Opposition grows to lowering of legal age for porn performers

As reported before on this blog, the implications of the change in the age of legal adulthood in Japan from 20 to 18 for the adult industry are attracted negative attention.

There are fears that teenagers will be forced into contracts and productions they don’t want to make, especially as it comes in the relatively recent wake of coercion scandals in the industry.

The change comes into effect from April 1, the start of the new fiscal year in Japan. Women (and men) aged 18 and 19 will now be able to make contracts without parental consent, which includes contracts to appear in adult content or gravure shoots.

Following media speculation, opposition is now growing among politicians. Ayaka Shiomura of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan spoke at a rally held at a National Diet building on March 23 to drum up media attention to the issue and support for new safeguards.

“From April 1, there will be abuse,” Shiomura said. “High school AV will become popular. Japan is known as ‘the land of porn.’ We mustn’t allow this shameful state of affairs.”

The 43-year-old Shiomura is herself a former gravure model and was infamously heckled in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly by her male peers.

Other speakers at the rally included a representative from a rights group and Kurumin Aroma, who was coerced into appearing in porn.

A cross-party group of lawmakers, including from the ruling coalition, is now drafting legislation to allow 18- and 19-year-olds to retain the right to cancel a contract they signed against their will. (This is currently the case under Article 5 of the Civil Code for contracts signed without parental consent.) The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has said that it expects no opposition to the bill when it is formally proposed, essentially guaranteeing it will pass (though also raising the question of why, if the government agrees with it, the safeguard wasn’t originally incorporated into the law changing the age of maturity).

Perhaps sensing the bad publicity and political pressure, the adult industry has responded to the legal change with caution.

The AV Human Rights Ethics Organization, which was formed by industry groups in 2017 in the wake of the coercion scandals to offer support for porn performers (and perhaps to offset further regulation of the industry), issued a statement that it recommends performers still join the industry only after reaching the age of 20.