MeToo has finally caught up to the Japanese film industry, with multiple allegations of assault and harassment against directors Hideo Sakaki and Sion Sono as well as actor Houka Kinoshita.
Amid concerns over coercion in porn, politicians in Japan have been working on creating a legal exemption for adult video contracts to the newly lowered age of adulthood in Japan (from 20 to 18).
Though the move, which was prompted by the realization that the legal change this spring would remove the safeguard for porn whereby underage performers required a parental guardian to sign for them, has enjoyed ...
A cross-party set of Japanese lawmakers succeeded in putting together emergency legislation on March 31 exempting the changes to the age of adulthood for contracts related to adult video.
From today, April 1, the age of majority becomes 18 in Japan, though people are still unable to drink or smoke until 20. The voting age was already lowered a while ago. Perhaps the biggest effect of this change is that 18- and 19-year-old can now sign fully binding contracts with employers without the consent of a legal guardian. Previously, they retained the right to cancel a contract.
This was seen as a ...
How consensual is porn?
The upcoming change to the age of adulthood in Japan and its implications for people signing contracts to do porn has prompted politicians to scramble to make legislation protecting teenagers from embarking upon an adult video career. (Opposition lawmaker Ayaka Shiomura, however, has faced male laughter when addressing the issue in the Diet.)
The situation has reignited the issue of consent and coercion in porn, with some arguing that women as young as 18 or 19 shouldn't be allowed to sign contracts independently due to the complex nature of the legal clauses and ...
We normally find ourselves writing with glee about Japanese adult video's penchant for parody, in which the industry often reacts very quickly to events and cultural phenomena with pastiche porn par excellence.
But this time, JAV was beaten to the punch by porn makers in Taiwan.
Netflix's Korean hit Squid Game, whose sex scenes we have written about, has now inspired a porn rip-off on the East Asian island nation.
Details are slim, though news about the upcoming porn release is spreading online for the past week or so. With the original drama's themes of punishment and torture, it's ripe ...
We have by now learned to accept the innate contradiction that exists at the heart of Japanese porn: that the country has one of the largest, most varied industries in the world, and yet it also adheres to an interpretation of a century-plus-old obscenity law that says you cannot show genitalia. Hence JAV always has "mosaic" -- pixellation of the penis and vagina.
We have gotten used to this and no longer find it distracting, nor do we think it actually obscures the really important stuff (i.e., the beautiful face and body of the porn star).
Others, though, disagree and there exist ...
As we continue to watch the new season of the Netflix show The Naked Director and its galvanic portrayal of the 1980s and 1990s Japanese adult video industry, porn shoots have been on our mind even more than usual.
In behind-the-scenes photos of porn shoots, we are amazed by so many things.
How many staff are involved and how, if you'll excuse the pun, hard the work it is, getting the right angles and lighting. In these corona times, as two pictures recently shared by the AV director Daiki Kato (Samoari) demonstrate, they also have to wear masks (except the ...
The prestigious Meiji University has made a complaint about a porno video that was shot on its campus in Tokyo.
As widely reported in the mainstream media this week, Meiji University's gripe involves an adult video release that features a short "insert" scene with the star.
But keen observers were able to identify the campus shown in the background. We wonder how this came to the attention of administrators. Were they just searching for people talking about the college on social media? Or were they too watching the latest porn releases for, ahem, professional reasons?
The premise of the ...
The Japanese porn performer Eimi Fukada has announced on her YouTube channel that she is moving homes after her address was identified.
The 23-year-old, whose adult toys are also immensely popular, was rumbled by college students near where she lives in Shinjuku and by others when she was spotted at a local convenience store.
While they are not as accepted in the mainstream entertainment world as regular models and celebrities -- and always euphemistically called "sexy actresses" by the media -- top AV stars have thousands of fans, almost all men -- and willing to go to great lengths to ...
We have heard various reports of gravure models, singers, and actresses in Japan getting the coronavirus over the past few months, but what about AV idols? Inevitably, they are also at risk and one example is Japanese porn star Mikako Abe, who contracted the coronavirus last month.
Her agency, ARCHE Production, announced the news on April 27 and Abe was since then recuperating and quarantining at home. This period officially ended yesterday, May 6, and she has apparently now recovered and can get back to work soon after a few more days of rest.
Making her debut in 2012 and known for her ...
Over the weekend, a large earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. Here in Tokyo, we felt some pretty bad jolts for some time on Saturday night, but it was far worse for the northeast of the country.
Social media was soon awash with images of fallen bookshelves, smashed plants, collapsed and broken furniture.
One set of images that caught our eye on Twitter were these two photos of the insane disorder wrought upon a porn shop in Koriyama, Fukushima.
The manager of Book Fan 24 shared two pictures of the shelves emptied and countless numbers of DVDs and adult manga piled up on the floor. ...
