Ten Years Ago, It Was All About “B-Top Through Frosted Glass”… Kaori Ohara Shows Her Most Daring “Reveal” Yet in Her First Photobook in 22 Years

First Photobook in 22 Years

“Putting out a photo book at age 50 is risky in itself. Both my looks and my scent seem dangerous (laughs).”

Saying this, Kaori Ohara laughed carefree.

Marking the 30th anniversary of her debut, she appeared with her first photobook in 22 years, *Dangerous Kaori♡: Kaori Ohara Photobook* (Futabasha). What she conveyed wasn’t the composure of a 50-year-old. It was a passion to compete once again right at the center of the entertainment world.

“Thinking it’s not dangerous is far more dangerous. But a 50-year-old like me who’s still trying to climb back up—that’s definitely dangerous, isn’t it? (laughs)”

She laughs, mixing in a bit of humor. Her natural rhythm exuded an air befitting someone who has “lived in the world of television for 30 years.”

She entered the entertainment industry at age 20 after being scouted on a street corner in Roppongi. Immediately after joining her agency, she was offered an audition for a weight-loss segment on a live TV show.

“When I first joined the agency, the president was really strict with me, telling me, ‘Lose weight, go to the gym, go for a run.’ But when I actually went to the show’s audition, the staff told me, ‘You’re too skinny—you won’t pass.’ Then the president did a complete 180 and yelled, ‘Eat! Eat fast, you idiot!’ (laughs).I desperately ate all the mid-summer gifts the agency received and forced myself to gain weight until I had a double chin—and that’s how I passed the audition.”

That was how I landed my first TV appearance, but things got even tougher from there.

“We had weekly weigh-ins, and if I gained even 100 grams from the previous week, I’d get a yellow card. Three yellow cards meant a red card—and I’d be fired. So even if I was sleep-deprived in the morning, I’d put on a sauna suit and go for a run, or I’d close the lid on the bathtub at my parents’ house halfway to make myself sweat.Seriously, just like a boxer, I’d be spitting in the bathroom right up until the weigh-in (laughs).

It was a show where 20 girls competed against each other, but as a result, I lost about 7 kg, and from there, I started getting a lot of work doing swimsuit photo shoots and appearing on late-night TV shows.”

There was a time when she earned “5 million a month”

After that, she became a sensation in the blink of an eye.She appeared one after another on popular late-night shows such as *Gilgamesh Night* and *Deployment! Miniskirt Police* (both on the TV Tokyo network). Furthermore, in a commercial for Earth Pharmaceutical’s “Gokipurun,” she played an office lady whose breasts jiggled “purun, purun,” making her name widely known to viewers at home.

Late-night shows, commercials, and gravure photo shoots—work kept pouring in nonstop, and before she knew it, her schedule was completely packed.

“Back then, it was the era when ‘gravure photo shoots meant Saipan.’ There were times when I went to Saipan four times a month. I also had five regular TV shows, and once they were over, I’d take a taxi back to my parents’ house in Hachioji.

After work, I’d have dinner with senior comedians in Nakameguro or Nishi-Azabu, and I’d end up sleeping on the Shinkansen or on a plane. I worked so hard every day that I didn’t even have time to spend money, but it didn’t feel like a burden at all. I truly loved making people laugh on variety shows.”

My monthly income back then exceeded 5 million yen. I shot straight to the top of the entertainment industry, which was still buzzing with the excitement of the bubble economy. But that momentum didn’t last long. Around the time I turned 25, offers for TV appearances started to dwindle little by little.

“I did get some acting roles, but I couldn’t memorize my lines, and I was just so terrible at it (laughs). When my TV work was dwindling and I was really struggling, someone in the industry even told me, ‘We don’t offer roles to people who seem to just be out partying all the time.’ I love being around people, so whenever I had free time, I’d go out to eat with someone—but I guess that just made me look like a party girl.”

She realized she couldn’t make a living solely from show business. That’s when she literally built from the ground up the dog clothing brand “Otty,” which is now celebrating its 21st year.

“I run the business almost entirely on my own. I do everything—from creating design specifications for the clothes to taking photos for the website, shipping products, and issuing invoices. Even when we set up a booth at events in Osaka, my assistant and I—just the two of us—pack a long-wheelbase HiAce to the brim with goods and take turns driving to unload everything ourselves.”

The brand took off, and she established a solid foundation as an entrepreneur. Even so, she says the desire to “make people laugh on variety shows” never faded deep in her heart.

“Agency Bankruptcy” Becomes a Trending Topic

Amid all this, in 2017, prompted by advice from a fortune-teller, she took the step of changing her stage name to “Ohara Gori.”

“I was told, ‘The reason you’re not selling is your name,’ and that changing the ‘ka’ character to a five-stroke character would improve my luck, so I changed my name without telling my agency. When I talked about it on *Ariyoshi Hanseikai* (Nippon TV), I even received praise like, ‘You’re so incredibly stupid—I love it!’”

Although it became a talking point, she says there was still something that didn’t quite sit right with her. A turning point came suddenly in ’24. The agency she had belonged to for 28 years went bankrupt without warning.

While her junior colleagues were one after another securing new agencies, Ohara took a surprising course of action. She posted a photo on social media with the caption, “My agency went bankrupt, and I came here hoping to be scouted, but no one is approaching me.” This made it into online news and went viral. “No matter the situation, I wanted to turn it into a laugh in the end, ” Ohara says of that time.

The following year, 2025, brought another turning point. While appearing on *Jikkuri Kii Taro* (TV Tokyo), host Jun Nagura made an unexpected remark to her.

“He said, ‘You haven’t made any real mark with “Gaori,” and you’ve only gotten laughs, so just go back to “Kaori.”’ Right then and there, I declared, ‘I’ll go back!’ (laughs)”

“I’ve always wanted to get married.”

After an eight-year detour, she has returned to her true self, “Kaori Ohara.” The signal for her fresh start was her first photo book in 22 years, *Dangerous Kaori♡*. It also marked a break with the bitter memories that had weighed on her heart for so many years.

“About 10 years ago, I was approached about doing a photo book, but they asked for quite a bit of skin. They asked, ‘Could you do a shot where your top is visible through frosted glass?’ So I said, ‘If it’s about three sheets of frosted glass…’ and they replied, ‘No, just one.’ That’s the kind of conversation we had.

I call it the ‘frosted-glass incident’ myself (laughs). But this time, I’m taking on daring photo shoots not because someone told me to, but because I decided to do it myself.”

Her passion for her work remains unchanged. On the other hand, when asked about her personal life, she gave a slightly bashful smile.

“Even though I run a dog clothing brand, I don’t actually own a dog. I thought, ‘I’ll get one when I get married,’ but that never happened. As for DisneySea, I thought, ‘I’ll go when I meet someone I really like,’ but I never went even once, and now it’s already celebrated its 25th anniversary (laughs). I’ve always wanted to get married, though.”

Just as she laughed self-deprecatingly, she immediately shifted back to talking about her variety show work. That quick transition is likely a skill honed through years of experience in variety shows.

“Both my right and left brains are just dying to get moving. It’s the same as when a sauna lover is told, ‘You can’t go to the sauna for five years’—it just makes them want to go even more. I want to put my rusty brain to work.I love that intense atmosphere on set where I can seriously play the straight man to a hardcore professional comedian, get seriously called out, and have us both shouting, ‘What the heck!’ at each other.”

Even at 50, she hasn’t given up on her dreams and continues to run toward the forefront of the entertainment world—it’s precisely because she’s such a “dangerous 50-year-old” that her challenges never end.

*Dangerous Kaori♡: Kaori Ohara Photo Book* (Photography by Tadao Matsuda / Futabasha)