how difficult it was to make one drama in the span of 3 months. I don't really have a set objective in the future. I just want to cherish whatever it is that I have now. I want to take better responsibility". On the other hand, she also expressed that she would want to fall in love. "But I know that it's not something that can easily be done by just wishing for it. I would like a gentle person who shares the same interests with me. Someone like Hiroshi in Crayon Shin-chan". She also continues, "I want to be a housewife. I've always looked up to mothers. I always wanted to get married by the time I turn 24, but 26 isn't bad too". And when she was asked if she'd still want to continue to work as an actress even after getting married, she laughed and brushed it off by saying "I haven't thought that far yet".
AKB48 member Haruna Kojima's (25) first photo book KojiHaru sold 61,000 copies in its first week and took the top spot in sales in 3 categories: the overall sales, picture books, and mooks. Her first week sales have surpassed Rino Sashihara's photo book Sashiko by 4,000, and is #1 all-time in first week sales. The publisher comments: "We received data that 52% of the people who bought this are women, which is precisely why the sales have been good because she also has a lot of female fans". Kojima comments: "I'm surprised to hear that I'm at the top spot of all time on Oricon! I'm did my best with the photo shoots and the interview that I'm usually bad at, so I'm truly happy that a lot of people have had a chance to look at my book."
Model/Talent Saeko (27) will be releasing her first picture book [EPISODE 1] on the 24th (Takarajima, JP\1,890). The pictures were shot from the end of September towards the beginning of October in France's Arles and Saint Tropez. The picture book contains daring shots where this mother of 2 boys only covers her chest with flowers or her hands, and shots where she wears outfits like see-through black underwear, showing off her sexy body. Saeko comments: "We are releasing this with women as our target market and believe that all this skin exposure isn't eroticism but fashion and art".
Keiko Kitagawa (27) is a woman who's been riding a huge wave as of late with her drama Dokushin Kizoku, her movie RoomMate with Kyoko Fukada, and her upcoming 2014 film Akumu-chan The Movie. But according to this week's Shuukan Jitsuwa, there are talks that Kitagawa will be having a nude photo book after being inspired by Maki Horikita's photo book Dramatic, which was released last September. The issue of the magazine that ran advanced shots of Dramatic had to increase press of the issue by 50%, and still sold. Jitsuwa reports that Kitagawa is planning to surpass Horikita's underwear shots by coming out with her own hair-nude photo book. And it is said that if Kitagawa agrees to this, she will be receiving a fee in the region of \150 million. "Horikita's picture book has photos of her in white underwear, and shots of her taking her clothes off in a room with opened curtains leading to a lot of people calling it steamy, even from the advance shots that came out. But this is also helped by the huge gap to her image of being pure and innocent after she starred in NHK's morning drama Umechan Sensei and having no scandals herself. Kitagawa might have been inspired by that, but their positions are entirely different. Kitagawa is touted as "one of the 3 most beautiful women in showbiz" and has a reputation of being an enchantress and a "co-star killer". She also just released her photo book 27 last August, and this issue was released just before the showing of her movie RoomMate, so it does seem like a promotional gimmick..." - (showbiz writer)
Rino Sashihara dropped a bomb on TV Tokyo's new late night program Sashihara no Ran.
"Sashihara said on the program that she wants to come out with her first photo book since there is something that 'she can only sell now'. She said that 'I'm salary-based so things like these help me out the most', stating that she's looking for the high amount of income she'll be receiving from doing a photo shoot. When she was asked what kind of photo book she wants to do, she said 'Santa Fe. It's Santa Fe, yeah, Santa Fe', repeating the name of Rie Miyazawa's legendary nude photo book which was released in 1991 and sold over a million copies." - (TV writer)
Ex-AKB48 member Sayaka Akimoto (25) released her 1st photobook Ari no mama at Shibuya's Tower Records. In the book, she opens up about her inferiority complex of having a Filipina mother and a Japanese father, saying: "I may be a halfie, but it's different from being half-American or half-British. It was really hard to say that I'm half-Filipino". "I kept thinking 'What am I?' for 7 and a half years while I was spending time together with all these other idols like Mayuyu and Yuko. But I am able to stay active and have work because of my shoulder width that's bigger than anyone else's in AKB, and my muscles. I cherished these traits as these define who I really am." "Now I am proud when I say that I'm half-Filipino, and I hope that I can give give a helping hand to everyone else who are half-bred and is in the same situation as I was, and people who have no confidence". And with her graduation from AKB48 last August, she is now freed from the "no-relationships" rule. She was asked at the event if she has "found love", to which she replied, "Nothing has changed at all." "Maybe, if I meet someone nice". About her type of man, she said: "I'm a really troublesome girl, so I'd like someone who can accept that, and people like those persistent goats". "I may look like a herbivore, but I actually like carnivorous men who are like meat rolled in cabbage leaves. Like the ones whom you send 1 text message to but reply with 5." She smiles and follows this up with: "I'm the type who totally gets absorbed in a relationship. If I fall too much in love with a person, I might not be able to work anymore". Akimoto has also declared that she will try her best as an actress. "It's true that Yuko has stimulated that feeling in me. We've spent our youth together each and every single day in AKB, so I think that both of us have something to offer as actresses".
Maki Horikita, who will turn 25 next month, released her picture book Dramatic (Magazine House) on the 26th. Pictures that are not included in the picture book are in anan which will was released on the 18th. She will be having a handshake event on her birthday, October 6.
Maki Horikita will be having a handshake event at Shosen Grande for the release of her picture book Dramatic on October 6, which is coincidentally her birthday.
When: October 6, 2013 (Sunday) 13:30~ Where: SHOSEN+ (Shosen Grande 7th floor) Event Registration: Sept. 6 2013 12:00 ~ Sept. 26 2013 23:59 * Will only accept official reservation forms during the period. * Participants will be selected through raffle.
(Related post HERE)
Yumi Adachi has apparently stopped living together with Speed Wagon's Jun Itoda (40) and has started a relationship with the photographer of her picture book Photographer A.
Yumi Adachi's picture book Shiseikatsu (Private Life) will be released on September 2, and has been in the making for over 2 and half years in her own private home and in Hachijojima.
"All the photoshoots were done almost entirely in private without informing her agency. Her manager wasn't with them as well. There were a lot of instances when it was only her and the photographer inside her home" - (Publication officer)
"Most gravure photographers are smooth talkers and are very enthusiastic, but Mr. A is the silent type who shows concern towards his subjects. Yumi-chan has always respected him even from the when they started shooting. She finally decided to go semi-nude around March of last year, and Yumi-chan has apparently given her full trust to him. She said, 'I'd be able to show whatever side of me to that person'." - (Adachi's acquaintance)
Two years after their divorce in 2009, Adachi and Itoda got back together in September of 2011. But it has been reported that they had stopped living together in May of 2012.
When asked about Mr. A, the agency answered, "A-san is just our acquaintance at work". Even Mr. A denies this, saying, "We're not together. I just meet her when it's time to work".
Keiko Kitagawa held her first handshake event for her 10th year anniversary in showbiz. She shook the hands of 4,400 people in 2 days. "Everything went by so fast, it all felt like a dream." "It's been 10 years during which I really felt everyone's love. If I'll have projects in the next 10 years, then I would love to keep on being an actress". "(At 37) I might be married already. It will all depend on the timing of fate." "(As for love) Nothing happened at all to me in the past 27 years, so I hope that I'll meet at least 1 person by the time I become 37."
The book titled "NHK Serial TV novel Amachan Rena Nounen featuring Aki Amano" (\1680, from NHK) will be released on August 29.
This will include snapshots of selected scenes from the drama, off-cam shots, and a feature called "A Day with the Heroine". It will also have Nounen's interview plus a personal message.
Rena Nounen: "I'm so happy that Aki-chan will have her own book! Jye jye jye! It includes this thing and that thing about Aki-chan, hehe."