Fans shocked to discover real identity of Japanese pop idol (ah, life in the 21st century ;-)

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The newest member of Japan’s AKB48 has revealed a secret that stunned fans of the popular all-girl group. The revelation has nothing to do with an arrest record, plastic surgery or sex tape—nope, Aimi Eguchi revealed she isn’t human.

The fresh-faced beauty appeared Japanese magazines and commercials, but don’t expect her to show up at concerts because she is simply a computer-generate composite. Originally created for sweets company Ezaki Glico’s ad for candy balls, Eguchi’s popularity grew until a Channel News Asia report revealed her true identity.

Gilco now allows fans to play Dr. Frankenstein and create their own Japanese dream girl using the faces from real human members of AKB48. Adjust the nose, lips, eyes, and hair to whip together your very own pop star.

Full story at CNet.

All the top news out of Japan.

Anti-gravity self portraits from Japanese woman

 

Anti-grav self portraits reveal the everyday life of a person who can levitate

— Attractive forces are for suckers. At least that's what Tokyo photographer Natsumi Hayashi would have you believe. These anti-grav self portraits are just some of the daily "levitations" posted by Hayashi on her photoblog. Notably, these pictures aren't doctored in any way, with Hayashi preferring to rely on good old-fashioned jumping to create the illusion of levitation.

"Sometimes I need to jump more than 300 times to get the perfect shot," she told MSNBC's Laura T. Coffey. "I set the camera with the shutter speed of 1/500 second or faster to freeze my jumping movement."

You can check out more of Hayashi's daily levitations (including some awesome 3D stereo images) on her blog: yowayowa camera woman diary.

Via MSNBC