Ayaka Ichinose's interview is coming soon here!

＜English＞

Translated by J

Hello everyone, TW editor Yuki here!

We recently published our Japanese interview with gravure celebrity Ayaka Ichinose, who came out publicly earlier this year. (The English translation will be coming soon posted in seven parts right here!) We've received an overwhelmingly positive response from the article, which got more hits than usual, and a tremendous number of Japanese readers have written in to tell us how Ichinose's coming out has inspired and encouraged them! Sure enough, the popular and beloved Ichinose has captured the hearts of many a girl here in Japan.

When I interviewed Ichinose at a cafe in Shibuya in mid-May, I was immediately struck by her warm, bright nature and sense of humor. I also quickly learned that she's more than just a cute girl with a friendly smile. Ichinose is a woman who treats her work seriously and professionally, and beneath that sweet smile you can catch a glimmer of the "tough girl" inside. I was overjoyed to meet such a strong, adorable, and officially out Japanese lesbian, who now shares the company of only a few others, including out author of Honey & Honey, Sachiko Takeuchi.

I was impressed by her manager as well, a straight man (as far as I know!) who has given her his full support as she chose to come out professionally. Thanks to Ichinose, he seems quite knowledgeable about the lesbian community, and often nodded along thoughtfully as we discussed lesbian issues during the interview. He even demonstrated a certain degree of proficiency in using Japanese lesbian slang such as "bian". He was certainly more tuned into our community than the average straight man!

We caught up with Ichinose at the Tokyo Pride Festival on May 23, a few days after our interview, to take some photos. We were pleasantly surprised to see that she had decorated her bag with our very own Tokyo Wrestling badge pins!! She told us that the electric pink logo on our pins were the perfect match for her bag! THANKS!!!!

※Tokyo Wrestling badge pins, the perfect accessory!
(For English info on the online shop, see here.)

We'll be keeping up with Ichinose's activity periodically so be sure to come back for updates!

★Ichinose's blog: http://blog/ichinoseayaka/ (Japanese only)

★You can catch Ichinose's manga "Real Bian" here (Japanese only).

★For more information on Ayaka Ichinose's latest gravure DVD, "SekuMai", follow the link here.

★To return to Tokyo Wrestling's homepage, follow the link here.