Trapstar's 2025 JAV Rewind: Top Stories That Defined The Year - Second Half

Welcome to Trapstar's 2025 JAV Rewind! Relive some of the top stories that we had our eyes on through the entire 2025 in this exclusive year-end column

Minami Kojima dropped what might be one of the most wholesome gossips of 2025.

This is the year when the 33-year-old found a way to capitalize on her favorite obsession - her pets.

Earlier in July, just in time for her 14th anniversary in JAV, Minami quietly announced that she had appointed herself as the director of a brand she recently founded. While many guesses would point to maybe a lingerie line, or promoting skincare like most JAV actresses. Minami, however, shocked fans by launching a brand entirely different from her domain. An apparel brand for her pet called LOULOU. Yes, for pets. And no, this isn’t a vanity project.

But her brand has an interesting backstory. Apparently, Minami’s beloved pups once suffered from tracheal collapse, a condition worsened by poorly designed harnesses. After failing to find dogwear that was both safe and stylish, she did what overachievers do: she decided to build it herself. By early 2024, she’d found a manufacturer, pitched samples, and dove headfirst into an industry she knew nothing about.

And I mean nothing. She admits she couldn’t use Excel, barely handled a laptop, and was terrified riding the Shinkansen alone to Osaka for meetings. As usual, rejections followed. Many bluntly dismissed her for having links to the JAV industry. Same old stigma.

But Minami pushed back, unapologetic. Her JAV career funded this dream, and now it’s paying off. LOULOU boasts a sleek website, buzzing socials, pet expo appearances, and chic Made-in-Japan designs that scream Tokyo Fashion Week, but make it canine.

Although it’s too early to bet on her new venture, it gave us a memorable gossip for 2025!

Later in July, Yuna Shiina gave us a jump scare when she caught COVID, and she inevitably made a place in my annual roundup. Honestly, I never thought one could catch COVID long after it had diminished, but here we’d have Yuna posting about it.

This was earlier on July 7 when Yuna made the confession via X that she had her first-ever COVID diagnosis turn positive, but she was kind enough to assure her fans she’s recovering—then gently reminded everyone to wash their hands and gargle. Yes, really. Suddenly, it felt like 2020 again, and fans were equally concerned.

Although not in the headlines lately, Yuna caught the fans' attention with her Madonna-inspired comeback in March 2023 and has remained fiercely exclusive ever since. At 38, she’s not slowing down.

But COVID couldn’t put a brief pause in her otherwise upward trajectory.

For a second, it had the industry wondering, Is COVID creeping back into the industry? Productions, events, travel, and everyone remembers the last disruption.

I’m glad she quarantined at the right time

This was the most happening gossip from this year’s Taiwan Adult Expo 2025. The paparazzi had already lost their minds the moment Saika Kawakita touched down for TRE 2025, as flashes popped like fireworks. At 26, she is hailed as the next Yua Mikami, and she might’ve had her page 3 moment on this trip.

Saika opted for a cropped, boyish cut instead of her signature long locks that somehow made her even more magnetic. Dressed in a laced top, Saika greeted her fans in Mandarin throughout the event. But that was just the trailer.

The real gossip clocked in after hours as Saika stepped out with a mystery man glued to her side. At first glance, he looked too comfortable to be an expo staff but the hand-holding gave it away. So did the way she looked at him.

Dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant followed by a playful FamilyMart snack run where he paid and she laughed like she’d forgotten the cameras existed.

The official organizers kept mum, but fans later found out that Saika was hanging out with her manager all this time. Maybe. But managers don’t usually get that look. Nevertheless, it made for a worthy year-end gossip.

Nanami Kodama had a late-night meltdown on X, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

The 23-year-old did what most actresses never even fathom. In a brutally honest rant, Nanami confessed that no matter how well her JAVs sell, she doesn’t see her income rise. And don’t even get started about renewal time, she said, it makes her anxious.

It felt like she found herself succumbing to her situation. In a slow clap for pirates, “you win this time,” as if publicly surrendering to the very people undercutting her income. She told followers to unfollow her if they wanted. She was done playing the “good girl.”

Nanami blamed her studio for pay cuts at every contract renewal, calling it a scam. Honestly, at that time, watching her unfollow accounts in real time felt like witnessing bridges burn live.

Minutes later, she had deactivated her own SNS account.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth beneath Nanami’s outburst: Pay reductions on renewals are an ugly but common industry reality. Most endure it silently. Nanami chose to explode instead.

Career suicide? I don’t think so. But having sparked this controversy brings leverage; Nanami just made herself impossible to ignore.

Ayaka did the unthinkable this year: a late-night, low-key announcement that left fans shocked. At 36, she killed two birds with one stone, announcing both her agency exit and a broader departure.

She mentioned that already-filmed JAVs will go out until January 2026.

However, she mentioned freelance work further down the pipeline, urging fans to stay with her.

But eagle-eyed fans noticed something odd. Just weeks earlier, Ayaka was all smiles at overseas events in Hong Kong. Then she returned to Japan and literally vanished. Her SNS went dark. Her profile quietly disappeared from her agency’s website before the announcement was made. That’s never accidental.

Do the math, and it gets juicier if her final JAV lands in early 2026; filming likely stops right after Hong Kong. This means the retirement decision wasn’t sudden; it had been sealed back then. Something shifted between Hong Kong and Tokyo, and it likely wasn’t jet lag.

Rumors swirled that she might appear in Macau later this year.

Eight years in, Ayaka deserved a grand exit. Instead, fans got silence and questions. And the biggest one still lingers: what really happened after Hong Kong?

This was perhaps the biggest scandal of 2025. Thanks to a JAV industry insider, Takizawa Gareso. If you’re not aware of him, this guy has got nearly 3 million followers on X, deep industry ties, and a reputation for dropping occasional bombs that make everyone uncomfortable. And what she revealed was indeed shocking!

Takizawa claimed that Konan had been accused by her JAV co-stars, Saika Kawakita and Alice Nanase, with Konan’s husband embroiled as well. According to him, Konan allegedly introduced fellow actresses to an event company run by her mystery husband, which then began selling unauthorized merchandise, including worn items owned by them, without consent or payment. At first, it was hard to believe, but then Alice spoke up.

Nanase finally snapped on Instagram, confirming Konan’s husband sold her merch without her knowledge and that she never saw a single yen. Worse, she claims Konan denied involvement in private messages.

Subtle allegations followed with Sora Amakawa and Miru chipping in. Agencies quietly told their talent to steer clear of Konan.

Konan wasn’t the one to take it lightly either. She countered with a warning statement framed by her legal team. But with her impending retirement, fans chose to overlook it.

But this made for an exciting gossip.

October was also the month when Maria Nagai decided to reveal her pregnancy. The former JAV star casually turned to X, announcing that she’s carrying “a new life” inside her.

While confirming her pregnancy, she talked about how her growing belly, feeling the baby move, and fully leaning into the joy of motherhood. It was warm, candid, and very on-brand. But what brightened the face of her fans was that she wasn’t retiring afterall. Maria made it clear that she loves her work and plans to keep going as long as she wishes.

She might not have been active in JAV lately, but Maria has been consistently self-producing adult content. She had earlier popped up at a fan event in Taiwan, and it felt like nothing had changed.

What really caught my attention, though, was her carefully chosen words. Maria didn’t just limit her future to just fan exclusive platforms. The door to a possible on-screen return is still open.

Congrats to Maria on her pregnancy, and as the year ends, one thing remains certain… even off-screen, she knows exactly how to keep everyone watching.

Fans were reeling from Kana’s retirement gradually until FALENO decided to give us another heartbreak in the form of Ai Hongo’s retiremet and honestly, it wasn’t likely the way we hoped.

I’ll admit it was quite heartbreaking & abrupt. Even after she stopped filming last year and slipped out of the release schedule, I still believed she’d come back. She popped up at agency events, after all. That doesn’t scream goodbye, does it?

But FALENO decided to end the chapter once & for all with a retirement compilation packaged for Ai’s fans. Followed by no fan-meets or photoshoots. Just 19 past titles stitched together, neatly packaged to close the book. Honestly, after all that waiting, it felt… hollow.

Behind the scenes, the reason everyone whispered about was finally acknowledged: the affair scandal with a Twitch streamer that Ai was earlier embroiled in. Unlike others who survived similar storms with bruises but intact careers, Ai didn’t get a second chance to fix it. And a year away from JAV is likely career sabotage.

What hurts most isn’t that she retired, it’s how. No message in her own words. No goodbye. Just silence, and a compilation speaking for her.

We didn’t lose Ai Hongo to burnout or age like most JAV actresses, but simply to a scandal and to an industry that moved on without waiting.

And I can’t help but wish she’d log in one last time, just to say goodbye herself. Well, 2025 isn’t over yet, so you never know if she pops out of nowhere.

If Maria Nagai’s pregnancy wasn’t enough of a whiplash for our readers, Kana Momonogi had something more dreadful in store for her fans. The 28-year-old made it official that she had called time on her JAV career, with her October 7, 2025, IdeaPocket release serving as her final bow, and just like that, ten years of her career blinked in front of my eyes.

What makes it unbearable is how intentional it all feels. Kana revealed she’d always dreamt of retiring in October, the very month that marks her 10th debut anniversary, that’d lead to a full circle exit. She also thanked IdeaPocket for a decade of exclusivity and said producing a retirement work left her “extremely happy.”

Leaving at your peak takes nerve, and make no mistake: this was her choice. Still, her exit low key exit closed a chapter for IdeaPocket as well. The once-mighty 1996-born generation is down to just Momo Sakura and Yume Nishimiya. An era, effectively over.

And let’s be honest, like most years, 2025 saw some major exits. I wonder who’s next in 2026?

As for Kana, she teased a “new Kana” beyond JAV. I doubt she’s disappearing. Icons rarely do.

For now, fans have one last release to hold onto. But this might be the most heartbreaking exit of 2025.

There are tweets that make you scroll past, and then there are tweets that make you stop scrolling. This one did the latter. In the latter half of 2025, Anri Okita did the unthinkable by walking away from the same girl band she helped found.

Yes, this was about BLACK DIAMOND.

In a band where she poured out two and a half years of relentless effort. No days off. No Rehearsals over home, passion over peace. She loved the group, she said. Believed in it. Lived it.

But internally, she had her differences with some of the members from the idol group, and if you’ve been following this blog long enough, you know what that means. Different perspectives. Unspoken tension. A rift no one wants to name.

She admitted to not divulging more to protect identities, but promised clarity would come. A dignified exit, not a scorched-earth one. Very Anri.

What struck me most was her resolve. She spoke about music as both salvation and destruction, about a woman choosing her own voice, her own future.

She ended the testimony with gratitude, grace, and a request for support in what comes next.

But to me, it sounds like someone choosing her self-respect over drama. I so hope 2026 has something better for Anri.

Farewell JAV Fans, until we meet next year with some more exciting scoops. Until then, keep following us on X for further updates!