The former Japanese porn star Minami Aizawa has announced that she is to go on hiatus and fully retire her old performer name. Aizawa worked in AV from 2016 to 2023, and has continued to use her name since retiring. However, in social media posts on August 25 to her hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and X, the 28-year-old announced in English and Japanese that she would stop using the name Minami Aizawa because she was fed up with the limitations of being always introduced as a "former porn star." It makes her feel like she is, in her words, "clinging to past glories" and ...

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When a relatively obscure female news anchor made the mistake of tweeting last week about the need for guys to shower and look after their personal hygiene in the summer months, she was dropped by her agency and ignited a small storm of media attention that continued to unfold for days. Her perfectly rational suggestion that men wash and take measures not to smell was met with outrage by male netizens, who accused her of discrimination. Others have leapt to her defense, especially after her agency fired her. It's hardly the first time that public figures have made such comments about fans ...

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Karen Ishida (石田佳蓮) is to make her porn debut next month. The former Idoling!!! member will release her first adult video on Muteki, which specializes in debuts by crossover talent, on September 3. Idoling!!! was a Japanese TV show and female music idol group active from the mid-2000s to 2015. Ishida was a member of the "fifth generation" of members from 2012. Past members include Nao Asahi, Yurika Tachibana, Erika Tonooka, Rurika Yokoyama, Ami Kikuchi, Ai Okawa, Rena Sato, Suzuka Morita, and the long-tongued Michaela Wako Sato. Many have enjoyed careers in gravure. The ...

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In the crowded world of JAV, where newbies arrive every month and vast mountains of releases are populated by unnamed "amateur" performers paid a relative pittance, it takes something for a woman to achieve real staying staying power and stardom. Moe Amatsuka is one such performer and so her many fans were dismayed to hear of her imminent retirement. On July 28 on a live YouTube broadcast, Moe Amatsuka announced that she would be leaving the industry. Sometimes this is disingenuous, because the performer reappears attached to a different agency and working under a different name. But ...

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Formerly known as Satomi Kaneko, the name under which she performed in music group AKB48 and worked as a gravure and nude idol, Kiho Kanematsu's porn debut this spring was one of the most highly anticipated and hyped of the year so far. After making her adult video debut on the specialist crossover label Muteki back in April, the excitement continued as she transferred to S1 No. 1 Style and generously went back on the (always dubious) promise that her debut would be a one-off. Let's be honest, the logic of the market dictates that if the sales were good and demand strong, there were always ...

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When Yua Mikami retired last summer at the age of 30 and after carving out one of the most successful careers in Japanese porn ever, speculation was rife over what she would do next. For a start, she appeared to date two male celebrities at the same time. She has since focused on developing a line of apparel under the brand name MISTREASS, as she had announced she would last year (and a long-term passion project for her). She models for the brand too. Sadly, some things have not gone quite to plan. Mikami announced on social media yesterday that she was going to take action against the ...

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Police have arrested a 24-year-old man on suspicion of violating the new adult video law after he was caught filming a sex act with a 16-year-old girl in a karaoke room. One of the most common places to go to karaoke in Japan is a building with lots of small soundproof rooms, little more than booths really. This gives you privacy to drink and sing, and thus also ideal date spots. A bit of cuddling and smooching in the karaoke booth is the perfect prelude to moving on to your home or a love hotel. Inevitably, sex does happen in karaoke rooms, but actually making a porn film without ...

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Eimi Fukada is one of the most successful performers in JAV, well known not just for her adult video output but also her social media prominence and huge following among fans. She cultivates this by making regular video clips and posting them for her fans. But a couple of recent videos have got a lot of people talking -- and not in a good way. In the short videos, Eimi Fukada dances around in skimpy swimwear, possibly imitating slinky DJ Soda's social media videos. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 深田えいみ (@eimi0318) View ...

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We interviewed Jaldan of JAV streaming site ZENRA about what makes Japanese porn so special and popular, and the challenges facing the adult video industry today. Q. Who are you and what services do you offer? Thank you Tokyo Kinky and Kanajo Toys for this interview opportunity. ZENRA, which began as a traditional subscription-only paysite for Japanese adult video content, now also features pay-per-video and of course our industry blog, which has vastly grown in popularity since it began about four years ago. The paysite side updates three times a week with exclusively subtitled content ...

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As regular readers will know, we are as interested in the current professional activities of Japanese porn stars as we are in their post-career lives: What do they do are they retire from adult video? What jobs do they do? Can they settle down with a partner and start a family? An interesting example of this is Suzumi Suzuki, who used to work as a porn star under the name Ruri Satoh in the mid-2000s. She then got a graduate degree from the University of Tokyo (she also holds an undergraduate degree from the equally prestigious Keio University) and launched a career as a sociologist and ...

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