Nagisa Watanabe, 2026 calendar is “4950 yen”
Watanabe joined Fuji Television in 2020 and worked in news and information programs, but in July 2023 she began recuperating due to health problems and left the company at the end of August last year to go freelance. She later announced that she had been suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and at the time she received a lot of sympathy and encouragement for her confession. However, as she began to work mainly in gravure, which requires a lot of skin exposure, such as in her photo essay “Transparency Meets Transparency,” her photo collection “Horizon,” and her digital photo collection “Re: Horizon,” the public gradually began to take a different view of her. …… She has been unable to appear on TV, and her only regular terrestrial TV show, a local program, is currently on hiatus. Her business-related YouTube channel “Real Value” is also struggling with a low number of views. In July, she posted a message on a social networking service, “Lighthouse ni Atsumare! on social networking sites in July,” she said. In August, she announced the sale of original T-shirts for ¥5,500 with the fan club’s logo on the front. The calendars seem to have been produced as an extension of her gravure activities, but the sales of the wall calendar for 4,950 yen, the desk calendar for 3,300 yen, and a special set for 16,500 yen that includes event participation rights exclusively for fan club members, show the commercial spirit of the fan club. The announcement was met with harsh comments on the Internet, such as, “I was sympathetic at first, but now that I see her true nature, I feel that she is becoming more and more anti-consumer,” and “Isn’t 5,000 yen for a calendar just too expensive? The calendar is too expensive for 5,000 yen. Many people are shaking their heads at the idol business-like strategy. When Watanabe appeared on her YouTube channel the other day, some news sites reported that she was “struggling greatly due to a drop in views,” to which she responded, “Whether the number of views is low or high, my fee is the same. However, he was the first to bring up “money,” revealing his “greediness. In retrospect, he actively advertised sales of goods such as photo books and T-shirts on SNS, but was reluctant to announce “work for which the fee does not change,” such as regular TV shows and YouTube programs. Watanabe had been appealing the calendar, saying that she selected the costumes and photos herself and prepared many new shots for the calendar. However, if she becomes too business oriented, it is likely that she will once again increase the number of her detractors.