“It has been more than ten years since I entered this world, but I feel they drew out a new side of me,” she says. Her favorite look was denim, an outfit she rarely wears in daily life. She liked its relaxed adult-casual quality and the fact that it did not appear overworked.
Learning across generations
Yanase also studies senior performers, citing Sayaka Isoyama as an example of someone whose gravure work has become more approachable with age. At the same time, she has noticed more fans in their late twenties and early thirties. Some are direct about wanting to marry her, she says, while longer-term older supporters encourage her to settle down and be happy.
The wider age range now visible in gravure changes how Yanase sees her own position. She points to Yoko Kumada and Isoyama as performers who have remained active, and argues that work by women in their thirties and forties is no longer unusual. “I am already around forty, but in the gravure world I am still very much mid-career,” she says. “Before long, perhaps it will be normal to have gravure performers in their fifties, too.”
A return to golf
Away from photography, Yanase has returned to golf. Her father once hoped to become a professional, and she took lessons in elementary school before losing interest. New work-related invitations and a desire for another hobby prompted her to begin again. She is currently practicing at the driving range with her father and plans to make her course debut once the weather cools. Her longer-term target is to become good enough for an invitation to a golf YouTube channel.
Yanase says she wants her career to show younger gravure performers that more than one working path is possible. She plans to continue developing both her gravure skills and her work in public sports betting.
Feature and release details
- Magazine: Weekly Playboy No. 37, released August 31, 2026
- Styling: Kyoko Makino
- Hair and makeup: YOSHi.T
- Digital photobook: Kami no Miwaza (God’s Work)
- Photography: Chikashi Kasai
- Format: Digital-only collection of photographs not published in the magazine
- Price: ¥1,320 including tax
- Grajapa bonus: One limited cut
- DVD: Zutto Soba ni Ite (Stay by My Side), from Line Communications, scheduled for September 10
Yanase was born April 23, 1988, in Chiba Prefecture. She is 152 cm tall, with listed measurements of B100/W62/H89. Her official account is X.
Source: Weekly Playboy / Shueisha
