Former Japanese gravure idol Megumi Yasu 安めぐみ turned actress and TV host is a Tokyo gal.  She was a model for TOPCAT (Sendai TV) in 1998 and received some national attention in 1999 when she entered the Weekly Young Jump High School Uniform contest and tried her hand at singing releasing a single Private Venus in 2000.

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Last year Japanese communications giant NTT DocoMo produced a brilliant TV commercial for the smartphone Touch wood SH-08C featuring a giant wooden xylophone that made a song in a forest.  The tune used in the TVCM is Bach’s Cantata 147 also known as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire.”

The commercial promoted a green message to switch to mobile phones using wood instead of plastic casings.

NTT Touch wood SH-08C smartphone TV commercial

Sexy Sayaka Ando 安藤沙耶香 is a Japanese fashion model,  gravure idol and former race queen.  The 29 year old from Takasaki, Gunma is not just a pretty face, she graduated from Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University with qualifications to teach English and be a secretary.

Luckily for us, this 167cm beauty with measurements 84 – 55 – 84 cm she decided to be a race queen and model.  She released 8 DVDs and 4 photo books from 2004-2008 and appeared in all the men’s magazines such as Weekly Young Jump, Flash, SPA, Weekly Young Sunday, Weekly Young Magazine and Weekly Playboy.  Read more...

Pretty Yurina Sato 佐藤ゆりな (Yurina Satoh or Yurina Satou)   is a 29 year old Japanese gravure idol and race queen from Aomori Prefecture, Japan who debuted in 2000.

This 165 cm tall, 83 – 58 – 85 cm beauty likes swimming, volleyball, cooking and watching horse racing.  As a race queen she appeared for CUSCO Racing / Team Gaikokuya in 2008.

Yurina has appeared in TV commercials for HIS, NTT Docomo and Konica cameras and released 13 DVD’s  including 2009′s Temptation Dream and 3 photo books.

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Darth Vader ダース・ベイダー looks down on Shibuya from a DoCoMo billboard on the side of the famous Shibuya 109 department store.  Darth Vader helped out Japanese mobile service provider KDDI many years ago, now’s he’s helping their rival DoCoMo in their “Who is my Boss?” advertising campaign as well as promoting various smart phones.

Darth Vader Docomo TV commercials

Darth Vader with Ken Watanbe promoting Docomo Smartphone Sony Ericsson Xperia SO-01b

Darth Vader promoting Docomo Smartphone Galaxy S

DoCoMo TV Commercial a few years ago introducing new technology called QR codes -  a type of barcode that  bar code where you can take a photo of it on your phone and once you do it would automatically take you to the company’s website on your phone. Its pretty cool if you think about it.

Tomomi Itano 板野友美 is the pretty and talented soon to be 19 year old  singer from Jpop group AKB48. Back in 2005, the Osaka born Tomomi (known as Tomochin) was chosen out of 7,000 auditioners to join the popular all girl AKB48.  She has featured in all the released singles and is part of unit A.

Tomomi has appeared in 3 TV commercials  including NTT Docomo (2006), Kirin Nuda by Kirin Beverage (2008) and a new one this month for  Ito-Yokado 株式会社イトーヨーカ堂 a Japanese general merchandise store (part of Seven & I Holdings Co) where she features in a traditional yukata and bikini for their 2010 Swimwear and Yukata fashion lines ー 恋水着 恋ゆかた. (see website here)  Read more...

Azusa Yamamoto 山本梓 has that pretty girl next door look that has earned her a legion of fans.  The 29 year old gravure idol and actress is from Chiba prefecture debuted in 2001 as a model for teen fashion magazine Cawaii.

Azusa is a talented pianist and ballet dancer which helps explain how she keeps so fit. She has appeared in 9 photobooks and 16 DVDs, TV commercials for Suzuki, DoCoMo, Lawson, Mazda and J-pop station. Otaku fans will reconize her from her TV and sentai films like GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs Super Sentai, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, Bakuryuu sentai Abaranger vs Hurricanger and Ninpuu sentai Hurricanger vs Gaoranger.  Read more...

Lisa Nakama (also known as Risa Nakama) 仲間リサ is a half American fashion model from Okinawa.  The pretty 26 year old is best known as one popular models for the fashion magazine Pinky which she won the 2005 Pinky Princess audition.

Besides Pinky, she’s also featured on WITH, Lei wedding (cover), gainer, PREPPY、 Wedding Book、MEN’S CLUB、nail up!,  sabra , Sabra, Hair & Beauty pronto pronto?, KING and Shiyo.

She also appeared in Fuji TV’s Mezamashi morning TV from 2006-2007 and has appeared in TV commercials for Trend Micro, Unilever Japan, Mods-style,  Uniqlo, Belle Mansion, Naris Cosmetics, Nuovo, City wedding, NTT DoCoMo, Shinjuku Sabunado and Samung Electonics.  Read more...

In 2001, Jpop diva, Utada Hikaura released “Final Distance” her 7th Japanese-language single and the 1st single from her Deep River album. “Final Distance” was the first song that Utada Hikaru’s ex-husband Kazuaki Kiriya filmed the music video to and it was the first time that Utada Hikaru collaborated with Japanese rapper M-Flo. The song debuted at #2 on the Oricon charts in its first week and had a tie-in as the NTT docomo M-stage CM song.  Read more...