The Japanese Porn Industry Unmasked:
An Insider’s Guide
by Kaho Shibuya
The Japanese Porn Industry Unmasked: An Insider’s Guide
by Kaho Shibuya
Based on AV ni tsuite joshi ga shitte-okubeki subete no koto
Copyright © 2020 Kaho Shibuya
English translation copyright © 2023 by Tony Gonzalez All rights reserved. No portion of this
book in excess of fair use considerations may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means without written permission by the copyright holders.
Published 2023 by
Bento Books, Inc.
Houston, Texas
bentobooks.com
ISBN 978-1-939326-58-4 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-939326-59-1 (digital)
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, April 2023
Contents
Foreword 7
Becoming and Being an Adult Film Star in Japan 9
The first nudge 9
Some apply, some are scouted 10
Applying to be a sex toy reviewer 12
They come from afar 15
Meetings with production companies 17
Promotional profiles 19
Wills and won’ts 19
Actress category 1: Feature actresses 21
Actress category 2: Freelance actresses 23
Actress category 3: Project actresses 29
Scheduling your first film 32
Photoshoots for packaging and marketing 33
Making films 34
Photoshoots for promotional giveaways 37
Publicity with privacy 38
All kinds of talent agencies 40
How much you’ll make 44
What you make depends on your agency 49
Media appearances pay next to nothing 52
Actress privileges, part 1: Requesting actors 53
Actress privileges, part 2: Blacklisted actors 56
The actors 58
Side work for actors 61
The “eromen” 62
What Happens on the Set 65
First things first: consent 65
Leading up to the first film 67
Shower after shower 69
Most porn work is ad lib 70
The actors are modern-day samurai 71
The non-sex scenes are harder than you’d think 72
What’s real and what’s faked 73
Real sex is where the money’s at 75
Creampies 78
Pubic hair (and wigs) 82
Reality-style films 83
Techniques of the Trade 87
Sex scenes 87
Hay fever, tissues, and antihistamines 88
Getting along with others 89
Anal training 90
Handmade semen 93
Papier mâché sheathes 95
Tricks for squirting 96
Torrents of sweat and pussy juice 99
Off-set Work 103
Doing more than doing it 103
Is all this publicity necessary? 103
Tricked into becoming an “idol” 105
Social media is an actress’s sanctuary 108
From blogger to columnist 110
Fear of working myself to death 111
Photoshoots can be profitable, but dangerous 113
Escort work 114
A close-up look at escort work 116
Life Off the Set 119
Taking care of your body 119
Porn stars in love 120
Dealing with jealous partners 122
The worst treatment comes from outside the industry 123
Enough with the drinking! 125
No, you cannot touch 126
Is there love between porn stars? 128
Sexual harassment in the adult film industry 128
Beware sexual harassment from those with power 131
Being outed 132
Effects on work and friendships 133
After your parents find out 135
Unwanted media coverage, and an unexpected reaction 136
Distrusting my agency 137
Marrying out of the job 139
Is it possible to have a career after porn? 141
Doing what I want and what I can 143
Members-only adult sites 145
Dealing with data that’s been leaked online 147
Royalties 148
Agents for adult film actresses 150
A Changing Industry 153
Do adult films violate labor laws? 153
The fuzzy line of legality 155
The AV Human Rights Ethics Organization 156
Issuing cease and desist notices 157
Trends within the industry 159
Witch hunts against women reporting coercion 160
“No touts” does not mean “no coercion” 163
Signs of a changing industry 164
“No coercion” videos during filming 165
Monthly STI tests 166
Actresses, too, need a professional attitude 167
Why I’m Glad I Did Porn 169
Fond memories of the Bangin’ Bus 169
My best shoot of all 172
An environment welcoming to women with large breasts
174 Appearing in porn requires knowledge
177 Appendix:
Sample Agreement to Appear in an Adult Film 179
Glossary 184
Foreword
I was already working on a book about the Japanese adult film industry before my final
film was released in September 2018, marking my retirement as an actress. I wanted to
get started while my memories remained fresh, and writing about everything I’d
experienced served as a good transition to the next phase of my life. Immediately after
that book was published in September 2020 (under the title Everything Women Should
Know About the Adult Film Industry), I started receiving many requests from non-
Japanese speakers for a translation, which I am happy to finally be able to provide you
with.
I targeted the Japanese edition of this book mainly at women, because I didn’t want to
be the bearer of harsh truths that might ruin the fantasies of any male readers, who are,
after all, the primary target audience for adult films in Japan. Some industry insiders,
even actresses, frowned upon my writing such a book. However, I considered it
important to inform women about how the industry works and what they’ll be getting
into if they become a part of it, because once they do, the resulting social stigma will
forever taint their lives; there’s no going back to “normal.” Even if the women
themselves don’t believe they’ve done anything bad, there will always be many who
think otherwise.
For my English readers, however, I am providing a little more description of the
Japanese adult film industry and how it may differ from that in other countries. Some
facts may surprise you, while others may not. Learning about another culture is always
intriguing. As a Japanese person who grew up in Japan and in a Japanese family, I am
genuinely appreciative when people show an interest in my culture. It makes me feel
proud. As to whether I’m proud of the experiences I describe in this book, well, please
read on and find out. Throughout the following chapters, there are some personal
stories about myself as well. I hope you enjoy them.
Thank you for reading my book.
Kaho Shibuya
March 2023
Note: This book contains terms that might be unfamiliar to readers with limited
knowledge of adult entertainment in Japan. Terms in bold text are defined in a glossary
at the end.
Chapter 1
Becoming and Being an Adult Film Star in Japan
The first nudge
What could possibly make a woman suddenly want to be in adult films? If you’d asked
me before I became an adult actress myself, I would have said female porn stars must
owe money to the mob, or that due to a lack of education or marketable skills, getting
naked in front of a camera was their only way of making money. That may be true for
some women, and likely was more common in the past, but the situation today is a bit
more complex.
When I was still working as a news reporter, I read tabloid stories about a Nikkei
reporter who had appeared in adult films while she was an undergraduate at Keio
University and a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, both very prestigious
schools. Around the same time, the Asahi Geinō weekly reported that an employee at a
popular sports newspaper was a former porn actress, and I soon discovered that she was
someone my age whom I actually knew.
This dispelled my prejudice that only women with no real skills become adult film
actresses. As it turned out, the woman I knew wasn’t in debt—she just wanted a little
extra spending money. Her parents had helped cover her basic expenses while she was a
student, but she loved brand-name accessories and flashy clothes, and appearing in
adult films gave her the financial freedom to buy those things. I realized that porn
wasn’t just a last resort for desperate girls with no other options—it was also a viable
option for those of us with a solid educational background, planning “normal” careers.
One day around the summer of 2012, I rented a couple of the videos that woman had
appeared in and watched them with a guy who I worked with. Honestly, they were
more boring than sexy. In the first, she played a teacher, but she had zero acting talent
and obviously wasn’t enjoying the sex. In the second, she was in a ménage à trois with
another girl, but she looked more bored than anything. Why was I watching these with
a male coworker, you ask? To get him all hot and bothered and lure him into my bed, of
course. Naïve thing that I was (I’d only had two lovers at the time), I figured that
watching other people getting it on would surely lead to us doing the same, but neither
of us was at all turned on after those first two videos, which we’d ended up mostly fastforwarding through. In a mild state of panic, I turned to the Internet, hoping to find
something to save the mood. What I found was a video featuring her with the famous
porn star Ken Shimizu and another really hot actor, taking them on one after another
and nearly crying with what was obviously real pleasure. I remember feeling jealous,
wanting to experience sex like that for myself. Come to think of it, had I never stumbled
onto that third video, the idea of appearing in such films myself may never have
occurred to me. And if you’re curious, yes, the guy I was with became my third lover
that night.
Some apply, some are scouted
The first step toward becoming an adult film actress in Japan is to register with a talent
agency. Even those who eventually go freelance get started through a talent agency,
which does the legwork to find and introduce them to filmmakers. There are generally
two paths to registering with a talent agency: being scouted or applying yourself. The
former is far more common, but there are many variations on these two routes.
Scouting for the adult film industry conventionally occurred on the streets, with touts
in Shinjuku and other centers of Tokyo nightlife directly chatting up women. These
days, however, few women would trust some roadside stranger trying to lure them in,
so in most cases they’re scouted by an acquaintance, or a friend of a friend. Alternately,
they wind up in porn after originally trying to get work as a mainstream entertainer.
In the former case, women often start out working in a cabaret or some other corner of
the sex industry, or get caught up in the host club scene. Many well-known adult film
actresses openly admit to starting out as a cabaret hostess or what have you, and it does
seem that working on the seedier side of society lowers mental barriers against working
in adult films. In a setting like that, you’ll also be surrounded by any number of people
with connections to talent agencies looking for women willing to work in adult films.
Suzumi Suzuki, the actress who went on to work at the Nikkei newspaper, was dating
an industry tout at the time, and the journalist I knew was living with a bar host. So
even women you might have considered too educated or “high class” to be in porn
become far more likely to end up there after they’ve formed connections to adult
entertainment.
I’ve heard that the top factor causing people to start smoking is having friends who
smoke, and I think the situation is similar with adult films. While few women would
choose “porn actress” as a career path out of the blue, they might well say “why not?”
when a friend recommends it as a way to make some quick cash.
In some cases, however, women sign up with a talent agency promising to land them
jobs as singers, entertainers, or in conventional acting work, only to be unwittingly
guided down the path to adult films. The agencies prepare this darker path well in
advance. For these women, adult film work isn’t some casual decision, like taking on a
part-time job—it’s doing whatever it takes to realize their dreams. Their agencies know
how badly they want work, so promising work as singers, models, or television
personalities only if they first make a name in porn can be effective in convincing them
to make the leap. Sometimes the deal pans out. Only a few women in Japan have become
famous solely from work as gravure models, but some adult film actresses have
morphed into modeling work as what is now called “sexy idols,” and the number of
followers they attract on social media is an indication of just how popular they can be.
Just being pretty, cute, or stylish won’t get you very far in Japan, but taking off your
clothes can add that little something that results in instant celebrity. Many mainstream
stars openly admit that their adult film work is the only reason they are active as
entertainers. For some, this can lead to longer careers in an industry characterized by
high turnover among actresses, and even after retiring from adult films, there are
plenty of opportunities for work, such as writing for or streaming on pay sites, or
participating in the occasional in-person event.
I’ve also met another kind, though—women who are chipper in front of a camera
during events and on variety shows, who seem to really be enjoying themselves while
they’re singing or performing, but who suddenly turn gloomy backstage, muttering
about how their agency tricked them, or how they didn’t know what they were getting
into. I respect the professionalism of such women for doing their job well, and I’m
happy to work with them, but I can’t help but feeling they’re being a bit disingenuous.
Unlike nightclubs, there’s something glamorous about working in adult films.
Glamorous enough, at least, to be attractive to women originally intending to work as
conventional entertainers. Thanks in large part to the efforts of the first-generation
Ebisu Muscats, a series of J-pop groups first formed in 2008 by members who were
primarily gravure models and adult film stars, adult film actresses now have many
opportunities to be treated with the glitz normally afforded conventional popular
entertainers. Acting in adult films has other benefits, too. Other forms of sex work,
where you’re basically serving as a tool for some man to relieve his sex drive, can be
dangerous if you come across a violent customer. By contrast, with a little luck as a porn
star, you can end up having some of the best sex of your life with very talented partners
(we used to call the particularly skilled ones “goldfingers”). There were several factors
behind my own decision to appear in adult films, including the chance to have what
seemed like an incredibly interesting experience while making good money to boot, but
it was my desire for sexual adventure that finally convinced me to make the leap.
Applying to be a sex toy reviewer
Of course, I didn’t start out wanting to appear in adult films. In the end I did apply for
the job knowing full well what I was getting into, but it’s not like I went knocking on the
door of an adult talent agency, begging them to sign me up.
The path there started one fateful day when a coworker at Tokyo Sports, the
newspaper where I was working, invited me to go out drinking with some friends.
There, I met a woman employed in public relations at a game company who mentioned
she also worked on the side as a gōkon drinking party attendee, hired to balance out the
number of men and women. Thinking that sounded like a wonderfully weird thing to
do, I started looking for my own side job that would provide me with similarly
interesting experiences. I briefly worked at a company that hosted international dating
parties, but ended up just doing a lot of boring menial tasks. Continuing my search in
pursuit of something a bit more appealing, in May 2014 I stumbled across an ad looking
for women willing to work as “sex toy reviewers.” Intrigued, I visited the Shibuya office
of a company called Cute, which turned out to be part of Cruse Group, the company that
would eventually become the first agency to represent me.
At the entrance, I noticed hints of some of the other ways they lured women in the
door, including promises of free trial “beauty massages” and job postings for easy-but-
well-paying jobs like being a hand or foot model. Once inside the interview room, I was
handed a questionnaire to fill out. For the question asking what kind of job I was
applying for, I only checked “sex toy reviewer”—ignoring options like “nude model” and
“fashion model”—but the woman who came to talk to me went on and on about
appearing in adult films. As part of her spiel, she mentioned something about the
possibility of working as an extra in those films, which wouldn’t involve any sex acts on
my part, and that certainly got my attention. Now that was something that might
provide the interesting experiences I was after!
I agreed to register my availability and that very same day was whisked away to a
studio for portfolio photos. Later, I was taken on a round of interviews with adult film
production companies I’d never heard of. I’d initially convinced myself that since I
hadn’t signed a contract with anyone, I could back out at any time, but when my
agency’s president (a woman, by the way) came to me and said, “The production
companies that pay best are S1 and Alice Japan. Which do you want to sign with? And I
don’t want to hear you say ‘neither one’… ” it felt like an offer I couldn’t refuse. I
remember feeling as if the bridge back to my former life had been burned. Today, for
reasons I will describe in detail in a later chapter, it is possible to back out of an adult
film deal even after the shooting is complete. Your contract will explicitly specify that
right. But that wasn’t the case when I got started, so I couldn’t help but sense a threat
behind the president’s smile.
This conversation took place at around ten o’clock at night, over dinner at Gapao
Shokudo, a Thai restaurant in Ebisu. “Well, S1 I guess, since they said they’d do some
lingerie photoshoots before my first film,” I said. The president, already turning red
from her Singha beer, replied “Sounds good. Well, best to turn people down quickly.”
She pulled out her phone and called a producer and company executive at Alice Japan,
who chewed her out for making drunken business calls so late at night. Possibly as an
apology (or possibly because the entire scene was orchestrated from the start), I ended
up being signed with Alice Japan, which is fine with me now, this all having occurred
long ago, but it showed me the extent to which women were seemingly given options
and agency, while in actuality others were making the decisions for them.
Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of Cruse Group paying anyone to “review”
anything at all… When promoting their roster of actresses to film producers, Cruse
Group management would proudly say things like “All of our girls applied for their jobs
with us! None of them were scouted, so you’re safe!” This was particularly true from
around 2016, when forced appearances in adult videos started becoming a high-profile
issue (see Chapter 6 for details), and everyone was getting nervous about new laws
restricting how women could be recruited to appear in adult films. During media
interviews, I would always be asked why I’d decided to become an adult film actress.
When I answered honestly, telling them I’d applied to be a sex toy reviewer but had
been directed toward porn instead, those comments would never make it into print. My
managers would sometimes come right out and tell me I shouldn’t mention anything
about the whole sex toy thing, but when I pressed them for an explanation, they
wouldn’t tell me why.
The stereotypical adult film actress may be some naïve ingénue from the countryside,
but in reality, many today are college students looking to make money to study abroad
or indulge in a little extravagance, so they are often more knowledgeable and cultured
than the managers they work under. Those managers are hired with little consideration
for their education or previous work experience; the best an adult talent agency can
hope for is someone who’s clean and well-spoken enough that women won’t find him
repulsive. Also, even if a new actress is forced to meekly comply with what her agency
demands at first, she’s free to blog or tweet about what happened to her behind the
scenes once she’s out of the business.
It took me a while to realize that agencies don’t want their actresses telling the world
they were lured into porn. They want everyone to think their actresses are just so
libidinous that we come begging for work. Yes, nearly all humans have at least some
interest in sex, but I’ve never met a woman who isn’t at least slightly hesitant about
starting porn work at first. When speaking to these women, I remind them that it’s
completely their decision, and that in today’s Japan it has become much easier to
reconsider later, so no matter how they arrived at this moment, the important thing is
to make a decision they feel good about. In my own case, I’d ended up in the adult film
industry out of curiosity rather than some dire need for cash, but as I waited for my
new career to begin, I found myself striving intensely to emphasize the positive side of
it in my own mind. I would gain financial freedom from my parents, I told myself, and
I’d finally be able to live on my own. My experiences would make for some great stories,
and I figured that someday I might be able to write a book like this one. I knew, of
course, that being in adult films would subject me to social prejudice and
discrimination, but since that was beyond my control, there was no point in worrying
about it.
They come from afar
The women recruited to work in porn often already have one foot in the world of
cabarets and host clubs, while those who apply for work themselves or are hired by
other means tend to be a bit more demure. But in nearly all cases, they have one thing in
common: they’ve come to Tokyo from other parts of Japan. I met many kinds of women
in the nearly four years I was active in the adult film industry, but none were Tokyo
natives like myself. The closest was a woman with relatives in the suburb of Machida,
but she knew nothing of central Tokyo. My own parents grew up in a rural region, so it’s
not like I’m completely prejudiced against new arrivals, but even when I was in college
and working for the newspaper, I noticed that being raised in Tokyo put me in the
minority. That was nothing compared to the adult film industry, however.
The reason is that porn is considered a shameful occupation, one you don’t want
anyone in your family to be associated with. Also, living far from your parents makes it
easier to avoid them noticing sudden changes in your lifestyle. As someone who was
living at home in constant fear of her parents finding out what she was up to, I can
completely empathize with that. As an aside, on the day they did find out, my mother
sent me a Line message saying, “Please hurry home, there’s something we need to talk
about.” As soon as I opened the front door, I could smell the incense she’d been burning
at our home altar, presumably while apologizing to our ancestors for my
indiscretions…
Despite the fact that nearly no adult film actresses are born in Tokyo, however, most of
their public profiles say that they are. I’ll go into more detail about this later, when we
talk about promotional profiles and what interviews with film producers are like, but
simply put, it’s a way of obfuscating their true identity. It isn’t uncommon for an
actress who’s developed her career and fan base to have an honest profile, but women
who are just getting started are usually terrified of people discovering their identity,
and agencies support them in that respect. Their profiles usually say Tokyo because
that’s where they’re currently working, so they know at least something of the place,
allowing them to fake it in interviews and such. If an actress has, say, a strong Kansai
accent she might claim to be from Osaka, but it will always be a large city to make it
hard to determine exactly where she’s from. However, there are exceptions. If a
conventional talent crosses over to adult films, she’ll usually keep the profile she’s been
using all along, which likely reveals where she’s really from. Even here there are
exceptions, however; the first porn star to come out of the J-pop group AKB changed her
name from Rina Nakanishi to Rico Yamaguchi, and for some reason changed her profile
to say she was from Fukuoka Prefecture, rather than Oita Prefecture.
So what did my own profile say? That I was from Aomori Prefecture, far to the north.
When I warned the agency that I’d never even been to Aomori and I’d never be able to
fake the dialect, they told me not to worry, since nobody believes porn star profiles
anyway. If somebody spoke to me in dialect, they said, I should just claim that I was
born in Aomori but raised elsewhere. At special events, however, I would have one fan
after another tell me how happy they were to meet me, being from Aomori themselves.
That was kind of painful, so after a while I asked my agency to allow me to fix my
profile. Besides, I was proud of being from Tokyo, and wanted to support it in my own
way, not hide the fact that it’s my hometown!
Of course, for some people their hometown is more than just a place, it’s their most
important community. Having friends and family find out they’re working in porn
would be harder for them. I was raised in Tokyo’s Chiyoda ward but attended private
schools since kindergarten, so I never really became part of a local community that felt
like “home,” and therefore I had fewer concerns about friends finding out about my
new career. Also, I’m not the type of person who hangs on to things I no longer need.
Decluttering is second nature to me. I even erase email addresses I haven’t used in a
while. For better or worse, once I’m out of a relationship with someone, I’m out, and I
end things as soon as I feel the relationship is a waste of time or a source of stress. When
I made my first adult film, I pretty much erased my contact list. I honestly enjoy being
alone, so that kind of lifestyle suits me.
That being said, if you’re worried about what will happen if people find out you’re
working in porn, that just means you have important relationships you’re afraid of
losing—and that’s a good thing.
Meetings with production companies
Until the production company that would make my debut film was decided, agency
managers took me on a round of meetings. Considering I’d let slip the whole “sex toy
reviewer” thing, and that I wasn’t in the eighteen-to-twenty range most casting
directors seemingly want, I figured the only offers I’d get were as an extra. In fact, all I
ever seemed to do in those early days was go to meetings, and while I later learned that I
was getting some offers, my agency didn’t pass them on to me; apparently they were
shopping me around, looking for higher bids. At around that time I did some Internet
searches related to the high-paying jobs the Cruse Group advertised, but all the review
sites had comments like “They’ll register you as a model, but the only work they’ll offer
you is in porn, so stay away if that’s not what you’re after.” That was indeed the case.
One of the things I found strange when I was new to the industry was that adult talent
agencies didn’t call their clients “actresses,” they called them “models.” That might be
because they also had women who worked only as nude models (either by preference or
because of a lack of offers for film work), but there was something about that I didn’t
like. It felt like they were trying to hide something by using a euphemism even worse
than “sexy actress,” a term I’d also heard.
At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. When two older male managers took me to
a studio in Yoyogi to take some publicity photos, on the very same day I registered with
Cruse Group, remember, the shots started out with me in lingerie and ended up as
nudes, a surprising development for my first day of work. What I really hated, though,
was what they did to my hair and makeup. That very day I’d gone to the hairdresser and
finally gotten the stylishly curled extensions I’d been wanting, but the stylist
straightened them out (saying clients prefer an “innocent” look). They also completely
redid my makeup, but I didn’t find it cute at all. Even the stylist agreed, saying I’d looked
better when I first arrived at the studio. When my manager nodded and
enthusiastically said, “Looks good,” I wondered if he needed a new prescription for his
eyeglasses. I was amazed at how these people could be professionals at all this, but still
have such a bad sense of style. The photos they took made me look grossly overweight,
too, and despite supposedly being taken in a Lolita style, I looked like a housewife. At
first I was kind of relieved, assuming nobody would actually hire me after seeing them.
They were honestly so horrible I could never show them to anyone today. When we
returned to the office with photos in hand, the other staff agreed that they didn’t do me
justice, and after my first film came out, they were stashed away somewhere, never to
be seen again. Once I was officially an actress, they re-shot my promotional photos with
me in lingerie, and added a nude image from some product packaging to my profile.
Interestingly, most film producers I met with required photoshoots at designated
studios between interviews. Photos from talent agencies can play tricks with lighting
and retouching to make a girl look any way they want, so production companies want
photos taken at the same place under same conditions, to make comparisons easier. Of
course, the end result will still vary according to the photographer’s skill, shooting
angle, and how comfortable the actress is with having her picture taken. In 2016, the
Crystal Image studio had a big hit with Alice Amane, a large-busted Lolita-type actress. I
once heard an employee of a major adult film production company called CA (now
WILL) complaining about how they’d had a chance to sign her on, but passed because
her promotional photos weren’t very good.
Promotional profiles
As I mentioned above, in Japan, an actress’s “profile” —a sort of mini-bio listing her
name, age, birthplace and other personal information—is a big part of her persona. That
being said, the actress profiles fans see are usually total fiction, because when she
makes her debut, the actress doesn’t want anyone knowing what she’s really like. My
main hobby was English, for example, and I was quite good at it, but I told my agency
not to reveal that I’d once been a proctor for English tests, or that I’d once been an
instructor at an English school. I was fine talking about things like that with my
managers, to let them know what kind of person I am, but it wasn’t something I wanted
them using to promote me as an actress. It just didn’t seem like useful information for
selling me as an entertainer. When you first sit down for an interview with an adult
film producer, you’re given a profile form to fill out. It’s split into two columns, one
headed “stage” and the other “actual,” allowing you to set up whatever kind of profile
you want, including not just your stage name and fictitious place of birth, but things
like your blood type (which is considered an indicator of personality in Japan) and
birthdate. As “hobbies and special skills,” an actress will usually list things she thinks
men want to hear, like “baking” or “cooking.” Her blood type will most often be A or O,
which are considered “safe” for whatever reason.
These fake profiles are created not only for actresses appearing in adult videos, but for
also for erotic models and anyone else in a sex-related business. They’re part of how the
industry protects its talent and prevents stalkers and the like from obtaining useful
information. While I was never quite comfortable with the lies, it was just part of doing
business, and necessary to protect ourselves. While I’d have preferred not to have a
profile at all, that can upset fans, who tend to complain if they think actresses are
hiding something.
Wills and won’ts
Compared to her “profile,” of far more interest to adult filmmakers is an actress’s list of
“wills and won’ts.” After filling in a profile sheet, I would be given a checklist and told to
circle everything I was willing to do (or, if I was open to most acts, putting an “X” next
to anything I wasn’t willing to do) on film. This list would be very detailed, including
acts such as kissing, French kissing, masturbation, sex toys (vibrators, massagers),
nipple licking, giving handjobs, fellatio, deep throating, straight sex, internal
ejaculation, pubic shaving, sex with other women (including use of strap-on dildos),
oral–anal play (giving and receiving), and orgy scenes (and up to how many people).
These are just typical examples; there could be many more, according to what
specialties the studio was engaged in, such as outdoor nudity, multiracial sex, bondage,
and sadomasochism (both “soft” and “hard”).
Managers generally warn their actresses to at first refuse what we called “the big
three,” namely anal sex, S&M, and scatological acts, even if we are personally open to
them. When interviewing for our first films, we were also told to say “no” or to write
“will consider” for all kinkier acts. The main reason for this, as I’ll describe in more
detail in Chapter 3, is the importance of “first-time” films—essentially, not giving up all
the goods right away, an important marketing strategy. I would also be asked deeply
personal questions, including the age at which I’d lost my virginity, how many men I’d
had sex with (and how many of those had been boyfriends), whether I currently had
any boyfriends or “friends with benefits,” how sexually adventurous I considered
myself, what kind of sex I preferred, and my erogenous zones. Writing all this down
was quite a chore, especially when I was having several interviews each day, as was
having to maintain an “I just looove sex” vibe for the benefit of all the parties involved.
When asked, it is generally safer for actresses to say they don’t have a boyfriend, even if
they do, because filmmakers are always worried about two common scenarios: guys
who find out their girlfriends are making porn and force them to quit, and guys who
know their girlfriends are making porn and think they can appear on set and start
acting as their manager. This wasn’t an issue for me (I deleted every non-relative male
from my contacts before I made my first film, not wanting to have to deal with the
messages I knew they’d eventually be sending), but I knew the agency I worked for kept
a close eye on the love lives of its actresses and—from what I overheard in meetings and
in conversations between managers—that they considered those with boyfriends to be
potentially risky, especially if they were new to the industry. Regular partners outside
of work also greatly increase the risk of catching a venereal disease or getting pregnant,
not to mention the potential for relationship-related drama. Recently, there’s been a
trend for women to state in interviews that they’re making porn films because their
boyfriends get off on seeing them with other men, but that’s all just marketing material;
it’s quite rare for such a thing happening in real life.
The one exception I know of was a certain “mature” genre actress (I’ll call her “Ms. S”)
who was very popular from 2014 to 2016 and told me her husband had accompanied
her to her agency interview. However, this wasn’t due to some fetish they shared, but
simply because they needed to make a living and this was a business transaction. In the
end, the husband couldn’t deal with his jealousy. The actress therefore retired from the
business, tweeting about how she’d reached her mental and physical limits with
regards to issues in her private life.
Actress category 1: Feature actresses
“Ms. S” was releasing a new film nearly every week. Many actresses with a workload
like that will quickly find themselves worn out both mentally and physically. Many
announce they’ll be “taking a break” and end up quitting entirely, or just quietly slip
away from the industry. Then again, some contracts only call for one film shoot per
month, and less popular freelance actresses may not get much work at all, or only
appear in one scene, rather than starring in an entire film.
In fact, there are three categories of adult film actress. The first is a “feature actress,”
also called an “exclusive actress.” Such an actress will generally contract with only one
company and make only one film per month. Her fans will thus only be able to see her
in films produced by that company, and the actress must always be cooperative in
helping the company promote them and contributing to sales. For this reason, the
company is willing to pay more for each film, but the flip side is that if sales of her films
no longer justify the expense, when her contract expires, she’ll be offered a lower rate
for renewal, or dropped altogether. In that sense, she’s kind of like a professional
baseball player.
Occasionally an actress will have an “exclusive” agreement with two companies, but
this makes payment negotiations trickier, and the two companies will need to
communicate about filming schedules. I’ve also heard that there are now “VR exclusive”
contracts limited to virtual reality works, so the potential contract types are still
evolving. Another example is “outsourcing” contracts, during which the actress might
be loaned out to other companies within a group. For example, the Soft On Demand
(SOD) Group includes production companies like Silk Labo, which specializes in adult
films for women, and Natural High, which mainly produces molestation and simulated
rape films. Deep’s, which is famous for its Magic Mirror series, was a member company
until it went independent in 2016, and there are many other group companies branded
for specific fetishes. The main production company alone, SOD Create, has many labels
that can be the target of an exclusive contract. SOD Star is the lineup from which they
release their showpiece film series, Seishun jidai (Springtime of life) focuses on pure,
innocent-looking young girls, Honmono hitozuma (Real wives) showcases supposedly
married older women with a certain matronly charm, and films in the SOD joshi shain
(SOD female employees) line presents films that supposedly feature office workers
making their first adult film. These labels have varying levels of prestige, and exclusive
contracts can sometimes be “upgraded” to a different in-house label.
Feature actresses are representatives of their producer or label. That places some
restrictions on what they can and cannot do, but the status that comes with the
position makes it perfect for actresses who want to be treated like princesses. Many
agencies have dual management systems, one for exclusive contracts and one for all the
rest, with the former getting the best job offers. That’s why many will maintain an
exclusive contract even if it means a decrease in pay or a move to a different production
company; they don’t want to lose their “feature actress” identity. Good looks are the
primary characteristic allowing an actress to become the star of a film line and make a
name for herself by attracting the support of fans, so the larger the production
company and the wider its range of genres, the more actresses they’ll have who pretty
much anyone would consider attractive. An exclusive contract is an acknowledgment
of the actress’s attractiveness and style, so being offered one for a debut film is quite the
compliment. It does mean the producer will be heavily promoting the actress, which
somewhat increases the risk of being outed to friends and family, but going freelance
and getting work from various producers carries some risk as well, so unless there’s
something particularly bad about the offer, a new actress will generally say yes to an
exclusive contract. She can always go freelance later, if she wants, but the reverse path,
from freelancer to exclusive, is generally difficult unless the actress really makes a
name for herself. Also, debut films are usually the best opportunity for negotiating a
high rate, because regardless of whether she has what it takes to become a star, there’s a
certain kind of viewer who really gets into seeing a woman working up the courage to
be stripped and screwed in front of a camera for the first time. Each production
company tends to contract with women who have a particular look, be it mature
attractiveness, a “neat and clean” look, childlike cuteness, large breasts, or gyaru. This
leads to industry chatter like “I bet she would do well at Idea Pocket,” or “Wow, I’ve
never seen someone like her at Attackers.”
Contracts cover varying durations. I’ve seen everything from three-film deals to twelve
films in a single year. Regardless, there’s no guarantee that a contract will be renewed,
and renewals may be for a lower rate, so agencies consider both payment per film and
contract duration when weighing various offers. Contract rates and durations both
tend to decline over time, so actresses who have been working for over a decade are
doing so at what must feel like painfully low rates. At times, production companies may
try to make up for that by offering them more work. Some actresses will be offered
contracts from multiple companies, while others may receive only one offer. Some will
end up releasing only their first film from one production company, then making
subsequent films with others. Those actresses are referred to as have debuted at suchand-such a company, but not being exclusive to them.
Actress category 2: Freelance actresses
As I mentioned above, I debuted with Alice Japan. Six months later, I moved to Idea
Pocket, where I did another six-month stint as a feature actress. Following that, I met
with my managers and told them I wanted to go freelance.
To be honest, I had a certain quantitative goal when I started adult film work. I wasn’t
aiming to make a certain number of films, though, or to reach a certain level of income,
or to work until a certain age. Rather, I wanted to bang fifty porn actors. By the time I
had that fateful first interview with what became my talent agency, I’d slept with forty-
seven men. I squeezed in three more between then and making my debut film, rounding
the count off at fifty. I figured I’d use my time in the adult film industry to double that,
bringing me up to an even one hundred. My own personal Pokémon quest, if you will.
I know many of my readers will think that sounds strange. But remember, I originally
got into this whole situation wanting to become a sex toy reviewer, then somehow
being led down a path that landed me in porn work. The agency talked about all kinds of
jobs—as an adult film extra, as a nude photo model—but they had a different light in
their eyes when they brought up a career as an “adult film model,” and I knew that was
a path from which there was no return. While I was honestly intrigued, imagining my
future as a porn star made my legs turn to jelly. I therefore performed a mental pivot to
recast the situation in a positive light: porn actors could be the sex toys I was reviewing!
I didn’t want to feel like I’d been forced down this path for financial reasons or because
I was afraid to say no. I wanted to be enthusiastically moving ahead in my life with a
smile on my face. I also wanted to set off on this new adventure with a reason all my
own. After all, there’s nothing interesting about a woman getting into porn for money,
or for fame, or because she just likes sex. As an aside, people often tell me they’re
surprised I kept track of how many people I’d slept with. I think it’s because I was
covering pro baseball as a reporter in 2013, the “year of records” when Wladimir
Balentien hit sixty homeruns and Masahiro Tanaka managed thirty consecutive wins,
so I was in the habit of keeping stats. When I debuted, however, I was under an
exclusive contract that limited the number of films I could make to one per month.
Furthermore, directors tend to have favorite actors whom they cast repeatedly, so
multiple films with the same director would lower my potential head count, so to speak.
Even after moving to a different production company, I’d only had sex with nineteen
men over the course of a dozen films. (By my own rules, I didn’t include partners that
involved just oral or the like; I needed them inside me for it to count.)
It was May 2014 when I went questing after that “sex toy reviewer” position. In the
year before that, I’d become friendly with thirty penises—my way of reducing the stress
of adulting—so ironically, I was getting laid far less frequently after becoming a porn
star. I’d never been a fan of online dating or hooking up in bars, so in the old days I
worked my way through friends and workplace acquaintances. But now I’d cut off all
those contacts (I’d even gotten a new phone so I didn’t have to hear from any old
contacts once word got out of what I was doing), and I was maintaining a blank slate in
my private life until I reached my century goal, to keep the counts straight, so films
were my only chance to get sexy. Wanting more action was therefore one reason I went
to my managers, demanding they let me switch to a freelance contract. A freelance
actress doesn’t have an exclusive contract with one producer, so she’s free to take on as
many films as her schedule and stamina allow. Switching would remove limits on the
amount of work I could do and the money I could make, but more importantly, I would
get a chance to experience the characteristics of various production companies, which
made freelancing perfect for me. Apparently, mine was a rare motivation. In June 2015,
the same month I started filming as a freelance actress, veteran porn star Yuto Kuroda
tweeted about me, saying a certain feature actress was switching to a freelance contract
because having sex once a month wasn’t enough to keep her satisfied. He mentioned
how rare such a switch was and wished me luck. At the time, I still had films scheduled
for release from the company I’d been a feature actress with, so he kept my name out of
it. (Even if you’ve decided not to renew your contract with one company and have
started filming with another, you’re required to keep that confidential until the end of
the month in which your contract expired, to avoid affecting sales of films that have
just been released.)
From what I’ve seen, however, in most cases becoming a freelancer results in work
with multiple studios, increasing the actress’s fame and popularity. Not to mention the
increased income! In my case, I quadrupled my income starting in the very first month.
Sure, I was making less money per film than when I was under an exclusive contract,
but I was easily getting ten to fifteen job offers per month, so I had all the work I could
handle. A popular freelance actress will be expected to participate in store events to
promote DVD sales, but even after visiting two stores to meet with fans, wearing
cosplay outfits or a bathing suit, shaking hands, signing autographs, and posing in
photos, she will only be paid around ¥20,000 (around US$180 at 2021 exchange rates).
That being said, at least it’s something; under an exclusive contract, that kind of work
pays nothing at all. I was told that feature actresses were on a fixed monthly salary,
with media appearances and magazine interviews being part of requisite “sales
activities” and therefore not subject to additional payment. Under an exclusive
contract, the same was also true for gravure shots for book publishing companies.
While we were nominally being paid to appear in specific films, that money was viewed
as covering all kinds of other work as well. Even so, if for example filming was delayed
because the director or male actors couldn’t work out a schedule, I wouldn’t be paid
anything for that month. In other words, I was only being paid to have sex, and if I
wasn’t having sex I wasn’t being paid, which made all those interviews and photoshoots
a constant source of stress and frustration.
Each agency has its own scheme for paying performers, and the company I started at
used something they called a “convenience subscription system.” One result was that
once I went freelance, I ended up not being paid to write a column I’d agreed to do when
I was a feature actress, which was a lot of work—a full two-page spread of text in a
magazine for each installment! I actually started complaining to my managers as soon
as I became a freelancer; up until that point I’d been working under a fixed salary, so I
couldn’t really complain about what I was asked to do. Now I was being asked to come
up with ideas and write a regular column, while all they did was forward what I’d
written to someone else? How could they possibly have the nerve to consider that fair?
A feature actress is paid a fixed amount for any month in which she films a movie,
while a freelancer receives a fee for each film, and furthermore can charge for
promotional and event activities. This made it much easier for me to distinguish
between paid work and volunteer work, which made me far more comfortable. Not that
I was ever paid well for anything other than appearing in films, but still, being paid even
a token amount felt like recognition for my hard work, which is at least somewhat
satisfying.
Once you’re freelancing, you’re usually doing a lot more filming, so even if someone
tries to push unpaid work on you it’s easy to refuse by saying your schedule is too full. I
once had a company I’d made just one video with send my manager a request that I
show up for an unpaid photoshoot, because they wanted panty shots (photos of a porn
actress wearing underwear they’d be using as a giveaway, as proof she’d really worn
them). I immediately told them no, and that since they hadn’t even given me an offer
for another movie, I had no motivation to go the extra mile for them. Those giveaway
photos are usually shot between sets on filming days, or on a day when you’d otherwise
be at the company anyway, such as for a media interview or to discuss the next film.
Making a special trip just for that would be a serious burden, both for you and for the
manager who would have to accompany you, so there’s no reason to comply with such
requests unless you’re under an exclusive contract, or you want to maintain good
relations with a company you know you’ll be making many films with.
In the above case the client complained that not having those photos would hurt sales,
so they dispatched someone from their PR department to photograph me at my agency
wearing just the giveaway panties, and they even gave me a token payment of ¥5,000
($45). A feature actress only needs to be in one film per month, so companies expect
them to not be stingy with their time. When faced with an actress who’s been in enough
films to have made a name for herself, however, they’re much more deferential about
infringing on her schedule. From everything I’ve written so far it probably sounds like
freelancing has nothing but benefits, but the timing of the switch is important. I
couldn’t wait to get out from under the constraints of an exclusive agreement, but
luckily my managers helped me plan a strategic path to that goal, one that allowed me
to get where I wanted to be while making a decent amount of money. The more an
actress makes, the more her agency makes, so especially small agencies with only a few
actresses will do whatever they can to promote them. While I didn’t find the owners
and senior managers at Cruse Group to be super friendly, they did a lot to help me in
this regard, so I’m very thankful for that. Later, after I’d moved on to a different agency,
several producers and directors told me Cruse was notorious for demanding high rates,
preventing them from being able to cast me in films they’d wanted me in, so I’m sure
that’s another factor behind the sudden increase in income I saw immediately after
becoming a freelancer.
Not to toot my own horn, but I was a very flexible actress, eager to work with a variety
of companies in various genres, experiencing new forms of sex in new shooting
locations, so film companies didn’t have to work hard to get me to do something I’d
never done on film before. Rather, I let the producers work out the timing of such “firsttime” films for me, giving my managers plenty of room to make deals. It was also
beneficial that I hadn’t agreed to any super hardcore stuff during the year I spent under
an exclusive contract. This put me in an excellent position for auctioning off the rights
to film all those “firsts,” and unlike drafts in Major League Baseball, where free-agent
players have to balance factors such as where they want to live and what kind of
training they can expect a bidding team to give them, for an adult film actress it simply
comes down to money. That is the greatest strength a freelance actress has, allowing
her a simple metric for picking and choosing which production companies she’ll be
working with. When you’re working under an exclusive contract, you’re forced to take
what conditions you’re offered, and you can’t expect to be paid top dollar for that. I’ve
spoken with a feature actress who complained that even after inquiring at several major
filmmakers offering exclusive contracts, the best offer she’d gotten for her “first-time
anal” film was a meager ¥100,000 ($900) over standard rates. By comparison, Attackers
paid me a ¥250,000 ($2,300) bonus for the rights to my own first-time anal film.
Another factor is that the longer you’ve been in the business, the less attention your
new films receive (the exception being an announced retirement send-off), so the
valuation of even “first-time” films will cheapen over time.
All that being said, while your income will increase, staff and managers definitely treat
actresses differently when they don’t have an exclusive contract with them. You’ll
probably feel you’re being handled in a much more slipshod manner than before, so any
actresses planning to go freelance need to be aware that they’ll be working in a different
environment. Also, others will look down on you, so beware if you’re the type whose
pride is easily injured. If you were a feature actress for only a short time, some will
whisper that you must have been fired and unable to find another place willing to take
you on, while if you were a feature actress for a long time, some will say you’re
desperately trying to scrape together cash before you retire.
Another point to note is that in addition to these mental stressors, the increased
amount of filming you’ll be doing takes a physical toll as well. You’ll experience mixed
emotions from fans after announcing you’re going freelance, some hoping you’ll appear
in their favorite series, others worried that a harsh filming schedule will make you quit
altogether. Such worries are not unfounded, as I’ve experienced personally: in some
months, I wore myself out making so many movies I couldn’t recover from repeated
colds, and after making three films in a row in which I played a soapland girl, all those
lotions and suds left me battling headaches and nausea during my breaks.
I personally know several freelance actresses who ended up in the hospital, and that
shouldn’t be a big surprise. With every film we’re getting naked, coming into direct
contact with new people and exchanging bodily fluids, and taking multiple showers, so
it’s no wonder our immune systems struggle to keep up. Veteran actress who have been
performing for over five years have generally found some way of skillfully balancing
their workload, such by not giving in to social media pressure to make more films than
they’re comfortable with, or by taking periodic sabbaticals to refresh themselves
mentally and physically.
Without question, adult video production companies and talent agencies in Japan
consider feature actresses to be top-tier. Even so, you’ll sometimes see a freelancer
earning more than any feature actress, or end up being such fixtures on a company’s set
that she’s treated like living legend. Also, don’t forget that while freelancers clearly
occupy the second rung in the adult film hierarchy, they’re still the ones making the
most money. If you have the requisite stamina, sexual desire, and adventurousness, it
could be the best option. Of course, as I’ve mentioned, starting out freelance is hard.
More commonly, a popular feature actress will make a splash by transitioning to
freelance work, or a previously unknown actress will become famous enough to
warrant the shift. These “previously unknown actresses” are the ones who form the
third category of adult film actresses, the lowest in terms of both status and income.
Of course, as I’ve mentioned, starting out freelance is hard. More commonly, a popular
feature actress will make a splash by transitioning to freelance work, or a previously
unknown actress will become famous enough to warrant the shift. These “previously
unknown actresses” are the ones who form the third category of adult film actresses,
the lowest in terms of both status and income.
Actress category 3: Project actresses
Aside from genres such as “housewives” or “Lolita,” there are two broad categories of
Japanese adult film: “feature films” and “project films.” Features are the major titles,
with an actress posing on the packaging, clearly showing her face and body, and with
her name clearly displayed as something like “Kaho, 24 years old.” These are the films
you see on the websites of the major adult film retailers when you search by an actress’s
name. By contrast, “project films” tend to omit names of actresses on their packaging,
and often have black bars over their eyes to obfuscate their identity. They often give off
a “this actually happened!” or “captured on film!” vibe.
An exclusive contract generally stipulates that the actress will only appear in feature
films (thus the “feature actress” designation). Freelancers, on the other hand, might be
in project films, but if they’re sufficiently well-known they can also appear in feature
films. Those who only ever receive offers to appear in project films are called “project
actresses.” Project films can therefore also be thought of as those containing no
recognizable talent. The manager of a woman who is or once was a feature actress, even
if she isn’t particularly well known, can use selling points like her exclusivity or having
debuted at a well-known company. Managers will also push any outstanding
characteristics, such as large breasts, height, stylishness, or the fact that she used to
work at a soapland, the point being to show that she’s worthy of appearing in the
feature films of a well-known production company. There are many actresses who
became project actresses after fulfilling multiple feature contracts, but they are
generally attractive enough to win the best of those jobs.
A curious thing about project films is that when a well-known actress appears, a
certain number of viewers inevitably get turned off because the setting no longer feels
real. Producers of these movies therefore often seek out girl-next-door types who don’t
have the aura of a professional actress. Many of these women have a corporate or other
day job and appear in adult films as a side gig, so they’re more willing to take the
weirder, quickly shot, low-paying jobs. It isn’t the most glamorous work in the adult
film industry, but the industry relies on these actresses nonetheless. Just as television
production companies don’t only make primetime headliners, and so need a wide
variety of performers to appear in their shows, adult film companies aren’t searching
only for the next big star. In many cases, a woman who just wants to do the occasional
quicky film is exactly what they need.
Adult films that claim they’re portraying “amateurs” are another kind of project film.
I’ve met many men who admit to watching a lot of porn, but who say they don’t know
the names of any actresses because they only watch amateur-style films. I can sort of
empathize with that; I’m a huge anime fan, but I know the names of hardly any voice
actors. In fact, I suspect that if I started watching a new show where I already knew
everything about the director and the production studio and all the surrounding
context, I might not be able to immerse myself in the atmosphere the show was trying
to create. In that sense, I suppose a bit of ignorance can improve the experience. But
even if I know nothing about the people involved in creating a show I love, I’m still
thankful for all the work they put into developing it. I don’t need to be a fan of
individual creators to respect them. Since project actresses who appear only in amateurtype adult films rarely attract much attention, agencies will often promote these jobs as
carrying little risk of being outed. No matter how cute or stylish a woman is, if she isn’t
actively trying to stand out and make an impression, there’s no way she’ll become a
candidate feature actress for a major filmmaker. That’s why women who are just after
some quick cash on the sly are pushed toward project work. Then again, some project
actresses stick to it for some time, and through parties and other industry events they
get to see how famous actresses are treated, which motivates them to take the job more
seriously. If they have the potential, that can help them to really achieve something.
There are of course examples of project actresses who later became popular freelance
actresses, or even secured exclusive contracts and became feature actresses. Some
change their name and have a second “debut” with a different look, or keep the same
name but change their makeup and hair color for a subtly different image. A typical
pattern is to see women who maintain a steady rate of work on project films saving up
their money for periodic cosmetic procedures, leading to increased appearances in films
and a larger fanbase.
It can be difficult to take long holidays as a feature actress, due to the many requests
you’ll receive to appear at PR events. Freelancers can’t take much time off, either,
because they have to work to earn. This makes time spent working as a project actress,
with relatively scarce job offers and high replaceability, the perfect time to get some
touchup work done on your face and body. If you have an exclusive contract from the
start but get plastic surgery later, there will be plenty of “before” photos circulating that
you’d just as soon didn’t exist. In 2019, all the early films of a certain feature actress, a
ten-year veteran, disappeared from the popular adult film website Fanza (formerly
DMM.R18), and the rumor was that she’d had them removed because she didn’t want
people to see how different her face had become.
I once heard the former manager of a famous feature actress complaining about her
frequent down times for minor cosmetic procedures. The manager admitted that she
made the company too much money to deny her the days off, but that accommodating
her made scheduling very difficult. If you’re a feature actress, significantly changing
your looks can actually be a violation of your contract, so if you’re thinking about
getting any cosmetic work done, you’ll definitely want to check with your manager
first. If you’re a project actress, however, you’re free to change your looks so much that
you’ll need to update your profile. Taking those photos doesn’t cost much, and if the
improvements are enough to get you into a feature film, you’ll easily recoup those costs.
In summary, while project actresses receive the least attention, they also have the most
freedom.
Scheduling your first film
Once you’ve settled on the producer who will be making your debut film, you’ll soon be
signing a contract, which sets into motion a series of events. Most commonly, an adult
film goes on sale around two months after it was filmed, but exceptions are often made
for first-time actresses. Specifically, information about the actress will be released to
the public about one month before her debut film goes on sale, but this makes some
women very nervous about potentially being outed as a porn star, affecting their work
in other films. If there are concerns about that happening, studios might schedule an
actress’s debut release farther into the future, allowing them to shoot several more
films before “outing” becomes a worry.
In today’s Japan, there is an active social movement to protect sex workers, making it
relatively easy for a determined woman to halt sales of an adult film she’s appeared in,
without worry of the threat of financial or other penalties for breaking her contract.
Back in 2014, however, once you were in a film there was no way to stop its release,
short of having such a rich family that your parents could somehow buy the rights. In
fact, when an executive at Alice Japan learned I was the daughter of a doctor, he
repeatedly made my agency swear they’d reimburse the company for any losses should
my father block my debut film’s release.
I heard about that only later, however. At the time, everyone treated me with kindness
and smiles. Producers attended each of my filming sessions, which was their way of
showing they had an active interest in my well-being. My managers would set up dinner
or drinking parties to butter up the production company and make it more likely they’d
extend my contract. I’m a teetotaler myself, and I prefer being alone, so all these
extracurricular events were a bit of a bother, but I can see how some women might
enjoy all the fuss. Of course, to some extent this constant attention is also a way to keep
close tabs on us.
The first event leading up to my debut was a “test shoot” in which I was photographed
in various outfits and nude to confirm how my hair and makeup looked. On another
day I had a photoshoot for the DVD packaging, and then the film itself was taped over
two days. Before the film’s release was announced, I had another photoshoot for
pictures they’d be using as giveaways, and I had to go to the production company’s
office to sign those. As I described above, other than the film itself none of this is paid
work if you’re under an exclusive contract, as I was at the time, and I remember being
very unhappy about that.
Photoshoots for packaging and marketing
Videotapes are now a thing of the past, and even DVDs are becoming scarce, replaced
by the convenience of online viewing, legal and otherwise. To cut costs, many
production companies take photos for DVD packaging, sales and streaming websites,
and other promotional uses on the same day they film the movie. Doing everything in
one day can be a bit much for a new actress who’s just signed an exclusive contract,
though, exhausting her and disrupting schedules. Many production companies
therefore try to get everything done piecemeal. That includes shooting photos for the
packaging of other films that will presumably be released in the future.
In my case, some of the photographs from my test shoot ended up being used for
packaging, and others from what was intended as a packaging photoshoot on another
day were used in promotional materials and the like. I was told that part of the reason
for the test shoot was for me to get used to standing in front of a camera, but I suspect
there were other motivations as well: building up a portfolio for promotions and
marketing, for one, but also using still nudes as an intermediary step before I was asked
to do such-and-such in front of a video camera.
Another reason for having all these photos is that not much information is usually
available about an actress who’s just made her debut, and she won’t likely have an
established social media presence, so it’s useful to be able to show potential fans what
she looks like from a variety of angles. Packaging photos aren’t very good for that,
because they end up being retouched so extensively—sometimes to the point where
every actress appearing in a certain producer’s films ends up looking the same. For
better or worse, this makes it hard to tell from packaging what the woman in the film
actually looks like. Film producers also like to build interest by teasing what new
actresses look like, so they’ll only release those packaging photos in pre-debut
promotions, or they’ll upload photos on social media with the actress’s face hidden, or
so distorted by retouch apps that you can’t tell what she really looks like. In fact, when
somebody first showed my mother photos from the packaging of my first film, her first
reaction was “This can’t be my daughter, she looks nothing like that!” I quite agree,
Mom.
One reason for throttling information in this way is to narrow the pre-debut time
window during which the actress can be outed. When that does happen, some actresses
grit their teeth and bravely carry on, but others back out of work they’ve already
promised to do, or quit entirely.
Adult film packages distort not only actresses’ faces, but also their physical
proportions. For example, Fitch, the production company that made my last film,
specializes in films starring full-figured women, so they altered my photo on the
package to make me look a little plumper. Actually, I made several films with them
during my career, for which I’m thankful, but I was always on edge before the release of
each one, wondering how much they’d inflated me on the cover. While I understand
they were catering to a clientele who prefers heavier women, I myself would have
preferred any editing of my image to slim me, rather than fatten me.
Nowadays it has become uncommon to have a photoshoot just for packaging, due to
the cost of renting a studio and bringing in all the required staff, but packaging material
remains an important element of marketing, and often determines whether a customer
buys the film (setting aside the issue of whether what they see is what they get). One
requirement for becoming a successful adult film actress in Japan is thus your ability to
rapidly assume a series of poses in a limited time, allowing for a large selection of
photos that are usable for packaging and other promotional materials.
Making films
Of course, the main job of an adult film actress isn’t posing for still nudes to use in
marketing—it’s doing sexy things in front of a video camera. On most filming days, I
would arrive at a studio in downtown Tokyo between eight and nine in the morning,
and we would finish between ten and eleven that night. Basic filming may end much
earlier if the film is part of a series and the staff is already familiar with the necessary
preparations, but studios often must be rented for a full day. To get the most from that
expenditure, producers typically continue filming until just before midnight, filling
whatever time remains with fifteen-minute “virtual reality” shorts. That’s on days that
include photography for packaging and giveaways, though—if you’re only filming the
movie, everyone will usually head home before seven o’clock.
Production companies usually want to wrap up filming in a single day, but an actress’s
agent will sometimes negotiate to split filming between two days, to prevent her from
becoming exhausted. A woman who joined my talent agency after me started
complaining that every full-day filming session left her with vaginal pain, and that a
fortune teller known for making accurate predictions had told her she was at risk for
diseases of the uterus, so she was allowed to change to two-day filming schedules.
However, such deferential handling is likely limited to popular feature actresses whom
both the production company and agent are eager to please; freelance actresses will
require the stamina for full-day filming sessions if they’re going to be successful, and
project actresses are highly replaceable.
A feature actress will most commonly have sex three times in each adult film. Some
films might call for only two scenes with penetrative sex, but having just one such
scene is rare, generally limited to “losing her virginity” films and highly involved
reality-style films. Note that less sex means more work elsewhere, such as longer filmed
interviews, more nude or seminude photoshoots, or filming of nonpenetrative sex acts
such as masturbation, handjobs, fellatio, or playing with sex toys. Note that if you’re a
freelance or project actress, you’ll be paid far less for these acts than for each act of full-
on sex. The flipside is that since feature actresses are paid the same amount per film no
matter what they’re doing, production companies feel like the more action they get on
screen the more they’re getting for their money, so they will generally ask for the full
three scenes. That means three bouts in one day, each lasting for nearly an hour of
filming, so it’s no surprise some women experience discomfort.
For debut films, reality-style films, and those that incorporate dramatic elements, the
production company will often want to film with a bit more care, and so might schedule
two or more days for filming. More commonly, however, doing so would cost more
money than they would recoup in the effort, or it might be impossible for them to find
multiple days in which they can get all the performers and staff together, so again,
unless the film in question is a major production with a larger-than-typical budget, or
it’s some special multi-film project with an extended schedule, single-day shoots are by
far the most common.
Certain project film series always present the same scenario with different performers,
such as having a woman enter a men’s bathing room wearing only a towel, or those that
simulate voyeurism, and these can be so formulaic that each woman will only be
required for half a day or less. A feature film, by contrast, will have a single star actress
on set throughout the entire shoot.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s fair to solely credit the actress when work wraps up early. A
smooth shoot is a team effort, involving everything from set prep to correct
camerawork. Makeup artists, too, must do their jobs quickly and efficiently, and plenty
of other necessary tasks are performed by people other than the actresses, actors, and
directors. Making a film requires the efforts of people on-screen and off, so I think all
should share the blame or the credit when things go poorly or well.
It’s standard practice in the Japanese adult film industry to treat actresses like
queens—so much so that the fuss sometimes made me a little uncomfortable. One
feature actress who had previously been a gravure model told me she was surprised by
the star treatment she was receiving in the adult film industry. When I switched from
feature to freelance work, my manager warned me that I would likely be treated far less
kindly, but that wasn’t always the case. Small production companies were particularly
obsequious, acting as if I were doing them a great favor by appearing in their films.
Once when I was filming for a company that was too stingy to even provide snacks for
us, an actor asked me if I liked chocolate, offering to run to the store and buy some.
There’s an adult film producer called FA Pro that specializes in incest-themed videos
(in fact, “FA” stands for “Family Adult”) that look like they were filmed decades ago,
possibly because they’re always filmed and directed by the company’s founder, Henry
Tsukamoto, who will soon be eighty years old. When I first appeared in one of their
movies, the staff all apologized for his being such a prima donna, telling me that he
demanded all the attention even though they should be focusing on me. One of the
assistant directors admitted that because of him, they were unable to make offers to
women who’d signed with the biggest talent agencies.
At the time, all this special treatment as an actress felt so blatantly fake that I wished
everyone would just stop and treat me normally, as a coworker on equal terms. I know
that’s easier said than done, however, because the act isn’t just for the benefit of the
actress, but also her manager and everyone else at her agency. Another reason to stop
praising actresses for helping to end filming early, however, is that doing so makes us
wonder if it’s our fault when things run late.
The only words of thanks related to helping things move along smoothly that I ever
accepted at face value were from producers grateful I didn’t smoke, because actresses
who do tend to request constant smoke breaks that interrupt the flow of filming.
Photoshoots for promotional giveaways
Japanese stores and websites that sell adult DVDs often use Polaroid photos of the
actress or panties she has worn as promotional giveaways. These photos come in
various forms, most commonly with the actress topless or wearing a swimsuit, or
lingerie, or the outfit she wore in the film. When the giveaway is panties, they’ll include
a Polaroid as “proof” she really did wear them. They will give away at least a hundred
such items, and as many as three or four hundred if high sales are expected. These
bonus giveaways have a definite effect on sales, I was told, so production companies
always bought as many pairs of panties as efficiency and profitability would allow, and
made sure to take as many kinds of photos as possible.
Before you ask how long it takes to change your underwear four-hundred times, I have
a confession to make: most companies just buy hundreds of pairs of the same panties
and have the actress wear one pair while they take a few hundred photos. In one film I
worked on, the staff were conscientious enough to ask me to at least press each pair
against my crotch.
Then again there have indeed been times where I changed underwear one hundred
times, taking a photo with a different pose and expression for each. That’s a lot of work.
Actresses will sometimes be asked to set aside a few hours for these photoshoots on
days when they’ll be visiting the production company for some other reason, but more
commonly someone from the public relations department shows up on filming days to
do it, or an assistant director or other crew member takes care of it as part of the filming
schedule. You might be asked to sign the photos during your breaks, or if the schedule is
too tight, to take them home to sign and hand off to your manager for forwarding. You
might also have to take photos for social media promotions, or even be asked to send
them out via your own accounts with a message like “Getting ready to shoot a sex
scene!” to give fans a real-time window into what you’re doing. As you can see, “breaks”
on film days aren’t very restful.
One thing to be thankful for is that someone else takes care of repackaging all those
panties. I heard that to make them look used, staff will sometimes sprinkle them with a
few drops of jasmine tea, which provides a convincing yellow tint along with a nice
floral aroma.
Publicity with privacy
Adult films and erotic modeling are simply part of the entertainment industry, but
obviously some people working in these industries prefer to keep their participation
quiet. That’s why the “publicity limits” system has been created.
One element of this system places limits on the extent to which an actress’s face can be
shown outside of a film. For example, you may have seen packaging or thumbnail
images for an adult film with a black line over an actress’s eyes. Although her full face is
of course revealed in the film, publicity limits prevent doing so in public settings. This
isn’t always done at the request of the actress, though; sometimes it’s a strategy for
creating the impression of a leaked video. Of course, only project films obscure the faces
of those appearing in them. You can’t be a feature actress and ask that your face be
hidden.
As I mentioned before, an actress working under an exclusive contract is treated as a
representative of the production company releasing her movies. The only time that
company might be interested in hiding her face would be for some sort of tease
campaign before her debut film. Then again, I did get one strange offer from SOD,
proposing to give me an exclusive contract in exchange for publishing an actual,
truthful profile while hiding my identity behind a mask like a professional wrestler. But
I’m pretty sure that would have been followed up by a grand unmasking a few months
later…
Other publicity limits affect even feature actresses who are revealed in promotional
media such as the film producer’s website or adult magazines. Examples include
embargoes on uploading photographs to social media, and a ban on forced participation
in events or interviews. There can also be seemingly picky requirements for producers,
such as always providing outfits for the actress to wear and always having a
professional makeup artist do her makeup, all to make it more difficult for
acquaintances to identify her.
All these publicity limits place a burden on filmmakers. Providing actresses with
outfits and always redoing their hair and makeup costs time and money. An actress
who won’t show her face on packaging can only be used in project films. Not being able
to use her face in social media or advertising severely limits sales activities. If a woman
is unwilling to appear before fans, she cannot participate in sales events. So of course,
both talent agencies and production companies prefer actresses who won’t insist on
publicity limits—in other words, women who don’t care if people know what they’re
doing.
My take on the matter is that however many precautions you take, the day will come
when friends and family discover you’re a porn star, and the longer that takes, the
longer you’ll spend in fear. That said, you shouldn’t feel obliged to listen to anyone who
tells you not to worry about it. It’s your life, and your feelings. Publicity limits are a way
to ease into adult films, allowing some room to mentally prepare yourself for the day
everyone finds out.
In Japan, there are many media platforms that feature adult film actresses and publish
nude photos. Paper media include not only magazines that specifically cover the adult
film industry, but also mainstream publications like Asahi geinō and Shūkan pureibōi.
There are also cable channels like SKY PerfecTV and AbemaTV, some broadcast
television shows, and of course any number of Internet sites. The general management
strategy I’ve seen is to start out with relatively strict publicity limits, then gradually
relax them as the actress becomes more popular or more motivated to advance her
career.
Recruitment at the agency I signed up with for my debut was based on luring women
in with promises of jobs as “hand models” and “sex toy reviewers,” and at the time they
had only one feature actress besides myself, so nearly all the women they worked with
wanted to keep their film work quiet, only loosening publicity limits gradually. I heard
that their one exclusive actress started out with no limits at all, so I figured she’d
enthusiastically jumped into this job, but she later told me she’d been looking for
general entertainment work and had gotten into adult films unwittingly.
As actresses loosen up their publicity limits and start making a name for themselves,
they sometimes attract female fans who want to work at the same agency. These
women come specifically because they want to be in adult films, which helps eliminate
cases of women feeling like they got tricked into something. In fact, the second agency I
worked with represented several well-known feature actresses, and I never saw a
woman coming for an interview who didn’t know what she was in for. Creating a
situation where everyone knocking on your door wants to become a popular adult film
star is the best way to end forced appearances in pornography.
When an actress gets to a point where she no longer feels a need to hide her work, and
instead wants to go as far as she can with adult films, she’ll welcome whatever exposure
she can get, whether that’s social media or print or television, engaging in what we
called “full publicity.” I did this myself once I was outed.
Ironically, one publication that would never cover my new career was Tokyo Sports,
the newspaper I’d once worked at. Despite that paper having a page dedicated to adult
films and sex shops, they apparently didn’t want to admit that one of their former
employees had moved on to adult films, a good illustration of the hypocritical bias
against sex work that still exists.
All kinds of talent agencies
As I’ve described, I didn’t approach my talent agency with the goal of being in adult
films, so I didn’t exactly choose the agency that represented me. What I wish I’d known
is that there are many agencies to choose from, each with its own characteristics.
As in the conventional Japanese entertainment industry, talent agencies provide
actresses for adult film work in two main ways: “gross” (where the agency lowers its
normal fees in exchange for the production company taking on multiple actresses) and
“barter” (where they provide a popular actress along with an up-and-coming actress
they want to promote as a package deal). Agencies with many popular actresses
generally hold a lot of sway and can secure prime jobs, but some actresses can feel lost
in the shuffle, preferring instead to be a big fish in the small pond of an agency where
she’s the most popular actress. Many actresses change agencies once they’ve gained
enough experience to see the lay of the land, just as I did.
My first agency gave me all kinds of special treatment, such as taking me on a trip to
Guam and always sending a driver to take me wherever I needed to be, but I remember
being jealous of all the media appearances actresses at the more famous agencies were
getting. Gross deals involving many actresses were limited to the larger agencies who
could attract many popular performers, and those agencies were also the ones with
connections to print and television media. A small agency is not likely to be contacted
when a television show featuring adult film actresses is being put together, and
production companies won’t be proactively requesting actresses for their films until
their names become known. The need to stand out can motivate you to become a better
actress, but making it big is often a matter of luck. Sometimes it all becomes kind of
rough.
I changed agencies because I didn’t feel I could trust my manager and because they
made certain unforgivable mistakes, as I will describe in detail in another chapter.
Another reason, however, was that as a former reporter, I wanted to get a broader view
from inside the industry and compare the situation at a different agency. Since I’d been
at a small agency, it seemed logical to try a large one next. I narrowed my search to
three or four candidates, considering aspects like how many actresses they’d accepted
from other agencies and how much those actresses worked after moving, but the
deciding factor for me was the distance between actresses and managers. While some
might prefer a closer relationship, I’ve never liked managers who act like they’re your
friends or, even worse, your boyfriends.
People in the adult film industry tend to be overly familiar in the way they talk and
interact. Many treat actresses as if they’re young girls, adding the diminutive -chan to
their name and speaking to them in informal Japanese, without even knowing how old
they are. While I might appreciate that as an expression of friendliness from those on
the set, where everyone is working together as a team, to me a manager is simply the
interface through which I receive work. It’s a strictly business relationship, and I
appreciate a bit more formality. Some of my managers remained in the room while I
was changing, which apparently doesn’t bother some actresses, but I considered it rude.
Then again, some women even date their managers or the owners of their agencies, so I
guess everyone’s different. Anyway, I prefer an agency where everyone acts like a
business professional, especially in an industry as shady as adult entertainment.
When searching for a new agency, my initial conditions (a company that many women
had switched to and which had afterwards given them a lot of work) narrowed my
choices to Arrows, T-Powers, or Mine’s, but the attitudes of the first two toward women
knocked them out of the running. Many of the male staff at Arrows were former host
club workers, so sure, they were cute, but they acted a little too familiar when speaking
to the actresses. T-Powers was founded by Shigeru “Cross” Matsushima, a yakuza
member, and everyone there looked slightly scary. I heard that their drinking parties
tended to get out of hand, and that at end-of-the-year parties the male managers would
strip naked, which convinced me that it wasn’t the right place for me.
Still, T-Powers is the biggest agency in the business. When I was in films involving
many actresses, those from T-Powers would be given preferential treatment in various
ways, like having their hair and makeup done first. They’re quite the business franchise,
with a company called Gokuraku that has several popular directors who do subcontract
production and editing work for other filmmakers, a club called Roppongi Red Dragon
where adult film actresses work as hostesses, and a sex club franchise called Club Torano-ana. I have to respect them for not only having created a talent agency that is
appreciated by its fans and filmmakers, but also for establishing a system that gives
their actresses opportunities for other work. I’m not personally interested in working at
clubs like that, but many women are likely thankful for such opportunities when their
movie offers start to dry up or when they want to retire from acting work.
At Mine’s, however, everyone was professional enough to wear suits on weekdays, and
they spoke in formal Japanese when talking with their actresses. It was that formality
and sense of distance that attracted me. Also, while they stuck close to actresses who
were still getting acclimated, they tended to give women who’d come from other
agencies more space, which was exactly what I wanted. When I was getting started at
my first agency, my manager stayed so close to me even on set, I felt like I was being
monitored, and when I’d learned enough to notice and point out his failures, his
constant walking on eggshells became annoying. It’s funny how some people see this
close attention as comforting while others find it oppressive, much like how we feel
about family.
As an aside, no matter how serious the office staff, their touts, or “talent scouts,” are all
sleazy and ostentatious.
Daiki Inai, a student at the University of Tokyo, Japan’s most prestigious university,
was arrested for rape on 23 October 2018. Mr. Inai was notorious for having been both a
finalist in the Mister University of Tokyo contest and an active writer in the adult film
industry while pursuing his studies. He had also appeared on several broadcast and
cable television shows as “the University of Tokyo’s sleaziest student.” Because of this
media exposure, his arrest was widely reported in the news, including a Shūkan shinchō
weekly news magazine article with the headline “Arrested U of Tokyo student was a
tout for sex clubs, pimping too,” revealing even more of what he was up to.
I first met Mr. Inai at an interview with DMM R.18 (currently Fanza), and never had any
dealings with him as a tout, but I did run into him by coincidence at an overseas adult
industry event, and from what we talked about there it was clear he was still deep into
such work. I remember he was carrying three iPhones with him, possibly an attempt at
signaling what a player he was.
Once he asked me to come to lunch to meet a friend who he said was a huge fan of mine
and, he claimed, a really nice guy. But the man who showed up was formerly a bar host
and a tout for adult films and the sex industry, running a cabaret at the time. I
remember thinking that maybe he wasn’t a bad person per se, but that he wasn’t exactly
the kind of person I look up to. To avoid being rude, I accepted another lunch invitation
with him, but when he returned from the restroom during our meal, he said something
like “I went to take a piss, but talking with you got me so excited I’m stiff as a board,”
which made me want to hide like a turtle in its shell. I don’t know much about cars, so I
couldn’t tell you what he was driving, but if there’s such thing as a world’s tackiest car
competition, I bet it would have been in the running. I deleted him from my contacts
right after that because I didn’t want to have to turn him down for any more lunches.
I haven’t met Mr. Inai since his arrest, but after his trial and conviction—he was given a
three-year suspended sentence after reaching an out-of-court settlement in which he
agreed to pay the woman he’d raped ¥7.5 million ($67,350) in compensation—he
started sending so many photos and videos of his return to student life via the Line app
it was like a never-ending documentary, so I deleted him from that platform, too.
Honestly, I’m a little envious of ostentatious people when it comes to work, as it allows
them to develop a certain showy persona, but I can’t handle that in my private life. I’m
an introvert through and through, and I’m somewhat frightened of “party people.”
While I love English, I’m not super comfortable with the reduced sense of personal
space that many Westerners seem to have, men especially. I’ll usually “do as the
Romans do” when it comes to hugs, but I wish I could limit skin-to-skin contact to just
the ladies!
How much you’ll make
A talent agency in the adult film industry is considered conscientious if it only takes
half your earnings. That’s a necessary expense, though, because unless you’ve already
established yourself as a trustworthy actress, you won’t be able to find work as a
freelancer. You might make a go of it if your main income is from drawing manga or
writing for some publication or what have you, but if you want to make a career out of
appearing in adult films, you pretty much have to start out with a talent agency.
Generally speaking, people working in the sex industry are unreliable. There’s no
telling when they’ll up and quit, taking whatever cash they can with them. Deals
between individuals are risky. Filmmakers and talent agencies are companies with
business plans extending years into the future, so rather than relying directly on an
actress whose popularity might rapidly wane or who might disappear at any time, they
prefer long-term relations with other companies. That way, an actress who’s suddenly
quit the business or who cannot show up for filming due to illness or any other reason
can be quickly replaced. While giving up half of what “you” are being paid might seem
like a lot, without talent agencies, there would be no way to supply the market with a
steady stream of adult films.
Considering that, when I talk about how much money you can make as an adult film
actress, please keep in mind that the figures I present will be what you receive after
your agency takes a fifty percent commission. You will then pay taxes on what remains,
so you might be disappointed by the amount you actually take home, but compared to
what you might expect to earn as a young woman, especially if you’re lacking the
education and work experience desired by most companies, it can be an attractive sum.
When I was still in the industry, Shūkan pureiboi interviewed me several times, once
asking what I felt was the best thing about quitting my job as a newspaper reporter to
become an adult film actress. “The money, you mean?” I asked, fishing for what the
interviewer wanted to hear. “Well, preferably something bigger than that,” he replied.
I’m pretty sure he wanted me to say something about gaining agency over my life, not
to mention getting all the sex I wanted (namely, a lot), but that’s because this was a
men’s magazine. If I was speaking solely to women, the “something bigger” would
simply be all the money we can make.
As with any entertainer, adult film actresses are paid differently depending on their
popularity and the financial status of the company making the offer. Filmmakers cast
their films with a budget in mind, making offers for project and feature films based on
the draw they expect an actress to provide. Every company has its own financial
conditions, so of course you will receive a wide variety of offers. As an example, the
relatively new company Faleno, established in December 2018 with a focus on films for
streaming, used above-market rates to attract many well-known feature actresses.
I was active in adult film work from the latter half of 2014 until the first half of 2018,
and I was friendly with active actresses through 2019. During those five years, low-end
offers were around ¥500,000 ($4,500) per film for a feature actress, ¥100,000 ($900) for
a freelancer, and around ¥50,000 ($450) for a project actress. These are generally
minimums, and there’s a lot of variation, so for example a high-end freelance offer
might be higher than a low-ball feature offer, and there will certainly be offers lower
than what I’ve suggested here. Also, as I previously mentioned, the amount you’re paid
varies based on the number of times you have sex, and what kind of sex it is. The most I
was ever paid for a single film after going freelance was around ¥550,000 ($5,000), but
that was for some pretty hardcore content in a “first-time anal” release.
Unless there are extenuating circumstances such as a package deal with a VR release or
because your agency has lowered its commission for some reason, and setting aside
special cases like Faleno, it is rare for even a feature actress to receive over ¥1 million
($9,000) for one film; too many offers at that level would establish a precedent that
would put most adult filmmakers out of business.
Another exception is when well-known general entertainers make their adult film
debut. Actress Anri Sakaguchi, for example, is rumored to have been paid ¥20 million
($181,000) for her first adult film. A general entertainer without a fan base, however,
will be paid only a token bonus. Of course, these things change. In an interview,
entertainer and voice actress Kokona Yuzuki said that when she made her first adult
film in February 2019, the going rate for an amateur debut film was ¥200,000 to
¥300,000 ($1,800 to $2,700), but that as a former general entertainer she’d been paid
¥800,000 ($7,200). I was surprised at how low rates had gone in the year since I’d
retired. Just four years before, I’d received more than that as a feature actress without
the benefit of any form of notoriety.
In a tweet dated 24 August 2017, gyaru-type adult actress Reona Maruyama wrote: “To
those of you who think adult film actresses are rich: Working freelance, for a filming
session lasting from early morning to late night where I have sex twice, I’m paid
¥120,000 ($1,100), which is ¥108,000 ($980) after taxes. For some films, I’m only paid
¥40,000–60,000 ($360–550). Not a job you can do without the stamina and love for it!” I
expect rates to continue to fall, in part due to an Internet culture in which illegal
downloads are pervasive.
Filming of my retirement release took place in May 2018. One year later I was
approached by a friend who had an exclusive contract with KM Produce and was
scheduled to do a girl-on-girl film. “I’m supposed to be getting it on with lots of
different kinds of women,” she said, “but we’re still looking for someone with huge tits,
and I’d love that to be you. I know you’ve retired, but I was wondering…”
I decided to talk to the production company, not because I actually wanted to be in the
film—I’d been there and done that, so the work no longer interested me—but because I
couldn’t resist hearing what the going rate was, and what conditions they would offer. I
was also wondering how eager they were to feature a “comeback” role by and actress
who wasn’t the lead, and how that would affect their offer. Had I actually been looking
for work, I would have been pretty disappointed.
Their offer was ¥150,000 ($1,400), which isn’t bad for what would have amounted to a
half day of work for a single scene and some package photography, but still, it wouldn’t
have been enough to even buy the MacBook I had my eye on. When I refused, saying it
wasn’t enough to justify a one-time-only return to the business, they upped their offer
to ¥200,000 ($1,800). But money like that is only attractive when you’re in a freelance
mindset, thinking of doing five movies per month at that rate. Post-retirement, I could
too easily make ¥200,000 with my clothes on. Having quit, I had no motivation other
than possibly a huge payout for making another appearance in an adult film. As Reona
Maruyama said, it’s not a job you can do without a love for it. My psychological barriers
to being nude in front of a camera were likely quite low right after I’d retired, but with
the passage of a year I was shields up again, and I preferred to remain dressed.
In March 2020, the now-retired Asahi Mizuno appeared on the AbemaTV show Kyūyo
meisai (Show us your paycheck), where she revealed how much she made in her most
profitable month as a freelance adult film actress: ¥1,825,000 ($16,500). I recall both
thinking that it seemed too odd a number to be fake and being surprised at how low her
best month’s income was. At the time of the show, she was working as a nail artist and
bar hostess, and she said that when she was acting she was also working at a resort
hotel in Shinjuku. Maybe splitting her time between film and other work held her back.
That same television show has presented adult film actresses several times, but those
who are still making films will be watched over by their agencies, who I’m sure pressure
them to inflate their numbers. This was the first show I’d seen with a former actress not
under such pressure. Asahi was also someone I knew because we were active at the
same time, and she was also a far more popular actress than the others who had been on
the show, making the data she provided all the more convincing.
Another guest on the show, appearing in July 2018, was the freelance actress Sumire
Mizukawa, who claimed a one-month income of ¥2,015,756 ($18,250). It isn’t too
surprising for a popular freelance actress to make more than ¥2 million per month, but
she claimed that was for “around ten films,” which sounds to me like some obfuscation
to keep her agency happy. In the case of an actress like Ms. Mizukawa who has switched
from a feature to a freelance contract, what she’s paid will depend on the rates her
manager negotiates for her, which in turn depends on the financial state of each
filmmaker. Considering that industry rates overall had gone down by summer 2018,
I’m sure they would prefer not to have those numbers closely scrutinized.
One woman on the show, a project actress who specialized in films featuring mature
women, presented a supposed paycheck that showed a monthly income of exactly
¥600,000 ($5,400), but that number is extremely suspicious, as it should have been
what remained after paying withholding tax of 10.21 percent. Similarly, the
entertainer-turned-porn-star featured in episode 89 showed a bottom line of ¥3 million,
a figure that is amazing not only for its size but its roundness. Only Ms. Mizukawa’s
numbers strike me as relatively believable, and I suppose the agencies were trying to
balance the numbers for other actresses around hers.
The feature actress Harumi Tachibana appeared on a similar TV Tokyo television
show, and while this was admittedly in 2014, when the adult film industry was doing
better than it is now, she presented a paycheck showing a monthly income of (exactly)
¥1,800,000 million ($16,300). Here again we see this overly neat number, and while the
paycheck she shows is mostly blurred out, the only name on it is her stage name (a
document submitted to the tax bureau would have to show her real name), so it seems
likely that the document was created for use on the show. This time they also compared
her income with those of other freelance and project actresses, which showed a very
wide gap in incomes: Mai Miori made ¥623,250 ($5,650) in May for six films plus
photoshoots and interviews, then ¥486,900 ($4,400) in June for four films, while Rina
Serino made ¥673,425 ($6,100) for seven films.
I once saw Mion Sonoda, a feature actress who debuted with S1 and then became an
exclusive actress for Prestige, appearing as a guest on a YouTube show. There she
claimed she’d been paid ¥3 million for one film, and another former long-time exclusive
actress at Max-A tweeted a screenshot of the video, saying how impressed she was at
such a haul, but as best I can tell she was talking about what the production company
paid before her agency took its cut. Still, it’s interesting to see a former feature actress
from another filmmaker being surprised at that number.
What you make depends on your agency
While standard rates of a sort do exist for adult film actresses, the deciding factor is the
deal your agency makes with the production company. The two parties get together and
dicker over what the filmmaker will pay for appearances by you and other actresses,
and your agency will take half or more of that. Since 2019, the adult film industry,
under pressure from human rights groups, has been careful about specifying payment
details in contracts, so there are fewer cases of agencies taking exorbitant cuts than
there once was, but I’m sure some shady deals still go on wherever agencies think they
can get away with it. On the other hand, feature actresses with long careers can be very
valuable to an agency, to the extent that even if offers from production companies start
to decline, agencies will continue paying the actress what she previously made.
Agencies want to brag about the popular actresses they’ve signed, and feature actresses
increase their brand power.
Feature actresses with short careers, however, will have had few opportunities to work
with other actresses, and so will have little opportunity to obtain information about
how much they are being paid. New actresses will therefore often be given low-ball
offers if agents think they can get away with it. In particular, women around twenty or
so who have just debuted and are still somewhat ignorant about the industry will likely
consider ¥500,000 ($4,500) to be a lot of money, especially if they mistake that as
payment for “one day’s work,” unaware of all the sales events and other promotional
activities they will be required to do.
At the agency I first signed with, I knew one woman who signed an exclusive with
Moodyz to make twelve films over a year at a rate of ¥700,000 ($6,300) each, while
another signed with Alice Japan for just three films, ¥300,000 ($2,700) each for two and
¥400,000 ($3,600) for the third. Both were in their early twenties, one a high-school
graduate who’d been working part-time jobs, the other a graduate from a trade school
who had never had a full-time job. Both had previously been making less than ¥150,000
($1,350) per month, and so likely felt that their new income level was quite an
improvement. When receiving their first paycheck, they may have been surprised and
disappointed to find ten percent deducted as withholding taxes. I think this happens
because many people think “underground” work like adult films is somehow hidden
from taxation. Both made more money as their careers advanced, the first getting up to
¥800,000 ($7,250) per film when she retired a year later. I had already left the agency
when the second woman suddenly disappeared from the industry three years later.
Another feature actress at the same production company, however, shared a rumor that
she’d only been getting around ¥500,000 ($4,500) per film, despite being very popular.
Possibly the company had used a long-term contract to keep her per-film rate low, but I
can see how that would drive her away once she found out how much other women
were making.
The highest monthly income I ever made was after I went freelance, around the time I
realized I was making more than when I’d debuted. My first paycheck as a newspaper
employee right out of college, by the way, was for ¥291,337 ($2,640), and my annual
income that first year was ¥4,222,644 ($38,250). In my first year after going freelance
as an adult film actress, I paid more in taxes than I made that entire year as a company
employee, having received over ¥30 million ($272,000) in performance fees. Women
who seemed to be working on a part-time basis, making less than one hundred
thousand yen per month, would be told “don’t forget to pay your taxes” by their
managers while mine were giving me advice on tax savings and reminding me to save
receipts. My thanks to the accounting staff, who helped me with all the tax-filing
paperwork!
That agency required us to write up invoices and paid us cash on the spot, so on payday
it wasn’t uncommon to catch a glimpse of other actress’s paperwork, revealing their
real names. Not that this was super-secret info among us—some women freely told
each other their real names, and managers would often let that information slip one
way or another, which I wasn’t very happy about. They paid us in cash to avoid the bank
fees that would result from transferring funds into our personal accounts. We were
paid twice per month, and I often received over ¥2 million ($18,000) on payday, so
counting out that stack of cash was quite a job.
I’m sure many readers will consider that scant reward for appearing in a porn film that
will follow you for the rest of your life. I suppose that would be true if you didn’t really
want to be doing the job, but there are other aspects that many women find appealing.
Even those who don’t like being filmed often find a certain kind of egocentric
satisfaction in being treated like a movie star of sorts, and many are able to use porn
work as a springboard to other ways of making money. Besides that, if your job is going
to involve sexual contact, the adult film industry is far safer and more hygienic than
what goes on behind closed doors in many other forms of sex work. That’s why many
women who started out at sex clubs are drawn to film work instead, viewing it as a far
easier way to make a fair amount of money.
However, jumping into adult films with no knowledge about what you’re doing can
lead to trouble, such as debuting in a film you’re only paid ¥50,000 ($451) for that goes
straight to the Internet unedited. Most commonly an actress makes the most money
from her debut film, and less from there on out, so if you’re going to get into the
business, you’ll want to start at the highest rate possible. If you’re starting out as a
project actress you might make more money later, but unless you end up in black-
market films, your feature debut will be the one movie you’re paid the most for. Blackmarket films in Japan, by the way, are those without the blurring out of sexual organs
that Japanese law requires, and so cannot be released in normal domestic distribution
channels. I have never appeared in such a film, so I’m limited as to what I can say about
them, but I do know they are illegal, and many actresses appearing in them end up
being arrested. They pay well, but you can think of that extra as recompense for the risk
you’re taking.
Hina Kurumi, who debuted in 2008 under “exclusive” contracts with two adult film
companies, appeared in a black-market uncensored film three years later, and revealed
that she was paid ¥3.1 million ($28,000) to do so. Based on that, we can calculate that an
appearance in such films commands a fee of around seven or eight times what the
actress would receive for a normal film. Still, many factors likely influence that
calculation, such as the actress’s popularity and whether she has retired from adult film
work, so it’s very hard to predict specific numbers. Besides which, such work is illegal,
so the names of companies making them and their pay rates isn’t information that’s
readily available.
Speaking of which, black-market producers may try to recruit you by saying things like
“Don’t worry, this will only be shown overseas,” or “We’ll be sure the film can’t be traced
back to you.” Despite such assurances, however, a friend of mine who made one of these
films had the police pay a sudden visit to her home one day. She told me the elderly
woman she shared a room with in the detention center she was sent to said to hang in
there, that she’d seen others like her before and she’d probably be out in a couple of
days.
Media appearances pay next to nothing
Television appearances, whether for broadcast or cable channels, pay ridiculously low
amounts, on the basis that media appearances are free publicity for the actress. A
relatively unknown show that brings in viewers mainly through social media
promotions by the actress will have spent most of their budget just putting the show
together. We would consider ourselves lucky to receive ¥5,000 ($45), but shows
featuring multiple actresses would be under a gross deal, resulting in a payment half
that already low amount. I appeared in one show that created a swim competition
between adult film actresses and adult magazine models, and after doing the math I
calculated an hourly wage of about ¥200 ($1.80) per hour. While these jobs where you
keep your clothes on can help boost your name recognition, you shouldn’t expect to
make any direct income from them.
That said, some women would probably pay for the opportunity to be on television, so
any money received is icing on the cake. Boosts to name recognition aside, appearing in
mainstream media is an emotional salve for women who torment themselves with the
idea that they’ve been reduced to porn work because they have no other worthwhile
skills. Some women will indeed discover hidden talents as a mainstream entertainer,
while others will realize that acting in adult films is where their true skills lie and
become newly dedicated to making money that way. In either case, it’s a chance to make
some connection with people in mainstream media, and who knows where that will
lead in the future.
it’s a chance to make some connection with people in mainstream media, and who
knows where that will lead in the future. Since talent agencies might eventually benefit
from such relationships, I don’t think they should take their normal fifty percent
commission on these low-paying media appearances. Payment for appearing in an adult
film is substantial enough that the huge commission an agency pockets doesn’t feel all
that painful, but their scarfing down half of such a very small pie certainly does.
However, low-level managers don’t have the authority to forego even the smallest of
commissions, making actresses want to work solely with the old-timers in their agency.
I’ve even heard of company presidents slipping actresses extra cash when they make
unpaid media appearances, which is fine and all, but this makes it more likely that
younger employees will just quit and hinders their development.
Actress privileges, part 1: Requesting actors
I’ve heard stories about how a while back, actresses would sometimes try to crawl out
of windows to escape from filming sessions, or lock themselves in the restroom and
refuse to come out. There’s much greater concern for the mental health of actresses
these days, and production companies have found ways to deal with the emotional
rollercoaster an adult film actress can find herself on. A desire to make them more
comfortable at work is probably one reason actresses get such royal treatment now, but
there are several other privileges they have obtained along the way as well.
Production companies will ask you to list the foods you like and dislike in
questionnaires you’ll fill out during interviews. This isn’t because they want to include
that information in your profile or anything, it’s because they want to know what kind
of lunches and snacks to serve you on filming days. They’ll also ask what kind of drinks
you’ll want on hand, and if you smoke, what brand. You can also make requests such as
having them keep a humidifier on set, or soft tissues if you have hay fever. Minor things
like that are nice, but there’s one privilege in particular that is given only to actresses,
the right to request which male actors you will appear with.
When interviewing with the film’s director, you will often be asked if you have any
favorite actors. The reason for this is clear: if the actress is working with an actor who
turns her on, she’ll give a more exciting performance that will also turn on the viewers.
The actors who get the most requests are of course those who are skilled with their
fingers and tongues, but also those who make actresses feel comfortable, those who are
kind and considerate, and those who make a good impression with a clean and
attractive appearance. I’ve also heard of actors who started out working on television or
as writers being requested by women who have been fans since before they started
working in pornography. In any case, the work involves a simulated romantic act, so it
shouldn’t come as a surprise that women have likes and dislikes.
Some actresses have a shortlist of actors they want to work with, and I’ve heard that
actors can receive higher rates if they’ve been requested. Actors are also kind toward
actresses because that can lead them to being invited to work with a wider variety of
production companies. Adult film actors are generally freelancers who are not listed
with a talent agency, so film production companies or directors have to contact them
directly if they’re going to get work. This results in each filmmaker tending to use a
fixed pool of actors. When an actress brings up a new name, there’s a scurry to figure
out how to contact him.
Production staff will also ask actors about any actresses they found to be particularly
easy to work with. A straight male audience will do its best to ignore the male actors in
an adult film, so it doesn’t matter much if the same guys are always showing up. By
contrast, the women are the focus of attention, and companies need to vary their
lineup. An actor once told me he’d requested me for a film, but the director had rebuffed
him, saying he could get girls for half what I would cost. I’m sure he told me that story
as a form of praise, and I accepted it as such, but when I delightedly related it to my
manager, her response wasn’t what I’d expected.
“What the hell is he doing, talking to actresses about pay rates!” she shouted. “I’m
going to blacklist the bastard!” At least until I retired in the fall of 2018, the pay
actresses received for adult films was a closely held secret, with agencies pocketing half
or more, and these agencies were very sensitive about people revealing any hints
regarding total amounts paid.
Pay rates for actors are pretty much set, and there are no talent agencies involved, so
the process for hiring them is far easier than for actresses. This also makes it much
easier to accommodate actresses’ requests for specific actors. Frequently, when I ran
into actors during non-adult media appearances or photoshoots, they would express
their desire to appear in a film with me. They would even request I invite them to
appear in films of specific genres, such condom-free or anal.
Actors hired just for handjob or titty-sex scenes, those we called the “cum squad,”
would plead to be invited to a film with full-on sex. I remember one, a part-time actor
who would come to the set wearing a suit, whom I worked with in two films by a
director with a good reputation for titty-sex scenes. That actor often appeared in such
films because of the prodigious amount of semen he could produce, which looks good
on film. The head of his cock was also enormous, making it look like a mushroom. The
head is all that can be seen during titty sex, so one big enough to make an impression
even after it’s blurred out makes for a better scene. I couldn’t help but comment on it
when I first saw it, causing him to blush. A few days later, he sent me a fan letter.
“Hello, it’s the guy with the big head!” it started. He went on to butter me up a bit, then
wrote, “I have a favor to ask of you: please request me for a film where I can bang you.”
I’d previously received letters from amateur actors I’d appeared in films with, and from
fans who’d come to see me at events, but this was the first time I’d received such a direct
request. I’m sorry to say this letter didn’t do anything to make me want to appear in a
film with him. If he was going to rise up from the ranks of the cum squad, I wanted him
to do it through his own efforts. Besides which, I’m not built for cocks with huge heads;
it often hurts when they enter me.
Personally, I like a cock that’s straight and has a foreskin with some play to it. Peeling
back the foreskin to reveal what’s beneath is like unwrapping a present, which is
exciting enough, but then I can have fun using my fingers and tongue to play with it all.
Size-wise, I like one that’s a little larger than average, and feeling my pussy stretch and
expand to accommodate it is super exciting. I fondly recall my favorites. One actor in
particular had a firm yet yielding cock that reminded me of a cylindrical rice-cake, so I
nicknamed him Toppogi, the Japanese name for tteokbokki, a popular kind of Korean
stir-fried rice cake.
Of course, it isn’t all about penises. Sometimes I would have a great time with an actor
in one film, only to find that he didn’t excite me at all in a different role or setting, so
there weren’t many actors I wanted to request. One of my goals was also to “sample” as
many professional actors as possible, so usually I just wanted someone new. Despite
that, eager directors or producers would sometimes insist I pick an actor I knew I had
good chemistry with, to better ensure a hot scene.
To accommodate such filmmakers, I had to give them a name, so I just requested an
actor I knew wouldn’t strain their budget. While the upper and lower limits on salaries
aren’t as extreme as they are for actresses, a relatively expensive actor will still cost
hundreds of dollars more, and I didn’t want to develop a reputation for causing
problems. Also, directors and producers tend to have their favorite actors, so requesting
one I knew they liked would make them enjoy working with me more, and everything
goes more smoothly when the crew all know each other. I would therefore make a point
of learning which actors were regulars in a given producer’s films before making my
own film with that producer. Doing so isn’t difficult; it’s usually just a matter of
checking their social media and back catalog. If that doesn’t reveal much, I would just
say, “Hmm, I’m not sure. Is there anyone you recommend?” and agree to whoever they
suggested. That’s taking the easy way out, I know, but choosing someone they’ve
recommended will never be taken as a slight, and a director should always have an
easier time working with someone they know, so I’m sure it’s a win–win for everyone
involved.
If an actress insists on a certain person to do sex scenes with, the producer will
generally do their best to get that actor, even if they’ve never worked with him before,
or even if they’ve blacklisted him, but I honestly didn’t care enough to make it a point of
contention. I did make a request once, however, on a film where several men would be
ejaculating inside of me. In that case, I said, can we get all actors who are well hung,
since condoms tend to come off of them anyway? Also, the title of the film would lead
viewers to expect some hardcore content, so a series of big cocks would seem to better
suit those needs. Even if they were bigger than what I preferred, at least it would make
for a good picture.
When I made my last film, I asked whether there were any actors who wanted to give
me a sendoff. Honestly, I preferred to be surprised by who was on set with me, another
reason I generally didn’t make requests. Also, I’d hate to be anticipating a day with a
specific actor, only to find out that some last-minute problem had caused a sudden
change in casting.
Another reason I was able to view the actors I’d be working with as a pleasant surprise
was the fact that there weren’t any I wasn’t willing to take on at least once. Even so,
some adult film actors are not skilled at sex and some are not attractive, so you may
find yourself wanting to categorize them as “men I never want to work with again.”
Here again, film producers and agencies have your back.
Actress privileges, part 2: Blacklisted actors
Just as you can request actors you want to work with, you can also maintain a list of
actors you want to avoid. There are many reasons why you might want to do so, such as
their body odor or attitude, because they don’t get you off, or because of a previous
relationship. Whatever the reason, however, actors who are disliked by actresses will
end up on their blacklist, and that information gets shared among them.
I never blacklisted anyone myself, but my manager would always ask me how things
went after a shoot. One day when I mentioned that the actor had some severely bad
breath, she muttered something about how that wouldn’t do, and added the actor to my
blacklist. She even added an explanatory note: “halitosis.” I’m sure she did that to show
she was looking out for me, but it was a bit more care than I wanted. I found it difficult
to bring that up with her, but later, after I’d switched to a manager who was a bit easier
to communicate with, I quietly asked him to clear out any entries that had been made to
my blacklist. That earlier manager had assured me that the actor himself would never
find out, but this is a small industry, and rumors spread fast. If you’re the type who will
feel even slightly bad about what might happen as a result, I suggest not adding anyone
to your blacklist.
Agencies maintain their own blacklists of actors from each production company, so
you may find yourself unable to work with certain actors, even if you personally have
nothing against them. I know of one agency who blacklisted a veteran actor so popular
he even had a following overseas, just because he’d sent a direct message via Twitter to
one of the agency’s most important actresses, asking her about working together.
Blacklists aren’t restricted to actors: the first agency I signed with blacklisted an
assistant director for having one of their actresses give him an off-camera blowjob.
While I know how that sounds, keep in mind that it isn’t uncommon for production
staff to also act in adult films. In fact, I first met the assistant director in question while
making a film with Nanpa Japan, a production company that specializes in amateur
films. The scene involved him taking a drunken me into a bar restroom and having his
way with me there, but I remember giving him some off-camera oral myself, while the
film crew was changing batteries.
In my case it was a voluntary service, but some women take offense at being asked to
perform sexual acts when the camera isn’t rolling, even when it’s to help the actor get a
hard-on for the next scene. That’s why the most popular actors are those who, when
they need some extra help to get it up, will take matters into their own hands, so to
speak.
Many actresses aren’t fond of tattoos, and production companies will generally
blacklist actors with tattoos before any actress complains. This is because nobody
wants an actor to steal attention from the actresses, and because many adult film fans
are the type who are intimidated by tattooed men. Another factor is the trend toward
more proactive women and more reserved, virginal men. Most actors with tattoos who
appear in adult films will cover them up, either by wearing clothes over them or using
flesh-tone bandages like the ones athletes use.
The actors
Many actresses in adult films are not particularly interested in sex, certainly not
enough to do it with someone they don’t know, but they’re doing it for the money or in
the hopes of breaking into better entertainment work. The actors, however, are
generally doing it for the sex, something they love to do in the first place. Being paid to
bang attractive girls, rather than jack off at home for free? Where do I sign?
As you might guess, therefore, actors are paid far less per movie than are actresses.
Until the industry started cleaning itself up in 2018, there were also other differences in
how actors and actresses were treated, such as men being required to present the results
of an STD test before every shoot, while women didn’t need to unless they were filming
without condoms. Also, men had to pay for those tests themselves, while filmmakers
footed the bill for women.
Most actors get into the business by calling up production companies and asking to
join, rather than being recruited into the industry, and unlike actresses, they don’t have
talent agencies looking out for them. Straight men buy adult films based on the
actresses appearing in them, and so are predisposed to like them. By contrast, they are
quick to complain to production companies about actors, criticizing anything from the
sounds they make when they come to the gaudiness of their appearance. This is one
reason why POV films, which keep the actor out of the frame entirely, are becoming
increasingly popular.
So while the actors are nominally performing the same job as the actresses, and doing
half the work in most films, their standing is very different. One advantage that actors
have over actresses, however, is that their staying out of the spotlight allows them to
have much longer careers. It’s rare for an actress to have a career spanning more than
ten years, but plenty of actors last longer than that, with a handful of veterans making
up the backbone of the industry.
I’ve heard there are over ten thousand adult film actresses in Japan, but only around
one hundred actors. This imbalanced ecosystem means actors will often by necessity be
working multiple films per day, possibly appearing in only one segment per film,
calling for an hour or less of actual filming, but requiring at least two orgasms per day.
Actors can be categorized into three types:
The jizzers— This is where many adult film actors get their start, as an extra brought in
for bukkake scenes calling for large amounts of flying semen. These are usually parttimers, and including them in the census would result in a count of far more than one
hundred adult film actors, but I don’t count them since nobody is making a living as a
jizzer. They’re generally paid around ¥3,000 ($27), with bonuses for each orgasm they
can reach, a tally that an assistant director must keep track of. I’ve heard that some
directors hand out rubber bands for each squirt, which the actor wears on his wrist
until he’s paid at the end of the day.
These actors are basically just standing around masturbating, so they don’t require
much direction, but there are a few simple rules they need to follow. They need to hit
the actress’s face without getting spunk into her eyes, raise a hand so they can move to
the front when they’re ready to come, and move off camera and out of everyone’s way if
they’ve lost their hardon.
There are also “chief jizzers” who maintain contact lists and call sheets for a group of
jizzers they lead and train. That group will be referred to in scripts by their chief’s name.
The group led by someone named Yoshida, for example, will be called the “Yoshida
Brigade.” Chief jizzers are generally those with some experience as an actor, and they’re
positioned higher in the pecking order of adult film actors.
The touchers— These too are extras, but unlike the jizzers they get to come into contact
with actresses, in the form of blowjobs or titty sex. They’re also working one-on-one
with her, not as part of a squad, so they’re paid a little more, around ¥10,000 ($90). That
said, many end up acting for practically nothing once you figure in transportation
costs, just so they can fulfill their dream of sexual contact with an actual woman. Once
when I was working on a titty-sex film with Cinema Unit Gas, a production company
that specializes in films featuring women with huge breasts, one actor came all the way
from Nagoya via the Shinkansen “bullet train,” which must have cost him at least
¥20,000 ($180) round trip, so he would have been working deep in the red.
Nevertheless, he looked delighted and told me he’d abstained for a week in preparation
for that day. Gas only uses actresses with at least a K-cup bra size, so I guess if giant
boobs is your kink, appearing in their films is an experience worth paying for. This is a
position most actors will treat as a side job while doing something else, but it is often an
important steppingstone for those who started out as jizzers—who are often so nervous
at first that they can only bring themselves to orgasm—toward making a career as an
adult film actor.
This is a position most actors will treat as a side job while doing something else, but it
is often an important steppingstone for those who started out as jizzers—who are often
so nervous at first that they can only bring themselves to orgasm—toward making a
career as an adult film actor.
The leads— These are the main male performers, who not only get to actually have sex
with an actress, they also take on the responsibility of leading her through the scene. It
takes varying amounts of time for men to reach this position, but factors that can
shorten the path include knowing how to communicate with women, having a good
body that films well, being able to ejaculate with force and quantity, and catching the
eye of a director or producer while working as a jizzer. There are some cases where a
jizzer or a toucher gets to bang an actress, but this is generally limited to when the film
calls for an inexperienced male or amateur role where the actress will be directing the
action, so it’s hard to call actors like that “leads.” Rather, I think of a male lead as an
actor who makes his living by doing the nasty, and who can take the initiative when
doing so.
Perfecting the debut film for a feature actress at a well-known production company
requires a skilled actor. He needs to know how to stay out of the way during filming, so
the camera can best show her face and body, and he needs to be able to maintain an
erection for up to an hour while engaging in sexual play. He also needs to be considerate
enough to allow an inexperienced actress to relax. This is a position of some
responsibility, and such skill is not easily replaced, so lead actors receive far better
treatment than do extras, both in terms of the respect they’re given by production staff
and the services they receive, such as having lunches and towels provided for them.
Only when a man achieves the rank of male lead will he and those around him consider
him a true “porn star,” a position that sets him apart from those who are unable to
support themselves solely from such work. He is a professional, as opposed to the
company employees who are dipping a toe in for kicks, or the fetishists who are
satisfying some psychosexual need. All the same, those who have become lead actors at
small production companies may still only find work as extras at better funded studios;
it is only the very top actors who are doing full-on sex scenes in every film they appear
in.
An average male lead will receive about ¥30,000 ($270) for his appearance. The elites
will receive around ¥50,000 ($450). I first worked with the well-known actor Genjin
Moribayashi in February 2015, in an Alice Japan film. He told me then that he was being
paid ¥50,000, while Jō Ōshima, who’d been in the business even longer than he had, was
being paid ¥60,000 ($540). In 2018, an actress friend told me the going rate for Ken
Shimizu, an actor so popular his name is familiar in Japan even among those who don’t
watch porn, was a surprising ¥70,000 ($630). Actors don’t get paid through a talent
agency, they just write up an invoice on site and get paid in cash as they’re heading out
the door.
Usually, the highest-paid, most well-known actors can only be seen in films by the
biggest production studios, but their fortunes can change if they end up being
blacklisted by certain talent agencies. It’s possible for an actor to overcome an arrest for
a violent or sexual crime, for example, but the bigger filmmakers will likely leave him
out to dry for a while.
In summary, while the various types of adult film actors have their particular roles to
play, and a relative lack of competition allows them to maintain a longer career than
actresses enjoy, it still isn’t what you would call a stable career choice. While I suppose
the mental and physical stimulation is exactly what some men’s crotches demand of
them, very few will find themselves able to screw their way to a comfortable living.
Side work for actors
The legendary adult film actor Taka Katō had already retired by the time I debuted, but
in a television show we appeared in together, he revealed that he was paid ¥70,000
($630) per film, the same as Ken Shimizu. Also like Shimizu, after retiring from adult
film work, he started a career as a television personality.
While there are various ways for actors to make money without being involved in
actual filming, one of the most common is to work as a “traveling host,” in other words
as a male escort. This became particularly popular starting in June 2013, when the topselling actor Yōji Agawa started Black Swan, a male escort service that promised women
dates with adult film stars. Another veteran actor, Kazuya Sawaki, opened a similar
service called In Bliss the same year, and at least five more adult film actors have opened
others since.
These services enroll a cast of actors who are highly appealing to women, and they
have even established networks allowing them to share escorts between companies.
Female customers pay for travel, meal, and hotel room expenses, with engagements
starting at 120 minutes. Compare that with what most actors will experience while
shooting a movie, where they might not be given lunch or even a towel to wrap
themselves in, and where filming can run from morning to night. The most popular
hosts can receive up to ¥160,000 ($1,435) for a 180-minute “date,” so it isn’t surprising
that they will preferentially fill their schedule with escort work over adult film roles.
Such work does have its problems, though. In a familiar trope but with the genders
swapped, the closeness women establish with their escorts can turn into romantic
feelings, leading to social media unpleasantness when they are rejected. Even when the
escort tries to establish rules about no contact outside of work, human nature will
sometimes prevail, with a customer pestering him about meeting in a private capacity.
Since their usual work is a secondary role in a product designed to please men, I’m sure
switching to a job where the objective is instead to please women takes some getting
used to. Regardless, we’re reaching a point where there are so many attractive actors
that are a pleasure for women to watch that the term “adult film actor” has started
giving way to a new term…
The “eromen”
Normally, the women are the stars in adult films, while the men play supporting roles.
Recently, however, an increasing number of adult films are being made for women. In
2009, the women’s magazine An An had a special sex issue that included an adult film
starring Ittetsu Suzuki on an attached DVD. It proved to be hugely popular and helped to
establish the viability of porn for women. These films usually star very attractive,
graceful actors with camera shots that focus on them. Here, the women are in
supporting roles.
The actors who primarily star in these films are called not “adult film actors,” but
“eromen.” Adult films for men typically avoid showing actors’ faces, because most
viewers don’t want to see them. With eromen, however, their face (and body) is the
whole point. They’re kind of like popular entertainers that you get to watch while
they’re having sex.
Not only do eromen need to be physically attractive, they also require a bearing that
women appreciate. The above-mentioned pioneering eroman Ittetsu Suzuki is
incredibly popular, but you would never know it from the way he acts on set. He learns
about actresses before meeting them so he can greet them with comments like, “I saw
how popular you were at that overseas event!” While the adult film industry is filled
with not just directors and producers but even low-level staff who are crude in their
speech and behavior, eromen always maintain a certain level of formality and
politeness. They show a level of dedication to improving their sexual technique, and I’m
always impressed at how humble they remain despite always having women going
crazy over them. Adult films for women also tend to have mainly female staff in charge
of filming, and there are frequent events for fans, giving the eromen even more
experience in dealing with women.
The most popular eromen have a lithe, androgynous beauty. They seem to be almost
asexual in appearance, but beneath that they’re a bundle of lust. One complained to me
about how all the women he had casual sex with wanted to be his girlfriend, forcing
him to cut them off. Another got blacklisted by the agency of a famous freelance actress
for bombarding her with direct messages, but I’m sure there were plenty of women who
welcomed his messages before that. Many eromen have also worked at gay bars or as
male prostitutes, and I was surprised to learn that this one had previously been in a
friends-with-benefits relationship with a gay manager in the adult film industry.
The rarity of these beautiful sexy boys can make them more valuable than adult film
actresses. Some can make ¥1 million ($9,000) in a month just from photo events. At
least, that’s an amount that would be paid to a freelance actor who hasn’t signed with a
talent agency, but unlike adult film actors, many eromen do work with an agency. It
goes without saying that what they’re paid to appear in films for women is more than
what conventional actors are paid, and like actresses, they also have other options for
making money, such as appearing in photobooks and giving interviews.
However, it costs money to retain their looks. Actors often take men’s supplements to
heighten their libido, but hormonal treatments can have side effects such as hair loss
and poor skin. That’s why many actors end up getting crew cuts or shaving their heads,
but eromen are after a pretty-boy look, and can’t go around looking like a martial artist
or a thug. Rather, they’re spending their time and money on hair removal and salon
treatments, to the same extent as any woman, and I know of at least one eroman who
had to start hair transplants at age thirty. So while they’re gaining a lot from their good
looks, they’re spending a lot on them, too.
Chapter 2
What Happens on the Set
First things first: consent
When you start making a new film, the first thing you’ll do when you show up on set is
sign a form called a “Statement of Consent to Perform.” When I first started in the
business, these statements would only be provided for relatively hardcore works, such
as films with vaginal or anal sex, S&M play, or heavy girl-on-girl scenes, but since 2016
they’ve become required before any filming can start.
Major producers ensure that all contracts and consent forms are filled out and signed
by the day before filming begins, but some smaller outfits wait until the last minute, as
in, just before or after you get your hair and makeup done. Having come that far it
doesn’t really seem like there’s any turning back, especially in the context of the social
and cultural norms and expectations one experiences in Japan, so I’m not sure how
much “consent” remains at that point. The “Statement of Consent to Perform” is a
shortish contract that looks something like a rental agreement for an apartment. You’ll
sign and press your seal to two copies, one for the production company and one to keep.
As an actress, you aren’t an employee of your talent agency, but instead a sole
proprietor using one of their managers as an agent, so this consent form serves as a
contract between you and the production company—your actual employer for that
film.
The first part of the consent form will be an acknowledgment that you’ve been told
exactly what will happen in the scenes you’ll be in, and that you are appearing in those
scenes of your own free will. This will be followed by a section describing what will
happen in the film and your willingness to participate. This part will have statements
such as “I, acting alone or with other actors (including extras), will perform the acts
listed below in a film created for the purposes of stimulating sexual arousal,” and “I will
display my naked body and perform physical acts for the purposes of stimulating sexual
arousal,” and “I will perform other acts related to the above.” There may be other dense
legalese, but it all boils down to “I’m going to be performing in sex scenes!” There will
also be a detailed itemization of the acts you’ll be performing in the film, such as “an
anal sex scene,” “an interracial sex scene,” or “a fellatio scene.” Scenes that include
violent or coercive acts will emphasize that everything is just acting, describing them as
“performances simulating sexual activities involving violence and coercion” or
“performances simulating physical abuse of a man.” I’ve included an example of such a
contract as an appendix at the end of this book.
While these consent forms are generally similar across production companies, the
details differ. In an item related to use of the actress’s image and publicity rights, for
example, the consent form will say something like “I assign to the company rights for
use of my stage name, image, handwriting, past career, etc., without charge, for the
purposes of advertising the work and creating digest versions,” but some companies
will reserve this right for three years from the completion of filming, while others will
insist on five years. Most contracts will also stipulate an automatic renewal every year
after that, but you can deny that renewal if you provide written notice.
The consent form will also include various precautions and prohibitions. You will need
to assert that at the time of signing you are not pregnant and you don’t have a sexually
transmitted infection, and you will need to warrant that you will not become pregnant
or contract an STI before filming ends. If such a thing does happen, you must agree not
to seek any form of compensation or liability from the producer. That’s where things
get a little scary, since no form of birth control is one-hundred percent effective. You
will also need to show some form of identification that confirms your age.
All that formality may convince you that everything is on the up-and-up, but that isn’t
necessarily the case. Not everyone can read and understand the legalese of a contract,
and it’s not like you’ll be bringing a lawyer with you to explain all the minutiae.
Someone on staff with the production company will go through it with you, of course,
but they aren’t necessarily on your side, so you can’t really expect these documents to
do much to protect you in the future.
Honestly, I found the best use of these contracts to be as records of all the films I’d
appeared in. On some days I shot scenes for three different films, so keeping track got
difficult. You might want to someday use your contracts to reflect on a long career, or
when creating a list of works to use in a copyright claim.
Another odd feature of these contracts is that beneath the place where you sign, there
will be a box labeled “Notes,” and someone on staff will ask you to write “Looking
forward to it!” or some other positive message there. As best I can tell, they want this as
proof that you’re eagerly participating in the filming, and that you’re not simply
involved in the film because you were forced into it. I usually wrote something like
“This is my first time in this genre, so it should be fun!”
Leading up to the first film
My first film shoot was in July 2014, two months after I joined a talent agency. We had
decided in June that I’d be debuting with Alice Japan, but a series of test photoshoots
and the like delayed the start date. Honestly, I couldn’t wait to get started, but I guess a
debut film keeps everyone busier than usual. Fair enough.
After two months of waiting, the day finally came. I was nervous, but more than that, I
was in a state of anticipation, thinking, “Today is the day I become an adult film
actress.” I was also conscious that the days leading up to the shoot were my last without
that added identity.
I never felt scared, or like I wanted to escape the situation. It was more like, “Well, here
we go!” Maybe that was because I felt I couldn’t run even if I’d wanted to; I’d already
contracted with the company, after all, and in those days consent forms didn’t allow
actresses to back out at the last minute. In fact, I think I was experiencing some sort of
self-induced natural high, a near manic state I’d whipped up to prevent myself from
succumbing to worries about what would happen if my parents found out.
After arriving at the studio, before even starting on hair and makeup, you’ll take off all
your clothes and put on a bathrobe, to allow time for underwear marks to fade. Male
actors, by the way, aren’t given a bathrobe; they’ll be wandering around in their
underwear, or maybe with a towel wrapped around their waist. Women are given this
extra service, along with warm socks if they want them, because they’re more prone to
feel cold.
The producers went all out for my debut film, giving me a pink bathrobe and ultrathick socks, along with a cute pair of slippers with my name on them. They even
punched a hole in the cap of a bottle of water and stuck a straw in it—the straw is
important because it allows you to drink without smearing your lipstick, and inserting
it through a hole lets you keep the cap on. They also provided me with good-smelling
bath products. I particularly liked the Jill Stuart shampoo and conditioner—so much so
that I still use that brand today. It was almost like spending a day at the spa!
I suppose the accumulated experience of the director and staff have taught them such
techniques. At some time in the past somebody must have handed an actress a bottle of
water, and she said, “It’ll smear my lipstick.” The next time, somebody stuck a straw in
it, and she said, “Now I can’t screw the cap on.” Finally, somebody came up with the idea
of drilling a straw hole. It’s fun to think of little comments by actresses slowly shaping
their work environment. Feature film producers are particularly careful about how
actresses are treated because they don’t want to anger them or create ill-will toward the
company. Later, I started to feel uncomfortable being treated like a queen, but on my
first day everything was new to me, and I enjoyed it.
Staff working on the set tend to be very chatty, probably because they need to monitor
how you’re doing and make sure you’re still feeling okay about everything. There’s an
unwritten rule, however, that says nobody on the set, other than the actors, is allowed
to touch an actress. This rule is strictly followed, with assistant directors very carefully
monitoring the rest of the crew. I was later shocked to learn that some people outside of
the industry think they have the right to just go ahead and grab a tit or whatever simply
because you’re a porn actress. In that respect, I felt safer on set than off.
That first day, I recall the director bringing a suntanned, built guy to where I was and
saying, “Let me introduce you to Yūto Kuroda. I guess he’s the first adult film actor
you’ve ever met?” As soon as I saw him, I thought, now that’s a porn star!
Many adult film actors in Japan have average looks and somewhat flabby bodies. This
makes them more amateur-looking and thus relatable to viewers. The ones who costar
with feature actresses, however, definitely have that porn-star look. They’re also skilled
at what they do, and this combination of looks and talent allows them to charge more.
This, too, might be a strategy for keeping feature actresses happy.
These actors know how to skillfully take charge during scenes, changing positions and
such, so the actress can lie back and not do much at all. The actor’s skill also makes a big
difference in how tired the actress becomes. Especially when she’s new to the job, there
isn’t a whole lot for the actress to do, since filmmakers want to portray a sense of
innocence, presented as reluctance to actively participate in what’s going on. That was
especially true in my case, because Alice Japan specializes in compliant, cutesy girls.
They were after naïveté, so really, they didn’t want me saying much at all.
Shower after shower
Another film set rule is that actors and actresses both shower before sex scenes. On my
first day of filming, I wasn’t sure what to do with the douche they’d set out for me; I’d
never used one before, so I required some instruction on its use. This was before
actresses were required to present proof that they were free of STIs, so maybe it was
intended as some kind of half-assed protective measure? Regardless, we were
constantly cleaning ourselves, inside and out.
For my first film, I shot three sex scenes over two days. We would always shower
before and after, so two sex scenes meant three showers in one day.
This took me by surprise and left me wondering what I would need to do to protect my
skin from all that washing.
At first, every sex scene left me bruised. I was never conscious of getting hurt while
filming, but later I would always find bruises here and there. I used to go to a mixed
martial arts gym, and sparring sessions there had similar results. I did my best to hide
any bruises with makeup, but that got rubbed away pretty quick, so I eventually learned
to avoid them in the first place.
Speaking of makeup, the makeup artist at my first film surprised me by asking if I had
any scars or tattoos that needed covering up. You’ll occasionally see a Japanese actress
with tattoos, but they’re generally looked down upon, so that’s rare—usually they get
covered up with concealer or spray foundation, and the same can be done for bruises.
Makeup artists may also recommend covering up any moles or birthmarks on your
face and neck, since they make it easier to identify you. At first, I asked for this service,
but here again the makeup tends to rub off, so there isn’t much point. After I was outed,
I went the other way and had them darken my moles, since I think they’re cute. Don’t go
too far with things like that, though, because removing that kind of makeup is a pain,
and the makeup artist is someone you definitely don’t want to annoy.
Most porn work is ad lib
The first scene in my first film was me getting naked. I was taken to the studio
courtyard and told to start removing my clothing piece by piece.
Most Japanese adult films are unscripted, beyond general directions like “take her
clothes off” or “film her masturbating.” The directors write the scripts, such as they are,
but there’s nothing like the detail you’ll find in a conventional movie script. In extreme
cases, there’s just a timeline with labels like “Scene 1” and “Scene 2.” One step up from
that is when the script specifies a position or includes a photo to show what they’re
after. Different directors have different approaches, but only those with a penchant for
drama (in other words, very few) will go so far as to write actual lines. Most directors
want sex scenes in particular to progress naturally, so they’ll kind of stay out of the way
and let things progress as they will.
In my first film, everything was ad lib after I took my clothes off. I would have
appreciated at least some guidance on what kind of personality I was supposed to have,
especially since it was my first film, but I didn’t get even that, which left me feeling a bit
anxious.
I remember wondering what an adult film actress was supposed to be like in her first
film. How should I act? Heartbroken? I had no idea. I do remember being praised for
folding my clothes as I took them off, out of force of habit.
Once I was naked, the director asked me how I felt, and I replied that I was
embarrassed. “What do you most want to do now?” he asked. They hadn’t given me any
clues as to what kind of thing I should say, and I assumed the director wanted
something natural. Well, I was appearing in a porno, and I was certainly no shrinking
violet, so if I was going to act natural… “I want to have sex with somebody,” I said.
“Cut!”
Oops, wrong answer.
To my astonishment, the director said, “You’re supposed to say you want to put your
clothes back on.” After all that filming of me getting naked, now I was supposed to say I
want to get dressed again? If that’s the kind of character this company wants, I thought,
I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. And I’ve already signed to do five films!
Later they told me not to touch the actors of my own accord, something I naturally
want to do when I get excited. I also wasn’t allowed to ask for or propose any sex acts, so
most of the job was basically just lying there. I moaned a little, but that’s about it, afraid
I’d get in trouble for anything I said, even “that feels good.”
Honestly, it was boring.
The actors are modern-day samurai
I must say, however, that the actors were amazing. During sex scenes, they could go on
pumping away for thirty minutes or more. This would be with a variety of changes in
position, each having its own variations as the actor adjusted his angle of attack to
accommodate the camera. Impressive stamina indeed.
I’d never experienced anything like this in my private life, having only known men of
the “three minutes in heaven” variety, so my first impression was how long they could
keep banging away. It was a completely new kind of sex to me, one that not only felt
good, but also didn’t end right away. I came so many times I almost felt guilty. With
most of my former lovers, I would have to surreptitiously finish myself off once they
were done, using the image of their getting off to fuel my own fire. Never before had
anyone given me so much pleasure while they were actually banging me.
This experience completely changed my concept of sex. Dicks can actually make me
come! It can last longer than just a few minutes! Like, way longer! The sex I’d been
having up until then could have occurred during a commercial break. Now it was taking
up at least an entire anime episode. Of course, in order to keep banging away for that
long, maintaining an erection the entire time, the actors also had to be able to postpone
their own orgasm, coming only when the scene called for it. As I’ve mentioned, I was
supposed to lie back and enjoy the ride, so to speak, with the actor hammering away and
positioning me for best effect, so while I found the experience physically taxing, I know
he was doing far more work than I. He was like a samurai wading into the battlefield of
my body, an unflaggingly erect cock in place of a sword.
Apart from the actors’ skill and stamina, I was impressed by the professionalism of the
staff and crew. They were constantly planning camera angles and adjusting the lighting
and so on, and when the cameras stopped, an assistant director would rush to my side
with a bottle of water (straw through the cap!) to keep me hydrated. Everyone was so
professional, in fact, that the atmosphere in the room was more clinical than erotic. I’d
been imagining the set of a porn film to be something like a den of forbidden lust, but
the disappointing reality was closer to a public ob-gyn appointment. The staff members
in the room were intently focused on their work the entire time. Everyone of course
remained silent during filming, since the mics would pick up the smallest of sounds.
That first time, it seemed so strange to be doing what the actor and I were doing in the
presence of these silent sentinels. Not only that, but they didn’t seem to be regarding
the scene before them as anything sexy, which perversely made me feel embarrassed. I
felt like a comedian who had bombed. “Guys, I’m doing it here?” I wanted to say. “Are
you even paying attention? Can I at least get a leer or two?”
The non-sex scenes are harder than you’d think
As I mentioned, another surprise was how unscripted everything was. I was told that
naïveté was highly valued, especially in debut films, so I shouldn’t even look at
whatever script there was; not knowing what was going to happen next supposedly
would result in a more natural reaction. This, too, has changed in recent years; now
actresses are required to read the entire script so they can sign a contract with full
knowledge of what they are agreeing to do.
I was also surprised at how much filming there was of scenes other than straight-up
sex. They filmed me taking my clothes off. Masturbating. Fellating guys. Letting them
come on my tits. In my private life these acts were all foreplay, so it felt weird to be
performing them à la carte.
Also, each filming session lasted twenty or thirty minutes, so sometimes it was hard to
fill up the time block. And blowing a guy or trying to get him off with your tits for thirty
minutes is tiring! Not to mention that I had to do all this silently. Later in your career
you’ll be allowed to take on more of what the industry categorizes as a “slut”
personality, and lately there have been more films where the actresses have a little
freedom to ad lib some lines or direct the action, but back when I was making my first
film, I had to just shut up and do what was asked of me, even if that meant wearing out
my arms and shoulders, silently letting some dude bang away at my tits for twenty
minutes.
Anyway, I made it through that first day of filming, but to be honest it wasn’t much
fun. I’d been so curious about what being in an adult film would be like and was looking
forward to doing this and that, but in reality I was reduced to a passive doll. Not
screwing, just being screwed. That first shoot left me afraid I wouldn’t be able to do the
kinds of things I’d hoped to experience when I started this new career. Thankfully, I was
able to become a little more assertive with each film I made, starting from the one I
filmed the following month.
What’s real and what’s faked
The world depicted in Japanese adult videos is a blend of reality and fantasy. Honestly,
I should probably call it fantasy with a light sprinkling of reality. Everything gets faked
from time to time, including creampies, ejaculations, squirting, pubic hair,
erections…even the sex itself. The sheer number of filmmakers out there who insist
that nothing in their films is faked is a good indication of just how much is faked. The
sad truth, however, is that reduced budgets and the recent trend toward limiting
extreme depictions have started to take precedence over depicting real acts. The second
most expensive part of making an adult film, after paying the actresses, is renting the
studio, and a shoot that lasts too long can tip a project into the red. Not only will the
production company have to pay overtime fees for the studio, they will also have to pay
for taxis for actresses who miss their last train home, and they risk angering actresses’
managers for taking up too much of their time. It is therefore in the production
company’s interest to ensure that everything runs as quickly and smoothly as possible,
and sometimes that means playing tricks with tools and camera angles.
camera angles. If you want a spray of genuine semen, the actor in question has to be
able to maintain his erection and come with sufficient quantity. If you want a girl to
“squirt,” she’ll need to drink lots of water and wait until she’s ready to pass it. All of this
takes time and adds unpredictability to the filming schedule. Faking it avoids those
problems and can also create a desired visual. If you want to show a guy ejaculating like
he has a water hose for a cock, or a girl who can squirt showers, well, those are rare
talents. Then again, some viewers will pay to see things like that, so if that’s the image
you want to sell, you have to get it on tape. Fakery arises to fill the gap between what is
desired and what is realistically possible, creating a world of adult fantasy. Actually,
once you know how far adult filmmakers go to create realistic images of unrealistic
acts, you’ll likely be impressed by their artistry. I’ll describe this in more detail in the
next chapter.
Japanese adult film fans over forty are likely to have heard the phrases “no-sex
actresses” or “simulation-only actresses.” As these terms imply, there was an era when
some porn actresses didn’t actually have sex. This was around the time when the
famous porn-star-turned-television-personality Ai Iijima was active, in the 1990s.
A more recent example is that of Mihiro, a former non-nude model who made her adult
film debut in 2005. After making thirty films with Alice Japan and Max-A (both of
which focus on rentals), in 2010 she released a film with Maxing (whose films are sold,
not rented) with a prominent banner on its package reading “Having real sex on film for
the first time!”, implying that everything before that had been faked. In a talk show
promoting the book AV joyū nochi (“Adult video actress, then…”), former porn actress
and adult media journalist Rio Yasuda said that Mihiro switched to actual sex to become
better known—in other words, she didn’t really want to do it, but she felt it was
necessary to advance her career.
As a former model with an established following, however, Mihiro may have been a
special case. In the same talk show, the actress Hitomi Hasegawa (active from 2001 to
2004) said that when she debuted with the rental film production company H.M.P.,
simulated sex was not mentioned as an option. The biggest difference between “rental”
and “for-sale” production companies today, in the era of streaming content, has less to
do with what the actors and actresses are doing and more with how close the company
is willing to skirt the line of legality when censoring. By the way, I didn’t even realize
there was such a thing as simulated sex in Japanese porn until over a year after my first
film. I’d thought that only happened in old direct-to-video and risqué mainstream
films.
Today, unless you’re already a well-known celebrity, simulated sex isn’t going to be an
option. That being said, some adult filmmakers don’t film many sex scenes. This is
generally for one of two reasons: either they make movies in which sex scenes don’t
play a key role, or they don’t have the budget.
Movies in the first category are often fetish films, such as a guy rubbing his cock on a
woman’s ass, thighs, or feet until he comes. There are all kinds of folks out there, with
all kinds of kinks. I once met a man (a fetish film actor) who liked having his face licked,
and one who liked to be bitten, hard. Another who got off on being tickled, and one who
wanted to be stepped on. The latter told me, with a gleam in his eye, that his dream was
to lie down in a mosh pit. It isn’t what most people define as sex, but instead a sexual
thrill that’s unrelated to a conjoining of genitalia.
There’s also a relatively new genre of film called JOI, which stands for “jerk-off
instructions,” which got its start overseas. These films are shot entirely from a first-
person perspective, showing an actress who gives the viewer instructions on how to
masturbate. Apparently, these are very popular with masochists.
Giga, the only production company that makes adult films in the special-effects-heavy
tokusatsu style, spends more time on fight scenes than sex scenes. With all the fight
choreography, camerawork, green-screening to create composite images, and post-
production voice work, five minutes of film can require an hour of work. These films
also require budgeting for wardrobe and sets, leaving filmmakers with little left over.
Preparing sets and filming fight scenes often stretches overnight, which especially
sucks for the part-time crew, who are paid only around ¥15,000 ($135) per day for their
services.
Real sex is where the money’s at
What you’ll be doing in a film has a big effect on the amount you’re paid. There are
industry terms for various acts, including karami for full-on penetrative sex, ero for
blowjobs or titty play, and giji for simulated sex, and when working out the terms for a
non-feature film you’ll get a breakdown like “one karami, two ero, two giji, five scenes
total, on set by 08:00, off set by 22:00,” with a payment amount that will greatly depend
on whether karami is included among those scenes.
In 2013, the project film production company Rocket produced a film with a stunning
title that translates as “The World’s Perviest and Most Embarrassing Challenge: Highstrung Sluts Naked in a Quiet Library Causing a Shameful Commotion.” This film
actually generated a bit of buzz when they released a sample on Twitter. I remember
talking about it in the summer of 2019 with other actresses in a Line group we’d
formed. The ridiculous concept behind this film (a parody of a popular television show
featuring comedians instead of porn stars) was to have fully nude girls performing a
series of vulgar acts in the middle of a quiet library, with ordinary patrons scowling at
them while trying to read their books. One example of the artistic brilliance on display
here is when one woman performs a handstand, opens her legs for a grand display, and
another comes up from behind her ass like the rising sun, but making a weird face.
Meanwhile, the extras playing library patrons simply sit there, looking appalled. I
laughed, I’ll admit, but it was a pained laugh…
The actresses do an amazing job of showing no shame whatsoever, even while
performing stunts such as squatting in front of someone trying to bury himself in a
paperback, spreading her labia apart, and shouting “Check out this stanky pussy!” You
have to admire someone who can make it through a performance like that, then move
right on to the next gag in the lineup. It was a unique presentation, I’ll give it that, and it
held my interest. The promotional material brazenly stated: “Even without showing sex
or masturbation, we’ll get you off like nothing else!” The general consensus in my Line
group was that these actresses must have been paid next to nothing, since not only were
they not having sex, they weren’t even doing anything you could really call erotic. But
they had to do all those embarrassing things? It was scary to think about. Actually, the
producer in question was known for dividing groups of actresses into teams and
filming multiple scenes in parallel, with one actress filming a karami scene here and
another doing a simulated scene there, so I guess there’s a good chance this job was a
sideline while they were working on some other project. But still, I’m sure it would be
much harder for many actresses to do what those women were doing than to just go
ahead and have sex, so knowing that the “no sex” guideline would result in them being
paid far less was infuriating.
No matter how small the production company, having actual sex in place of simulated
sex will raise the budget by at least thousands of dollars. That may not sound like much,
but consider that a makeup artist costs around ¥30,000 ($270) per day, and a really
good one costs ¥50,000 ($450). A subcontracted assistant director costs the same. To
save money, really small companies are forced to recruit company employees as
assistant directors, and even as extras or male leads. Conversely, they may not have the
budget to pay employees, so they hire cheap actors and assign them assistant director
duties. They’ll try to lower costs for makeup artists by offering them exclusive deals, all
in the name of saving a hundred bucks or so. So if they can get away with faked
penetration and save thousands by doing so, you can bet that’s what they’ll do. But still,
this is the porn industry we’re talking about. Even if you’re assigned a pseudo-sex role,
the production staff will often ask if you’re willing to allow “just two or three minutes”
of penetration. They call these shots, which are usually close-ups of the action, “in-andouts,” and want them because if they can get a few shots that convincingly show actual
sex through the blurring, the viewer will be convinced that all the sex in the film is real.
Scenes like this are far less taxing on the actress, I’ll admit, but still…once the wiener is
in the bun, that’s sex, right? Otherwise, if you’ve never been penetrated for more than
two or three minutes at a time, you’d still be a virgin. These in-and-outers kind of
messed up my personal record-keeping, since I’d been keeping a journal with details of
all the actors I’d had sex with, but I wasn’t sure how to handle these episodes.
You might think your talent agency would have something to say about this, and they
do, in a way. During negotiations with the production company, they’ll actually
differentiate between films with sex, films with simulated sex, and films with
simulated sex and no in-and-outs. But seriously, this “you deserve less because it’s just
for a short time” attitude pisses me off.
That’s why I was so happy when a director at MAD, a production company in the
Prestige Group, said he didn’t like taking that route and considered it rude. By that
point, I was used to the situation—if still not happy with it—so when he offered me a
pseudo-sex role I asked if he meant one that included an in-and-out shot. That same
director said no when an assistant director suggested I “help out a little” while we were
waiting for the actor to regain a lost erection. Almost all the people making adult films
in Japan are men, and very few have much concern for the mental and emotional toll on
actresses. While there was a lot of surface-level stuff—the drinks and snacks, the cute
bathrobes and slippers—I hadn’t seen a whole lot of emotional support, so that
director’s attitude was all the more refreshing. I don’t want to mention him by name,
since he remains anonymous in the promotional materials for his films, but I thank him
for his policy of never asking women to perform sexual acts beyond what they’d agreed
to before the filming started.
Ever since I entered the industry, I’ve been hearing rumors that the Japanese
government is going to make it illegal to film penetrative sex when making a movie. I’ve
also heard that the government is just putting on a show in advance of the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics, and once they’re done controls will get looser than ever. I’m not sure which
side has it right (though as of late 2021 there haven’t yet been any significant changes),
but I do know that erotic content has been disappearing from broadcast television and
magazines marketed to a general audience. In 2017, the convenience store chain
Ministop stopped selling adult magazines, and they were soon followed by 7-Eleven,
Lawson, and FamilyMart. The gratuitous boob shots that used to be taken for granted as
a part of late-night television are a thing of the past, and even flashes of underwear have
been forbidden. The Ebisu Muscats had to wear bathing suits under their costumes
when appearing on television, and when I appeared on Tokyo TV’s variety show
Goddotan I was told cleavage was fine, but the cameraman was always doing checks to
make sure my panties couldn’t be seen. Alongside this overall drying up of erotic
material in mainstream media, even in Japanese porn films there has been a notable
reduction of a certain type of popular shot. Namely…
Creampies
Creampie shots (shots after internal ejaculation without a condom, showing semen
leaking out of the actress) have long been a staple of adult films. Bukkake fans will
always have films where they can watch men ejaculating onto a woman’s face, those
who get off on blowjobs will always be able to see cum dripping from a woman’s mouth,
and actresses like me with huge tits will always have scenes in which they get sprayed.
But even those films tend to end with a closeup on an actress’s pussy, dripping white
goop (something that’s generally recognizable even through the blurring of Japanese
films). It gives the viewer a visual kick to mark the end of a scene, a kind of exclamation
point for the actress’s performance.
According to an article in the August 2007 edition of the adult magazine Nao DVD, of
the 1,143 adult films that went on sale in June of that year, 106 had nakadashi, the
Japanese word for creampie, in its title, an increase over the past. The article quoted
Masahiko Matsuzawa, editor of the industry magazine Video Mate DX, as crediting this
increasing popularity with films by Attackers starting around 1997 and a series of
creampie films from the production company Momotarō Eizō that started in 1999.
Alongside that trend, we saw producers pushing the limits of how little censoring they
could get away with, making censored regions smaller and less blurry so as to better
reveal drippage.
While this allowed viewers to get a better view of the actress’s lady bits, it also made it
obvious that the actors were wearing condoms, and thus that the promised “creampie”
was actually an artificial cream filling (we’ll talk more about this in the next chapter).
To accommodate consumers put off by this dash of unreality, filmmakers increasingly
shifted toward scenes that dropped the artificiality.
While there is certainly room for argument regarding the morality of having men
ejaculate inside of women as a form of entertainment, the entire raison d’être of the
adult film industry is, after all, to show people engaged in sexual intercourse. There are
of course measures in place for reducing the risk of STIs and pregnancy, primarily
testing every couple of weeks and oral contraceptives, but even so, riding bareback is an
increased burden on the actress in particular, and her fee will be bumped to suit. Even
so, it isn’t something a woman can do lightly, and even if she’s willing to take on those
scenes, some agencies and producers will refrain from creampie shots as a way of
maintaining an actress’s brand. Here again, it’s probably best for both parties to wait for
the appropriate timing to use “in her first ever creampie scene!” as an effective
promotional tool.
In my own case, I’d never seen getting married and having children as part of my
future, so I was interested in doing a creampie scene mainly because it might be my
only opportunity to have a guy come inside of me, considering that condoms are by far
the most popular form of birth control in Japan, and oral contraceptives, which were
only legalized here in 1999, are still not in widespread use. I let my agency know I was
open to the idea and did my first in February 2016 for a feature film. After that I got a
steady stream of offers for more, and before I realized it, I’d been on the pill for two
years.
As to my first impressions, well… I found the gooey visual to be exciting, but I was
disappointed by the physical sensation; I guess I’d been expecting the guy coming to feel
something like a squirt gun pumping away inside of me, so I was let down when I didn’t
feel anything at all. I did enjoy the cute expression on the actor’s face, however, which
looked so much happier than when they were wearing a condom. Not having to pause
to put one on also made filming proceed more smoothly, with fewer pauses to recover
from lost erections. I didn’t experience any side-effects from the pill, so it was all upside
for me.
Even so, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of taking prescription medicine every day
without any medical necessity, and when guys I hooked up with outside of work
learned I was on the pill, they took that as permission for coming inside of me as they
pleased, so toward the end I was getting kind of sick of the whole thing. When I changed
agencies in 2018, therefore, I quit doing those scenes. Luckily that was around the time
many Japanese filmmakers started pulling back from authentic creampie, so the timing
was good.
To get an actress ready for real creampie scenes, her manager would engage in what
the agency calls “model health management,” namely giving her a sheet of low-dose
birth control pills and making sure she takes them as directed. Recently, more women
are starting the pill at age eighteen and never quitting, but that wasn’t me, so I took pills
that female staff at my agency went to clinics to get. The agency takes the lead on all
this to save the actress the cost of the pills (around ¥3,000 ($27) per month) and the
effort of a doctor’s visit, which makes it easier for her to say yes to offers for films with
real creampie scenes. I still have a morning-after pill a manager gave me “just in case a
good last-minute job comes in.” Actresses at other agencies have told me the situation
was the same for them. Of course, it’s illegal to give someone medicine that was
prescribed for someone else, even if the intent is nominally to improve her working
conditions, but such was the custom before society at large started to more closely
scrutinize the adult film industry.
A lot of that started in October 2017, with an article exposing coercion in the adult film
industry. According to that article, a nineteen-year-old got to know an adult film actor
she was a fan of through Twitter, and through him signed up with a talent agency. The
president of that company gave her some pills he claimed were to “make her breasts
larger and her skin prettier,” but in fact, they were birth control. She was then assigned
a manager, a man in his thirties, who was responsible for making sure she took the pills
on schedule and giving her other health advice (despite, I believe it’s safe to assume, his
having had insufficient medical training for taking on such a role). Not only that, but
the pills they were handing out hadn’t been approved for use in Japan, and giving to
someone else medication you’ve imported for your own use is also illegal here.
The reaction to this story made adult film producers and talent agencies much more
reluctant to distribute birth control, so they told actresses to procure it (and pay for it)
themselves if they wanted it. I already wanted to stop doing creampie scenes, so I was
happy to use this as an opportunity to quit the pill. The manager who was giving me
birth control pills prescribed for her kept pushing them on me, saying they were good
for my health, but I’d made my decision, so I stuck to my guns and refused. There
weren’t many things I said “no” to as a porn actress, but I felt I had to draw the line
somewhere.
Anyway, apparently men really have a thing for coming inside a woman. I’m a big fan
of erotic manga, and a cum-dripping pussy is a super common trope in manga marketed
to men. By contrast, erotic manga for women avoid extreme close-ups, just like films
targeted at women do. When I appeared in a film by Silk Labo, who specializes in films
for women, they did the same thing. While many movies made for a broader (male)
audience will try to simulate the guy coming inside the girl, even when in truth he’s
wearing a rubber, at Silk Labo they told me birth control wouldn’t be an issue, because
they’d be filming in a way that left the details soft and fuzzy. The women who watch
their films generally don’t get turned on by anything as grotesque as bodily fluids, they
said, and I can appreciate that.
Then again, there are many female fans of homoerotic manga, which often feature
some very fluid-laden sex. Maybe there’s something about having a degree of distance
from the acts being portrayed that allows our imaginations to run free. I understand
that many straight men are grossed out by male-on-male sex, which is probably exactly
how many women feel about seeing creampie.
But the whole point of a business is to provide supply where there’s demand, and adult
film directors and producers are just creating the scenes their customers want to see.
Even so, some ninety percent of creampie scenes in Japanese pornography are faked,
due to the costs involved, the burden of testing, the number of actresses who are
unwilling to appear in those scenes, and the increasingly strict rules related to sex work
In 2018, the above-mentioned production company I made my first creampie film
with removed the catchphrase “No rubbers! No fakery! All raw!” from their website, and
changed the words “real creampie” in their logo to “the real thing,” implicitly admitting
they’d gone back to faking it. They even lowered the price of their DVDs from a
previously high-end ¥3,980 ($35.25) to ¥2,980 ($26.40). By May 2018, when I retired, I
didn’t know any production companies outside of the SOD group that were still doing
honest creampie films.
Pubic hair (and wigs)
I don’t have pubic hair. My first film used “in her shaved film debut!” as a promotional
line, but I’ve never had pubes. Well, I suppose I did for a time around when I first got my
period. I remember bathing with classmates on a sixth-grade field trip, admiring the
lush bushes some had cultivated between their legs, but I never managed much of a
crop myself, and with all the depilatory and laser treatments I’ve had since, I no longer
grow even peach fuzz.
As a big fan of manga and anime, a world where pubic hair is pretty much nonexistent,
being bare down there never felt particularly strange to me, but bushiness was the
norm when I was in adult films. Shūkan pureibōi made a big deal of it when I first
appeared for a photospread in that magazine, and when I was making films people on
set would often be surprised, which made me a little self-conscious and embarrassed.
and when I was making films people on set would often be surprised, which made me a
little self-conscious and embarrassed. While an actress in her twenties can get away
with hairlessness, especially since it has become much more popular these days, it’s
harder for older women to pull off, to the point where some are given pubic wigs. I’ve
heard they can cause all kinds of problems, like falling off during filming and the
adhesive causing rashes, but also that even this minor change in appearance can be
enough to prevent a boyfriend or a husband from finding out his partner is doing porn.
It isn’t only the actresses who worry about such things, by the way—many jizzers, too,
wear fake glasses or a wig (on their head, natch) to obfuscate their identity. A warning
for any male readers thinking about taking that approach, however: you will annoy
both the actresses who are taking on the real risk of being outed, what with their face
plastered all over the packaging and promotional material, and the directors, who will
make fun of you for considering yourself important enough for the camera to focus on.
Besides, an actor-supplied wig is never realistic enough for anyone to want in their film.
Bald actors are also a problem, though, because skinheads look too scary to be cast in the
role of a businessman, so they’ll sometimes conversely be made to wear a wig.
Reality-style films
While some adult films are characterized by a “dramatic” approach in which obviously
too-old men wear student uniforms and the actors and actresses present some of the
worst acting you’ll ever see, others take the approach of presenting what’s supposed to
feel like unscripted reality. As in the case of reality TV, however, preproduction
planning and coordination makes for better entertainment, so most of what you see is
still fiction.
Making a good film purely through ad libbing and playing scenes by ear provides
everyone with a great sense of accomplishment, but there’s nothing worse than when
things don’t come together and the film isn’t well received. Even if you’re happy with
the result, you might find those around you worried about what you went through.
One example is a film I appeared in with another prodigious title, this one translated as
“Intense Caresses Leave Her Unable to Lie—Actress Loses her Mind, Reduced to Tears
and Achieving the Ultimate Orgasm Answering Questions that Shouldn’t be Asked
while being Banged by a Top-class Porn Star,” which angered an actress friend of mine
who saw an outtake. “That can’t have been scripted,” she said. “They made you cry! How
dare they?!”
When the movie was pitched to me, director Hitoshi Nimura described it as “a different
kind of film, where I’m going to ask you questions while you’re having sex with an
actor.” The questions, however, were not quite what I expected. He was cold and cruel,
borderline aggressive. “Does that feel good, doing it with a pro? Yeah? Of course, he’s
only doing you because we’re paying him to,” things like that. I soon realized, however,
that the idea was just to get me to cry, so I played along. When the filming was done, he
apologized, saying he’d said those things only because he knew I could take it, and that
any other actress would have gotten angry with him. My actress friend insisted he was
just trying to cover his ass so I wouldn’t sue him.
After that, the same director sent me an offer to come back for a similar film, and since
the first one went smoothly business-wise, I had no problem accepting. As an actress, I
felt it was my job to deliver whatever performance the director needed to produce the
film he envisioned, so I didn’t mind at all. In the end, however, it was male viewers who
put an end to the series. Online reviewers attacked the questions themselves, with
comments like “If you’re after questions Kaho doesn’t want to answer, shouldn’t you be
asking things like which baseball players she slept with while she was a reporter?”
Gotta’ admit, they have a point.
Honestly, I think porn actresses should be provided with a script so they can do their
job right, just like other actresses. Scripts also make work more efficient, and there’s
nothing worse for an actress who’s still living at home, or who has a boyfriend or a
family, than not knowing what time she gets off work.
Of course, certain actresses are simply incapable of acting. Some can’t memorize more
than two lines of dialogue, some always stumble over their words, some look like
marionettes following instructions for how to behave… Not everyone attains the
requisite skills, no matter how many years they stick with the job. But today, with adult
film stars being treated more like mainstream entertainers, there are fans who find
such incompetence charming and want to support those actresses. Women like that are
often targeted for Candid Camera-style practical jokes, which are still popular in Japan,
because their honest reactions to unexpected situations are far more interesting than
scripted ones.
By contrast, I would often catch on to practical jokes before the punchline came,
ruining them. To prevent that, the staff would let me know what was planned
beforehand and I would play dumb. Sometimes the director would tell me to just follow
my instincts and they’d film whatever happened, which I suppose is praise after a
fashion, but also feels like laziness on their side. Even so, production companies often
filmed for a week or more straight, so I suppose a low-maintenance actress was an
important asset for them, even if they didn’t show it through their actions.
However, in my time, filmmakers tended to keep some projects secret from actresses,
particularly plans for gonzo films where the director was also a cameraman and part of
the action. Maybe it was because they were embarrassed, or they were afraid of how I
would react, but they tended to keep quiet about the details of such films until the last
minute. This started changing in 2017, when a new feature actress at SOD complained
about not being notified beforehand that the director of a film would also be its star, but
before that such things were standard practice. The director who was the subject of that
complaint, Gorō Tameike, had apparently told her manager to keep things quiet so they
could achieve a sense of “authenticity.” Her newness to the profession might have been
part of the reason he made that decision, but her unfamiliarity with the norms of the
industry may also have been the reason she somehow felt cheated.
My personal theory is that secrets like that have nothing to do with realism or
authenticity or surprise, but simply shame on the man’s part. Haō Minami and Tiger
Kosakai, both directors famous for their POV gonzo films, didn’t tell me they’d be my
partner in the films they directed until it was time to shoot the actual scene.
My personal theory is that secrets like that have nothing to do with realism or
authenticity or surprise, but simply shame on the man’s part. Haō Minami and Tiger
Kosakai, both directors famous for their POV gonzo films, didn’t tell me they’d be my
partner in the films they directed until it was time to shoot the actual scene.
I guess they didn’t realize there was a dead giveaway ahead of time: no actor was listed
in the script. Once again, I had to feign ignorance for the sake of the film, acting
embarrassed as I dropped my drawers.
Chapter 3
Techniques of the Trade
Sex scenes
Regardless of whether it’s real or faked, many might say that since pornography turns
sex into a product to be sold, it’s no different from prostitution or sex club work. When
viewed with such disdain and derision, adult filmmakers take refuge in their pride as
creators of visual artwork. From the acts depicted to the positions they’re performed in,
everything is carefully chosen with the goal of exciting the viewer, and the actors and
actresses employ various techniques for achieving that goal. “Reality” is of secondary
importance.
Consider the sounds one makes during sex, for example. I’m an avid masturbator, and
before starting porn work I had only achieved orgasm by my own means. But most of
my diddling was done at home, with family nearby, so I’d gotten into the habit of
coming quietly and discretely. I guess that’s why in my early days a director scolded me
for having “boring” orgasms. He had a good point, though: when an actress comes on
film, it isn’t for her, it’s for the viewers. Of course, once I learned to let go and vocalize, I
started getting reviews saying I was overacting and faking it. Ah, well. But once you’ve
learned to let yourself go at the height of passion, it becomes hard to hold it in, and I’m
glad I no longer do.
The actors and actresses in adult films are erotic craftspersons, and they work hard to
improve their craft. They aren’t just having sex—even when they look like they’re out of
their minds with pleasure, they’re coolly thinking about what they’ll be doing next on
the choreographed stage of their performance. The foremost professionals in any field
are highly conscientious about the quality of their work, and in this chapter I present
some of the ways in which that’s realized in the adult film industry.
Hay fever, tissues, and antihistamines
As you can imagine, an adult film set goes through a lot of tissues. Curiously, high-end
soft tissues tend to fall apart and make a mess when actors use them to wipe off their
junk, so cheaper (but sturdier) brands are commonplace. But blowing your nose using
those tissues can make it red and irritated, especially during hay fever season, so the
staff also stocks the good stuff. What you won’t see, however, is performers using
allergy medicines. This is because antihistamines can interfere with actors staying hard
(because they block the action of histamines, which are involved in achieving an
erection), and can make actresses go dry (because they dry up mucus membranes in the
vagina, along with those in the nose). So here’s some practical advice from the porn
industry you can apply to your daily life: if in the springtime you find sex to be not as
good as it normally is, maybe it isn’t age or boredom, but your hay fever meds.
Another problem with antihistamines is that they can cause dry mouth. Saliva, too, is
an important bodily fluid in porn, as a part of kissing, fellating, and even drooling,
because it makes for a better visual. It also gets the actor more turned on, making for a
hotter scene. A Japanese woman who gets sweaty during sex in everyday life is likely to
apologize to her partner or worry about being perceived as gross, but in an adult film,
wetter sex is better sex.
Actually, I got lucky in one hay fever season that coincided with a period when I was
doing a lot of modeling for S&M scenes, since teary eyes and runny noses are absolutely
welcome in those photographs. Of course, nobody wants to see a dominatrix in need of
a tissue, so thankfully I was in a submissive role when I appeared in the Kyōhaku
suītorūmu (“Hotel Suite of Menace”) series of films, where thanks to the power of
allergies I was able to pull off the perfect piteous expression while the actors stepped on
my face.
Anyway, the point is that nobody takes medicine, whether for allergies or a cold,
immediately before a shoot. Doing whatever it takes to maintain hard cocks and juicy
pussies is just part of the professionalism required to make a career out of sex.
Regardless, the genitals are a finicky body part, subject to the influence of both
physical and mental conditions. Sometimes they refuse to behave as we want them to.
If an actress is experiencing vaginal pain, in Japan at least, she can rely on the blurring
that will later be applied to only pretend to be using a sex toy, or to have fingers or cocks
inserted inside her. However, there’s not much you can do to cover for a floppy dick. It
should come as no surprise, therefore, that some actors rely on so-called “male
enhancement pills” and other supplements. This is considered a last resort, however,
and you’ll never see actors taking these pills on the set; doing so is considered rude to
the actress, so they’ll sneak off and take them in private. Nor will you see staff offering
actors pills to help recover a lost boner, because by that point it’s too late. The actor is
probably thinking only about how he’ll probably never get another invite from this
director. Also, once doping is the only way to get through a day on the job, the actor is
likely in the final stages of his career.
That said, all the actors I knew who had a reputation for producing huge amounts of
semen took supplements of some type. Nearly all of them used zinc, to the extent that I
can no longer disassociate that element from porn actors. This nutrient is found in high
concentrations in the prostate and gonads and seems to be related to sperm production,
which is why it’s called the “sex mineral” in the United States. The buzz among adult
film actors is that when taking it they see a noticeable increase in the amount of semen
they produce, so if any of my male readers feel a need to come three times a day like a
porn star, you might want to give zinc a try.
Getting along with others
The Japan Association of Adult Film Actors was founded on April 1, 2014, just a few
months before I made my first film, and the search feature on their website was a great
way for me to look up info on the actors I met. Unfortunately, that feature was only
available until the group dissolved on October 8 of the same year, but until then I could
use the site to look up not only an actor’s height, but the length of his cock and his
erogenous zones, good things to know before filming a movie together. That way I
could say something like, “Let me lick your nipples. You like that, right?”, which would
usually result in an embarrassed look and a comment along the lines of “Huh? How did
you know?” This made me feel like I had a certain sexual advantage over my partner,
but it also did a lot to improve our chemistry.
As for the actors, the newer they were to the biz, the more likely they were to look up
an actress’s deets and read through her social media posts. I kept a chronological log of
actors I’d been in sex scenes with, but some actors went further by keeping notes on
where they’d shot scenes and the production staff that had been working that day. One
told me this was to avoid saying “Nice to meet you” to someone they’d actually met
before and being called out on it. As I’ve mentioned before, actresses can make requests
regarding who will appear with them in films, and conversely who they never want to
work with again, so it’s important for actors to make a good impression. Once they
become established veterans, however, they tend to become a tad sloppy regarding such
niceties.
Something I found particularly hot was when I got to do a sex scene with an actor I’d
previously worked with only in scenes that didn’t involve actual penetration. “Last time
I could only get you off with my mouth, but this time I get to have you inside of me,” I’d
say, getting us both excited. The actors would get into it too, saying things like “Last
time I only got you in the ass, now I get the whole package” or “I’m glad I don’t have to
share you with anyone else this time,” or “This is going to be so much better than that
VR shoot where I didn’t get to touch you at all.” Sometimes I’d be working with someone
who I’d only taken packaging and publicity photos with in the past. That sense of
“finally, we get to do it” would go a long way toward bringing us together and making
for a hot scene. Of course, the feeling has to be mutual, which means both sides need to
remember when and in what kind of scenes they previously worked together.
Acting in adult films sometimes requires jumping straight from meeting someone for
the first time to the most intimate of physical acts, so you’d think the sex would be quite
cold. In truth, however, that intimacy demands a certain level of mutual respect. As
someone who has worked in many different fields, I can say with conviction that
getting along with others is valued more in the adult film industry than anywhere else
I’ve worked. Sex is the ultimate form of communication, involving both your body and
your mind. Doing it well requires the ability and desire to know about who you’re with.
Anal training
Getting better at performing sex as entertainment involves some physical toughening
up. For actors, that might mean learning how to achieve “male squirting” (supposedly a
male equivalent to female ejaculation, but in truth essentially urine), while some will
see their nipples swell up like grapes before they get used to the over-stimulation they
experience. But there’s one body part that both men and women can work on training:
their asshole.
Doing an anal scene right means giving an actor who knows what he’s doing the time
to thoroughly loosen up the actress’s sphincter. Usually that job falls to whoever she’s
being filmed with, but when I did an anal girl-on-girl film with Yumi Kazama, we had a
young actor on set whose only job was to get us prepped.
The actress first goes to the toilet and uses an enema to clean herself out. She then
heads to where an assistant is waiting, where she will lay down on a towel and be gently
probed by a well-lubricated finger. Some prefer to also use toys designed for anal play,
or vibrators. This continues until he can easily insert two or three fingers. He will also
sometimes use a warm-water enema for further cleaning, so this step often takes place
in a bath. Regardless, it happens out of view of other staff members, to help the actress
relax. That in itself is quite a thrill, because an actress almost never finds herself oneon-one with an actor, outside of maybe a POV gonzo film. Something I can only admit
now that I’m out of the business is that I would sometimes suggest that he try sliding
his cock in, to make sure it fit, or I’d guide him into my pussy instead, taking advantage
of the situation for a clandestine quicky.
To ensure you don’t become the cause of a scheduling delay, you might want to take it
upon yourself to do some solo anal training the day before. But be careful: moving
ahead too quickly with anal toys you aren’t ready for can hurt you, which is counter-
productive. I often engaged in a bit of anal play while masturbating in the bath, but that
alone wasn’t enough to prepare me for anal sex. For that I turned to butt plugs. While I
came to love them, the main reason I first bought one, aside from mild curiosity, was to
show my fans that I really did enjoy anal scenes, that it wasn’t just an act.
I first discovered butt plugs in 2017, when I made my second of three appearances at
the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. At a booth there, I noticed a toy with a
handwritten tag that read “Butt Bling,” a hot pink butt plug with a metal shaft tipped
with a white, faux diamond in the stopper. It was so cute, and the woman at the booth
was so friendly, I couldn’t resist buying it. I still remember the thrill of walking around
with it inside of me the next day. Most butt plugs are made of silicon, but I prefer metal
ones, because they conduct heat better, they’re easier to insert and take out because
they don’t stick to skin, and because I love that feeling of heft. One thing to keep in
mind, though: you probably don’t want to wear one to an airport, or any other place
where you might have to pass through a metal detector.
Using the anus as a sex organ is hard sex, and can take its toll on the receiver, so fees for
appearing in anal scenes are higher than those for standard sex scenes. That means the
performers are typically either women eager to maximize their take or men who are
bottoms in gay films. In my case, however, I first tried anal before I became a porn
actress, with a friend of my brother’s, and thought it felt mind-blowingly good. In fact,
during double penetration sex, I’m getting off more on the sensation from my ass than
my pussy. So I didn’t want my fans to think I was doing something I didn’t want to be
doing.
I had fans who were convinced they were in love with me and said they had to stop
watching my films because it made them jealous. Others said they didn’t like watching
me in simulated rape scenes because it made them feel sorry for me. Eagerly engaging
in anal sex scenes was a way to allow those fans to enjoy my films and differentiate
myself from other actresses at the same time. Once, in a meeting with a film producer, I
was asked what kind of film I wanted to make. “A pro-anal film,” I said, “one where anal
sex isn’t presented as a way of humiliating a woman.” I said I also wanted to see some
anal jewelry, because it’s cute and could become a fashion item, like navel piercings. You
don’t even have to open up a new hole to wear it!
I sometimes work as an interviewer for English proficiency exams, and feeling the
stimulation of an anal plug while performing such an important task keeps me sharp
and focused. Of course, there’s also a certain thrill related to the naughtiness of the
situation, like being naked beneath a long coat, or not wearing panties beneath your
stockings. A sense of concealed deviancy, unnoticed by those you interact with in your
daily life. Not that anyone in Japan would suspect you have one in anyway; most
Japanese have never even heard of a butt plug.
They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and when we decided that the last scene in
my final film would be anal, I spent over two weeks gradually acclimating to
increasingly larger plugs. Of course, I was filming other scenes during that time, so I
couldn’t leave one in constantly. I also had to remove it when shooting scenes for that
film, but I did have stills taken with it in to use for packaging.
Just a week before shooting that, I was in a boob film with the same producer, during
which my plug fell out with a loud metallic clunk, surprising the cast and crew. This
happened when I was squatting with my legs spread wide, though; I’m normally
conscious of it and keep my asshole clenched so nothing like that will happen in day-to-
day life. This keeps your abdominal muscles in shape, too, so I like to use them when I’m
not getting enough exercise, or when I have to attend a lot of drinking parties.
Handmade semen
For the reasons I described in the previous chapter, the ever-popular creampie shot is
usually faked these days—but how they fake it is an interesting story. Let’s peek behind
the curtain.
To address the problem of condoms being visible through the pixelization used for
censoring, in my day most adult filmmakers used the Magic Shape 1000 condom
manufactured by Sagami Rubber Industries. This product was known for its skin-tight
fit, which made them a bit harder to put on but also more discreet than other brands.
Unfortunately, the company stopped making them, sending producers scrambling to
snap up whatever inventory they could. They were later replaced by the Okamoto
Condom 0.02 EX, a slightly pink product that yields a natural-looking color through the
pixelization, especially if the ring of excess rubber is snipped off.
To fill the pie with cream, actresses use plastic syringes normally used to feed small
animals, inserting the fake semen immediately before a scene where the actor’s cock
can keep it plugged up for a while. I would also have to keep my pussy squeezed tight to
hold it in until the right moment, hoping no one on set undermined my effort by telling
an ill-timed joke that made me laugh.
There are various recipes for creating artificial semen, such as combining lubricant or
egg whites with condensed milk, but the most popular solution these days is to use
Minute Maid Morning Banana, a jelly-like drink that looks just right as-is, with no
mixing. Visit a convenience store in the same neighborhood as a few adult film studios
and you’ll find that they sell out of this product first thing in the morning. I remember
one time when someone bought the day’s supply of Morning Banana along with snacks
for the cast and crew, and a greenhorn staff member drank it all, not realizing it was our
semen supply. The fact that he was able to drink it was proof enough he was a newbie;
no veteran can stomach the stuff because of what they associate it with.
Artificial cum is used not only for creampie scenes, but also to suggest that a guy has
given an actress a mouthful after she blows him, so it’s always made from edible
ingredients, though not necessarily tasty ones. An actress can usually handle that, but if
she’s allergic to eggs or bananas, that’s an entirely different story. I heard about one
actress who ended up covered in hives after being filled with the stuff, and since that
incident everyone has been careful to ask actresses if they have any allergies.
The most realistic fake cum I ever saw was on the set of a virtual reality work by the
production company KMP. When I mentioned that it was indistinguishable from the
real thing, director Any Nakamura grinned but refused to tell me what was in it, other
than egg whites, because the recipe is a trade secret. KMP doesn’t cut the action to fill
the actress up using a syringe. Rather, she’ll ride the actor cowgirl style, and when
things are getting hot, lean forward over him, stretching out a hand behind her and out
of view of the camera to receive a handful of cum. Then she’ll bring that hand forward,
as if using it to hold the actor’s cock while she takes it out, but also touching herself to
transfer the wad of pseudo-cum to make it look as if she’s dripping, fresh from the
actor’s ejaculation. This works particularly well for VR films, because the viewer’s-
perspective camera angle makes it easy to create blind spots. It also eliminates worries
about premature leakage, even if the sex is simulated, and more importantly, it avoids a
cut during the action. Fewer cuts means more continuity, which is important for
maintaining the sense of reality in a VR production. Little touches like that are probably
what earned KMP its reputation as the best producer of VR porn.
Realistic appearance aside, the award for best-tasting artificial semen goes to Rookie,
makers of films with titles promising record-setting torrents of semen, like “The Guy
Who Can Most Quickly Fill a Rubber with Cum Fills a Girl Instead” and “Bukkake by the
Man who Produces the Most Cum in the World.” To deliver on such promises, that
company uses pumps like those used to spray pesticides. A solution that’s too viscous
will clog those pumps, so they simply use soy milk. Unsweetened soy milk has a slightly
yellowish color and a viscosity that makes it look very realistic on film. Considering the
amount they sprayed on my face, I was glad it was at least tasty.
The film I appeared in with them was called “Cumming and Cumming by the World’s
Fastest Ejaculator,” but it was originally planned as “Impregnation by the Man with the
Most Powerful Ejaculations in the World.” This sudden change in plans came about
because the pump was over-pressured, causing it to rupture. A flying part hit the
technician who was handling it in the mouth, breaking a tooth and sending him to the
hospital. So this obsession with sperm literally led to bodily harm, which seems a bit
extreme.
Actors also use artificial semen for a well-timed ejaculation that they’re too drained to
accomplish naturally, but that the director needs for a smooth presentation. So long as
they can achieve an erection, they can hide an eyedropper filled with goop behind their
dick and shout “I’m coming!” while giving it a squeeze. So yes, in porn it isn’t only the
women who are faking orgasms.
Not all actors are particularly skilled at pulling this off, however; several times I saw
actors getting chewed out for letting the dropper be caught by the camera. A mistake
like that means shooting the whole scene again, starting from redoing the actress’s
makeup, which can hugely delay the schedule and darken the mood of the entire cast
and crew. The smaller the actor’s cock, the harder it is to hide a dropper, so wellendowed actors who can maintain a good stiffy are treasured. Actors with big dicks
thus aren’t just there because that’s supposed to be some sexual ideal, but because of the
on-site technical advantages they provide.
Papier mâché sheathes
Of course, a big dick does provide a powerful visual, but that too can be faked. The huge
erections in packaging and promotional photos are as likely as not to be dildos, and
production artists sometimes create handmade members. The latter are often papier
mâché painted to look natural when pixelized for censorship. They’re made as hollow
sheathes with a small hole at the tip. To produce the superhuman amounts of cum their
movies promise, Rookie threads a tube along the thing to pump their soy-milk semen
product through. Going all out once again, some of their films feature cocks as
exaggerated as their ejaculations.
A handmade penile sheathe calls for real hair to hide the unnatural border at its edge.
Best of all is for the actor to shave off the real stuff, ensuring a tight fit. Also, while
many Japanese porn films use a cycling roster of actors, those relying on a penile
prosthesis need to use the same guy throughout, since the sheathes are custom made
for a particular individual. Even after the actor has one on, there’s a list of things to
check before filming begins, such as whether the ejection tube is visible in the frame
outside the area that will be blurred out, and whether the part leading to the pump can
be seen. The crew will then pull out a bucket and run some trial ejaculations, small and
large, to make sure everything is in working order. After all of that, filming can finally
begin.
Sheathes are held in place using flesh-colored adhesive tape, but there’s a very
important rule when doing so: the penis you’re dressing up has to be NOT erect!
Otherwise, when the actor does get an erection, an unnatural and very noticeable gap
will develop. This is a common occurrence, and in many filming sessions I witnessed
such wardrobe malfunctions when the action got particularly exciting. One time, a new
actor told me he handled the situation by ducking into a restroom and jerking off to a
sample clip from one of my films, which made me kind of happy (I’d have been happier
if he’d supported our industry by making a purchase, but I suppose he needed
something quick). I guess I was the only one who found that situation amusing—other
staff members clucked their tongues, saying a professional should be able to better
control his boners.
Tricks for squirting
The thin tubes used as an attachment on fake dicks are also used to simulate female
ejaculation, or “squirting.” Not all women can spout like a whale, and even if they can,
not all men have the skills needed to pop them off. To guarantee the image the director
is after, and to do so without causing undue mental and physical stress for the actress,
sometimes you just have to fake it.
However, getting those tubes into place takes time, so sponges are used instead at
times. These are the kind of absorbent sponge women typically use to put on makeup,
but in the world of adult films they have another common usage: a woman on her
period will insert one to stop the blood for a while. To use one to instead simulate
squirting, she will soak it in water, and while shouting “I’m coming!” she’ll give it a
quick squeeze, creating a nice spray. I once appeared in a girl-on-girl film with an
actress who couldn’t squirt, so in scenes where I was getting her off, I would hold and
squeeze the sponge.
Personally, I refused to fake my own squirting, out of a sense of pride and also because I
worried that doing so even once and getting caught would make people think I was
faking everything else, too. That caused some consternation in the people I worked
with, who said they’d met actresses who refused to lick assholes or wouldn’t swallow an
actor’s saliva, but an actress who refused to fake something was a first. To make up for
that, I squirted like a champ.
This isn’t something that one can do on command right away. At first, I could only
manage it with the help of a veteran actor, but I wanted to master some visually
impactful technique other than what I could do with my tits, so I started practicing
while in the bath. After switching to project work, in busy months I was filming on
fifteen or more days per month, so that gave me a lot of opportunities for practice. So
many, in fact, that I started experimenting with different ways of squirting so I
wouldn’t get bored, and more importantly, so that my viewers wouldn’t get bored.
To me, achieving a forceful squirt and displaying it well for the camera is similar to
pulling off a difficult athletic technique. One of my role models in this regard is
professional wrestler Keiji “The Great Muta” Mutō. In his twenties, Mutō went to the
U.S., where he helped popularize a move called the “moonsault press,” but ruined his
knees in doing so. By his own account, he doesn’t regret that. “The moonsault press is
what took me to America and what allowed me to leave my mark there,” he has said.
The sight of a large Japanese man leaping and flipping from the top ropes brought him
fame in U.S. professional wrestling circles, and if his knees were the price of that fame,
then so be it. That story inspired me, despite the differences in our paths. Squirting asks
a lot of your bladder and kidneys, but it’s in high demand, so it’s something an actress
should be prepared to use.
I’m very glad I put in the effort, because it allowed me to provide squirting
performances for the remaining three and a half years until my retirement without
related health problems. Other actresses famous for their squirting told me they were
constantly taking medicine for bladder infections or that they’d developed a water
addiction, and in the worst cases ended up in the hospital with kidney problems, so I
don’t recommend making squirting a signature technique if you start showing signs of
bodily injury. I was just lucky to have a constitution that allowed me to avoid such
maladies. Actually, from a very young age I’d found something oddly erotic in holding
off on going to the bathroom, and when I did finally sit on the toilet, I would think lewd
thoughts. Perhaps this self-imposed bladder control contributed to my success. What
was difficult to overcome, however, was the embarrassment and nervousness of
squirting while people were watching. In the end, however, frustration at not being able
to perform won out over embarrassment, and I learned to suppress any sense of shame.
In the fantasy world of adult films, urination and squirting are different things, but
when you’re proactively trying to squirt, rather than having one drawn out by someone
else’s skilled fingering, it sure feels the same. Women who are best at doing it in film,
therefore, are those who drink a lot of water every day and pee a lot. Personally, I’m the
type who drinks at least two liters of water every day, and even if I’m already feeling the
urge right before the start of a ninety-minute movie, I do my best to resist going to the
restroom until the filming begins.
Sets that will be filming “wet” scenes like squirting or profuse sweating will have
cartons of bottled water and the Japanese sports drink Pocari Sweat on hand, and we
used to call a mixture of the two “squirt fuel.” We mixed them because water alone is
tasteless, but Pocari Sweat alone is too sweet. In the interest of avoiding water addiction
and providing some nutritional supplement, a Pocari-Sweat-to-water ratio of 2:8 or 3:7
was generally preferred, though each actress had her own preference. Some would ask
for more dilution, while others went closer to half-and-half, with an assistant director
serving as bartender.
Another popular squirting supplement used in the industry is sword bean tea. Sword
beans are considered a superfood and are used in Eastern medicine to help expel excess
water that has built up in the body, which is probably why some people figured they
should promote squirting. It tastes kind of like a strong barley tea, and some
commercial brands add burdock root, another diuretic. Many actresses don’t like it. Its
brown color makes you want to brush your teeth after you drink it, and some also
worry that it will change the color of their urine.
Adult film sets also pretty much always have Red Bull and other energy drinks on
hand, but actresses who will be squirting avoid them because they make your urine
yellow. Many actresses have their own set of squirt-facilitating dietary restrictions,
such as fasting or eating bread but avoiding rice.
While mastering squirting wasn’t easy, I actually enjoyed the process. Thankfully,
however, an actress who doesn’t have the constitution or aptitude can always fake it.
Some directors actually prefer that, as in the case of artificial ejaculations, because it
allows for better control of the action and makes things easier on everyone. Of course,
there are times when the artifice can be seen through the blurring, resulting in a
reshoot. Even worse are the many films in which the tube is completely visible, but
nobody notices during editing and the film is published as-is. Not wanting that to
happen to me is another reason why I never wanted to fake it. While viewers can
consider some extent of faked sex, creampie, and ejaculations as being necessary, I
worried that faked squirting would be thought of as a deficiency of ability.
Torrents of sweat and pussy juice
It isn’t just cum and squirting—any bodily fluid can be faked, and adult film
production often involves home-brewed sweat, saliva, and pussy juice. For example, the
Nettaiya (Tropical Nights) series by Madonna, a production studio that specializes in
films starring older women, has packaging that features actresses in soaking wet
camisoles, and the films themselves are replete with sweaty scenes in Japanese-style
rooms. To achieve this, they close the doors and windows on set and light a kerosene
heater, upon which they place a kettle to produce steam.
When I appeared in one of their films, the set was plenty hot enough for the actor, but
I’ve never been much of a sweater, so I didn’t produce enough to show up on film.
Whenever they needed a closeup of my tits, an assistant director would jump in with a
spray bottle and give me a quick spritz. It was filled with warm water, but in aerosol
form it would chill instantly, giving me goosebumps. I was constantly worried about
the contrast between that making me look cold and the sweat making me look hot, not
to mention the sound of the spraying.
We filmed in the middle of winter, and the staff told me I was lucky because in
summer their sets get unbearably hot, so I guess I can’t complain. In scenes that didn’t
involve any kind of sexual play, I would wear short sleeves while trying to stay warm
enough to avoid goosebumps. I remember that they served somen noodles, normally a
summer dish, and I asked for seconds (just because I was hungry).
Directors at Vivian, a production company that specializes in girl-on-girl films, were
fond of an artificial saliva they’d created. Girls making out is a big part of any girl-on-
girl film, and particularly favored is a super wet kiss in which you see what appears to
be a string of drool connecting the actresses’ mouths when they pull apart. Many
women don’t want that much spit from their costar getting into their own mouths, so
this artificial stuff can be useful.
Far more widely used, however, is fake pussy juice that’s squirted into the actress’s
vagina before the action starts to ensure she has sufficient lubrication. One of the most
popular series at Alice Japan, who produced my first film, has a title that translates as
“All the Way Within Four Seconds of Meeting.” As you can imagine, it doesn’t feature a
lot of foreplay. The films generally show a naked actor hiding behind a sofa where the
actress is sitting during an interview, who jumps out and immediately goes at it. There
are other cases where an actress will be penetrated without any foreplay or mood-
setting, such as those where she’s supposed to have been roofied and gets screwed while
she’s just lying there, feigning unconsciousness, or those showing sex through a glory
hole. Hopefully even my male readers will understand how unlikely actresses are to be
naturally wet in situations like that.
Even worse is when the production company wants packaging and promotion stills
and asks for full penetration right from the get-go. I understand the need for these
photos, because it’s hard to get the right angle and all during filming, but still, there’s
nothing exciting about this businesslike banging. Few women will naturally get wet
while participating in such things.
Even in a good scene, the actress might be too nervous to get aroused. In “Indecent
Extracurricular Lessons by a Beautiful Female Teacher who Teases a Naïve Student with
her Enormous Titties,” the first film during my period as a feature actress with Idea
Pocket where I got to play a “slutty” role, there was a locker-room scene where I’m
supposed to be taking a student’s virginity. When shooting that scene, though, I was so
focused on delivering a good performance and ad libbing the dirty talk that I didn’t get
in the mood myself, leaving me too dry to get his cock in me when the time came.
Confounding factors included his being new to the job and his being very well hung, but
still, up to that point I’d always been quick to get turned on and never needed lube, so it
was a weird experience for me. We ended up having to cut the action so we could slow
things down and spend enough time in the missionary position for me to get warmed
up and accommodated to his huge cock. Sometimes a bit of off-camera play like that can
be a plus for the film, helping the actor to get more excited and the actress to relax. Then
again, some actresses want to keep sexual contact to a minimum, and for those women
a copious amount of lube is vital.
As with fake cum for creampie scenes, this lube is injected using a syringe. However,
homemade lube is easily confused with fake cum, and it’s difficult to share when
multiple actresses appear in the same film, so to keep things sanitary commercial
products are popular. These are sold in single-use, disposable applicators, with the
tagline “your boyfriend will never know.” I understand they’re also very popular with
sex workers wanting to make clients think they’re honestly excited by what they’re
doing. I also have actress friends who say all the sex they have through work has made
them so desensitized that they just don’t get wet anymore, and therefore always keep a
tube on hand.
Chapter 4
Off-set Work
Doing more than doing it
These days, appearing in films is only one part of being an adult film actress in Japan.
Considering the magazine interviews, television appearances, and promotional events a
successful actress will participate in, there are no limits on the amount of time she can
spend working under her stage name. These activities are important because to be
successful, an actress needs to attract attention in a very crowded field. In this chapter,
therefore, I will describe those parts of the job that don’t take place on the set of an adult
film.
Is all this publicity necessary?
Increased publicity for an actress makes it easier for her talent agency to promote her
to production companies and find work for her. Access to free porn on the Internet has
made adult films less profitable than they once were and increased the importance of
popularity. Work offers gravitate to women who eagerly participate in promotional
events, those with lots of social media followers and consequently high marketability,
and those who are generating buzz through frequent appearances in magazines and on
television. This means if an agency wants its actresses to succeed, it’s vital that they
expose her to as much publicity as possible. If an actress places too many restrictions on
what publicity she’s willing to participate in—if she’s unwilling to participate in media
interviews, appear at events, promote her films in her social media feeds, or allow
others to promote it by using images other than what’s on the packaging—production
companies and retailers will have a hard time building up her fan base, even if she has a
promising film.
To be honest, that pretty much describes how I was at first. My debut film was released
on November 14, 2014, the first day of that year’s Japan Adult Expo. It would have been
an excellent promotional opportunity, but I was a new actress, and this was an event
that even the newspaper I’d previously worked at would be covering, so I didn’t want to
risk the exposure. The producer and my agency were both very understanding and
promised to respect my wishes.
Everything changed when a weekly gossip magazine outed me. Once the cat was out of
the bag, the production company wanted me to give interviews about my time as a
reporter, saying that otherwise it would be difficult to work with the media in the
future. I therefore consented to interviews with two popular magazines at the offices of
Alice Japan. Presumably because I was in porn, most of the questions were sex-related:
which pro baseball players had I slept with when I was a sports reporter, things like
that. Since my agency was primarily focused on getting my exclusive contract renewed,
its representatives just shrugged, telling me “It’s for your future.” If I would just play
along, they promised, it would be a win–win for everyone.
Of course, your agency won’t pay you for your time spent doing all these promotional
interviews, no matter how revealing the content. My agency explained at the time that
since I was paid a fixed rate as an exclusive actress, they couldn’t offer extra
compensation. If that’s the case, I thought, let’s get rid of the system where I only get
paid in those months where I make a film, and pay me a regular monthly salary instead.
Everything that wasn’t filmed was a freebie, so the exclusive contract system left me
feeling like I wasn’t getting much benefit from all the publicity work that was asked of
me. I think some agencies with many actresses working under exclusive contracts have
arrangements where even if the producer isn’t willing to pay their actresses for
publicity events and the like, the agency will pay them a little something to make it at
least somewhat worth their time.
One good thing did come out of being forced into those interviews, though: I could
discard the ridiculous fiction that I was a naïve office worker from Aomori who’d only
had three lovers before getting into porn. No longer having to worry about being outed
meant I could set aside all those lies and live more like myself. Without that, I might
have ended up losing interest in being an actress altogether. I was a little annoyed by
women who pretended to have gotten into porn after having been a regular employee at
an adult film production company, or those who claimed to have been a virgin up until
becoming a porn star, but I was also sympathetic to their situation. Regardless, I was
truly happy to finally be able to live as my honest self.
Tricked into becoming an “idol”
For whatever reason, as soon as I started doing publicity work my agency got all hot on
the idea of me becoming an “idol,” a Japanese term indicating a general pop-culture
entertainer.
On the walls of the office were posters of seven women, doubtlessly porn actresses but
in very non-pornographic outfits such as school uniforms that revealed next to
nothing. A manager explained to me, with obvious pride, that an actress had debuted a
year before me in an exclusive deal with Alice Japan because she wanted to be an idol,
and that she’d chosen them because they were home to AliceStars, an entertainment
group formed by their exclusive actresses. But that group had since disbanded, he said,
so she’d come to join a new group put together by an agency bigwig (whom we’ll meet
later). They’d named this new group “Sexy-J.” Their producer started out with the idea
that men in their forties were the primary consumers of adult films, so the group
should start out doing covers of hit pop songs from the 1980s. Of course, they could
only cover songs they could secure the rights to, which wasn’t many, so the range ended
up expanding into the 2010s.
The more I heard about this musical group, the less appealing it seemed. To start with, I
didn’t see the point of having adult film actresses singing mainstream pop songs.
There’s nothing original in doing covers, and they didn’t have the sex appeal of songs
like Ebisu Muscats’ Watashi no mango (My mango) and Anata no banana (Your banana).
All you end up with is some girls in cute outfits doing a performance that isn’t as good
as the original. Is there really money to be made in that?
Probably not, but after the success of the first-generation Muscats, the idea of porn
actresses forming an idol group stuck around for a while. The problem is that the
Muscats’ success was a result of their having a prime-time television show on a major
television channel. Lacking coverage like that, simply pulling some popular adult film
actresses together and announcing a concert won’t do much. The way I figure it, most
of these “sexy idol groups” existed not because their creators expected them to achieve
any real success, but as a way to maintain the motivation of those women who
desperately wanted to do the whole pop idol thing but got sidelined into adult
entertainment. While those groups probably generated some income through photo
sessions and ticket sales, once you accounted for staff wages, costume creation, and
venue rentals, they must have been deep in the red. Sure enough, most groups ended up
effectively disbanding like AliceStars, and none managed to duplicate the success of the
original Ebisu Muscats, even reformulations of that group. None even reached what you
might call second-rate status.
Girls who are attracted to the idol life are a valuable resource in the adult film industry,
because they tend to be eager to get publicity. Marketing for adult films is obviously
focused on men, and little about that marketing makes a woman think “now that’s the
job for me!” The possibility of general entertainment work not directly associated with
sex is thus an effective recruiting tool. Understanding the need for that kind of thing, I
would nod and smile politely when I heard an actress’s manager bragging about her
broad repertoire of skills, thinking sure, if she’s into that kind of thing, more power to
her. Little did I realize that those around me thought I, too, was into that kind of thing.
Shortly before Christmas 2014, before I started openly engaging in publicity, my
parents found out about my new career, making it uncomfortable for me to be at home.
One day during that time, the owner of my agency invited me to go with him to a dinner
show featuring Hiroshi “Croket” Takigawa, a popular comedian known for his
impersonations. I only watch anime, so I wasn’t sure if I would understand the jokes,
but I was grateful for the excuse to get out of my house and decided to dress up and hit
the town. When we got to the venue, he said we should go thank the person who had
given us tickets, so we left our table and approached a short, middle-aged man. No
sooner had we bowed and said hello than my boss said, “Actually, Kaho here is trying to
get into singing.” Who, me? I thought. Is he mistaking me for someone else? A few days
later I learned that our benefactor, a bigwig in the sex industry sometimes called the
“Emperor of Soapland,” was also the man behind the creation of Sexy-J.
Everyone around us, even the comedian whose show we’d come to see, was very
deferential to him, and he reeled off a list of actresses and pop bands for whose success
he credited himself. Being new to the business, I’d never heard of any of them, but my
boss kept saying things like “Wow, that’s amazing!” Before I knew it, he’d pulled a chair
up to this guy’s table, apparently trying his best to bond. I guess the feeling was mutual,
considering he’d sent us the tickets. After that, we visited several other tables at which
adult filmmakers and producers were seated. I saw why it was advantageous for the
“Emperor of Soapland” to pass out fistfuls of dinner show tickets and for people like the
owner of my agency to attend: filling the room with industry insiders provides all kinds
of business opportunities.
But while I’d started the evening happily thinking my agency’s president was trying to
cheer me up, I eventually realized he was just setting me up for another business
scheme. He also knew I was toying with the idea of quitting, what with my parents
having found out what I was up to. Dragging me around from group to group telling
everyone I was the hot new item at his agency was his way of using a combination of
guilt and responsibility to prevent me from quitting. How crafty of him, I thought. He
knew just when to be kind to someone who was down, while still leading them exactly
where he wanted them. As he drove me back to my home and my parents, he kept
talking about all the people I’d met and all the work we had ahead of us. I couldn’t help
hating him a little.
For one thing, I hated the assumption that all women want to be pop stars, and that I
should therefore be thankful for the opportunity to spend a night like we had.
Personally, all I wanted to do was make more porn. I’d become an actress because I
wanted to learn the actors’ techniques and the rules filmmakers had for preventing
things like STIs and pregnancy, and all the other details of the work I could never know
without experiencing it myself. I could enjoy singing and dancing without making a
career of it. I might even consider doing something new like that after a few years of
acting, but I’d only just started! In the end, though, I ended up joining a group despite
my agent’s condescending attitude, because I thought it might make me better known,
which could improve sales of my films and lead to more job offers. I wasn’t really given
the option of saying no, so thinking along those lines was my only way of staying
positive. I’m sure the producers weren’t thrilled with my attitude; as far as they were
concerned, they were providing a girl whose only skill was being screwed while being
filmed with the opportunity of a lifetime.
By the time the band I’d joined was supposed to start recording, I’d gone freelance and
was very busy filming. The day before a concert, they would send me solo dance
routines they expected me to learn even though I would be filming until late that night.
It all became too much, and I soon quit, telling them my job was sex and sex alone.
Thankfully my agency didn’t put up much of a fuss, because I was getting so many film
offers that focusing on those ended up making them more money than any pop idol
nonsense ever would. They did have to tiptoe around some sex industry bigwigs,
though, so fully extracting myself from the project came with some conditions, like
participating in an event planned by the company handling CD sales and performing in
a film made by a production company that was a Sexy-J sponsor. I’ll have more to say
about this latter when discussing the issue of forced appearances in adult films.
By the way, Sexy-J dissolved after just three years.
Social media is an actress’s sanctuary
The first hurdle in building publicity for an actress is getting her established on social
media. Talent agencies consider this vital because they can use numbers of followers as
a sales point when talking about her with film producers. Producers and retailers
withhold DVD sales data, and rankings on streaming sites like Fanza can be
manipulated if the producer is a company in the DMM group, its owner. Some actresses
also enjoy interacting with fans through social media or feel motivated by these
interactions to dedicate themselves to their careers. Social media can be rough, but it
can also help people find the strength to overcome adversity.
While it sounds almost quaint today, in the winter of 2014 most actresses started
building their online presence by blogging. Actresses preferred blogs over Twitter
because they could manage comments more easily and avoid online drama. Talent
agencies edited or deleted problematic comments as necessary, making blogs seem like
a safer option for actresses who were afraid of being outed. In truth, however, blogs that
don’t require registration to post comments are magnets for malicious comments,
while some Tweets can be reported and deleted, although doing so is a pain in the ass.
Instagram is best for avoiding shitposting, because you can flag certain words as
forbidden and block comments by specific users. Today, actresses need to understand
the features and characteristics of the various tools available and select those that best
meet their needs. Instagram is primarily for sharing photos, with messages
accompanying them often ignored. Twitter allows combinations of short messages and
photos, while a blog posting allows for the most content and greatest freedom of
expression. Photos that show too much skin are more likely to be censored or deleted,
and more followers means a bigger potential impact (either positive or negative) from
posting a risqué image, so you have to adjust as you go along.
Social media influence has become a powerful business tool, and if an actress is serious
about her work, she will naturally learn how best to utilize it. But it’s also a personal
issue that no manager can fully understand. Not that that will stop them from trying to
have a say in everything you post, but since you’re the one putting in all the free work,
you have no obligation to do everything they want. Using social media will also help
you gather information and learn the ins and outs of an industry you may know little
about, developing your spirit of independence.
As a creative person, it always made me angry when some know-nothing manager
shrugged and told me to “just post whatever.” I think that’s irresponsible advice to give
an actress, even if it’s only meant as an encouragement to get started, because she’s the
one who will suffer if she has a boring feed. Anyway, most managers don’t know much
about social media, so any advice they give is suspect in the first place.
Around the time I debuted, my manager suggested I start posting photos of my meals,
but that sounded stupid and boring to me, and I didn’t want to be associated with such
shallow content. This was after word had gotten out that I used to be a newspaper
reporter, which made me feel even more like I had a responsibility to approach any kind
of writing seriously. Managers have some pull, especially those who have been in the
business for a while, but they tend to follow a template in everything they do, and as the
girls come and go over the years, they forget to make accommodations for
individuality. That applies to everything, not just social media, and this over-reliance
on what has worked in the past means the industry adapts slowly to new trends.
Having a manager with an attitude like that taught me to uncharacteristically take a
stance and say no, despite being new to the industry. Rather than maintain a
meaningless social media presence filled with fluff like what I’d had for lunch that day,
I tried a little of this and a little of that until I found what worked for me. When my
manager saw how many followers that got me, she told me she was glad I hadn’t
followed her initial advice.
Clients looking for a popular actress will often start by checking her social media
presence to see how many followers she has and how often and actively she posts
updates. Managing your social media well is far more effective than any manager’s sales
pitch, and will do a lot to advance your career. Above all, it will greatly improve your
confidence, because it’s something you will work hard on, on your own, making it a
source of pride.
From blogger to columnist
Of all the different forms of social media, my blog was the most time-consuming, but I
remained conscientious about updating it every day. It wasn’t a big deal at first, because
I was under an exclusive contract and didn’t have any other social media feeds to keep
up with. The following year I started Twitter, and after that I went freelance and started
Instagram, too, and keeping up with everything became a serious burden. I was able to
carry on blogging only because I’d quickly attained the highest ranking in the adult film
actress category on the Livedoor blogging platform, and over the two years prior to my
retirement, I maintained an ongoing battle in defense of that top spot. Occasionally, a
post by some other actress would catch some buzz, temporarily making her number one
due to hits from search results, but I could easily compete with update frequency and
richness of content to quickly regain my lead.
It made me proud to be the best among so many actresses and to maintain a certain
stability in such a volatile industry. Eventually, media editors discovered my blog and
started offering me writing jobs, resulting in numerous columns, my dream since I
worked at the newspaper. Whether I was writing as a guest contributor or a regular
columnist, editors highly valued my work because I didn’t need a ghostwriter and
because I could write frankly while maintaining a humorous slant. While I prefer
reading novels and other types of literature, I greatly enjoyed crafting essays using my
own experiences as source material. Writing was my dream job—like singing and
dancing were for many kids when I was growing up—so I was thankful for every
assignment I received.
That being said, the combination of multiple shoots lasting until late at night each
week, daily social media updates, and my sideline writing work became physically
exhausting. Regular columns required weekly submissions, which kept me busy, but at
least they didn’t have to be very long. My column for Daily Sports, for example, was only
around 400 words, leaving me the bandwidth to also write reports on the latest goingson in the adult film industry and, after I retired from acting, some erotic fiction as well.
The opposite type of job included my two-page columns for the weekly magazine
Taishū Venus. I’d assumed articles about working porn actresses would be mostly
photos with little substantive text, but that assignment called for over 1,000 words per
week. I’m currently writing two bimonthly online columns that are approximately the
same length, but deadlines are a lot stricter for print media, and back then I was
working ten or more intense film shoots per month, so it was harsh going for a time. I
also had a column with the monthly magazine Jitsuwa Document for a while. I
managed to maintain both assignments until those magazines ceased publication,
which was honestly a relief. It was the kind of work I’d always wanted, so I didn’t want
to throw in the towel, but despite the sense of fulfillment, I was glad to get back to a
work schedule that wasn’t overflowing.
Fear of working myself to death
No one can control the timing of opportunities for new projects, and if you fail to grab
them as they arise, they rapidly pass out of reach. The longer you’re active in adult
films, however, the more you’ll be asked to do in each job. I’m the type who wants to
take every job opportunity I’m presented with, so I decided my career as a porn actress
would be broad but short. Indeed, after working for three years, the point at which an
actress is considered a veteran, I notified my talent agency that I would be quitting
soon.
Agencies make the bulk of their income from film work, so as expected, their initial
reaction was to try convincing me to cut out all the peripheral jobs and focus on films.
When I replied that I’d quit the films before quitting the other stuff, they suggested I
announce a hiatus, a break from porn work that I could eventually come back from. I
said no to that, too; there were already too many adult film actresses to keep track of,
and I knew that after a break I’d never regain my momentum. So I held my ground,
telling my agency I wanted to sprint to the finish line rather than slow to a walk. I
needed a clear goal in sight.
For freelancers in particular, the whole point of getting out of an exclusive contract is
being free to appear in as many films as you wish. There isn’t much point in having a
light workload, and one tends to become something of a workaholic. Once you’re no
longer a fresh face, the only way to get noticed is to stand out in places other than films,
such as non-pornographic traditional and social media, so it should come as no surprise
that you’ll have little time to recharge your batteries.
When I was a newspaper reporter, I would catch a cold maybe once a month, but after
becoming a freelance actress, I started getting sick every other week or so, and in my
busiest months, when I was working fifteen or more full-day shoots, getting sick
became a weekly occurrence. I had no mental health issues, unlike many sex workers,
and was able to handle the pace of my work on an emotional level, but physically I had
reached my limits.
While I’ve always had confidence in my stamina, my immune system isn’t quite so
strong. Plus, as someone who prefers to be alone, I find working with other people all
day exhausting. I can recover if I have time to spend alone relaxing and catching up on
sleep, but it was hard to find the time in those days. I’d easily achieved my original goal
of banging one hundred men, and having accomplished that, I was left with no real
reason to keep doing what I was doing. I wanted to start something new, something
exciting. I also wanted to sleep as much as I wanted. For those reasons, not to mention
my health, I didn’t second-guess my decision to retire.
No matter how many times I explained that decision to the owner of my agency,
however, he inevitably came back with “stick with it for just three more years,” a
doubling of his initial request that I work with them for three years. I realized there was
no point in reasoning with him, and that I could never expect him to do anything that
was in my interest over the agency’s.
I knew there was no way I could handle another three years, but another possibility
came to me: What if I were to do just one more year, but at a different agency? Maybe I
could even get more work that way, and if nothing else, it would be interesting to
compare work at a new agency with what I’d already experienced. I therefore decided to
make a little detour on my path to retirement. Chapter 1 related the details of how I
chose my new agency.
Photoshoots can be profitable, but dangerous
One job adult film actresses take on in addition to films is photoshoots. These jobs
generally entail modeling for photos in a dedicated photography studio for ten sessions
of forty-five minutes each. Amateur models tend to want to keep their faces hidden,
while adult film actresses bring promotional value, so we actresses would get plenty of
offers. We were also paid more than amateurs, and earned far more for these gigs than
for media appearances or events held by filmmakers. A day of shooting with all sessions
sold out usually paid about ¥80,000 ($700). There are two types of photoshoot sessions:
group shoots and private sessions. In the former, as many as several dozen
photographers surround the model, who turns to face each in turn. In the latter, the
model is alone with one photographer, and they may spend a lot of the time talking,
signing autographs, or whatever.
I only did one private photo session, for which I wore a bathing suit. This was back
when I was a feature actress, during a break after changing production companies and
waiting for our first film release. I only participated in group shoots as part of
promotional activities or special events, never as a standalone job. Photoshoots are also
common in Taiwan, where Japanese porn is very popular, but they are held only as an
extension of expo appearances or media coverage. I wasn’t eager to participate in those
events, because they were limited to only a few participants, and some people would
buy up multiple private session slots. Sometimes I ended up meeting less than ten new
people per day, severely limiting any PR benefits that would increase awareness of me
as an actress.
By contrast, a film producer’s event at a retail store usually drew around fifty people,
and the store would display posters or other promotional materials, putting my face in
front of a far larger audience. Another benefit was that if there was any trouble, I could
rely on production staff or store personnel to immediately step in to handle it. Most
events expressly forbid patrons from making any physical contact with the actress
(unless she initiated it), and staff would quickly bring a halt to any violation of that
rule, no matter how “natural” the patron tried to make it seem. As you might expect,
some asshole was always trying to cop a feel when the staff was looking the other way,
but being surrounded by watchful eyes kept the problem to a minimum.
Private sessions were far worse, I’d heard, with clients trying to use “pose for me like
this” as an excuse to touch the model. Being trapped alone in a small room with
someone like that would be terrifying. Plus, while rules forbid “secondary use” of
photos, they are of course impossible to enforce. In one case, photos of a well-known
voice actress taken in a bathing-suit photoshoot she’d done while she was still a student
somehow found their way onto the Internet. Not that anything like that would be
disastrous for an adult film actress, but still, we make our living off images like that.
A feature porn actress can find modeling work where she wears a bathing suit, but
once she goes freelance, she’ll quickly be asked to expose more and more, first going
topless and then fully nude. It’s difficult for an actress to command the same rate for
the same level of exposure over a long time. However, it’s illegal to go beyond topless at
store events, and an actress who’s known to frequently do nude photo shoots won’t
draw much of a crowd if she’s going to be wearing everyday clothes or even a bathing
suit. That’s why I don’t recommend this line of work for an adult film actress who
wants to make the most of her time on the market.
I’ve heard stories of women who started full nude modeling, only to find that their
clients were only interested in close-up crotch shots, an emotional burden because it
wasn’t really them that the client was interested in. Same-day cancellations and failure
to book a full day’s schedule can also be depressing and eventually can undermine
mental health. Even so, modeling can pay between ¥50,000 and ¥100,000 ($430 to
$860) for a half-day’s work, so it can be a better sideline to acting than sex clubs, which
are more physically demanding and require having sex.
Escort work
Escort work has become particularly popular among adult film actresses in recent
years. In the industry, this is sometimes referred to as being in a “date club,” but the
actresses all call it papa-katsu, or “papa work.” In Japan, that term has made its way into
mainstream society, where its definition has broadened to include platonic
relationships, but honestly, how many porn actresses do you think have sugar daddies
who just want to take them out to dinner? Maybe that’s conceivable for a die-hard fan,
but as I understand the situation, clients most often select a woman based on her age,
her going rate, her profile, her unedited photos, and how she looks in her films. Once
sex becomes involved, it’s of course a legally questionable situation, but these are
women who are already in the business of being filmed while screwing men they’ve
never met before, so issues of legality aside, they generally don’t have much of a
problem with the sex itself. The work can be quite profitable in relation to the time
required, so I’m sure the supply will remain as long as the demand does.
One former actress used to brag about how she never dated for money, saying that her
husband was fine with her past as a porn star but forbade her from doing anything like
that. Her love of expensive brands eventually won out, however, and she joined the
scene. She tried to hide the fact, of course, but adult film is a small world populated by
people who love to gossip, so word spreads quickly. In fact, price lists roughly
equivalent to a menu of actresses exist, so that information of course gets shared. An
actress might be tempted to go on a paid date at a low rate “just once” to pay the tab
she’s run up at a host bar, but the amount she’s paid inevitably limits how much she can
demand in the future. Rates of course depend on the client, but from what I saw, a
project actress with the right man can receive ¥200,000 ($1,700) for a two-hour date.
Clients are most commonly rich businessmen, which is great in that they’re often too
busy to meet very frequently or for very long, but the flip side is that they tend to jerk
you around with frequent rescheduling and often want to pay by the date instead of by
the month, meaning income isn’t stable. The money you make off them is better for an
occasional splurge than a consistent part of your income.
In September 2016, the legendary adult film star Yuria Satomi was charged with
having evaded taxes on ¥245 million ($2 million) in income over seven years. A
breakdown of that income showed ¥45 million ($380,000) from appearing in films,
with the remainder split evenly between four men: a doctor in Osaka, the president of a
futures trading company, a Hong Kong real estate dealer, and the chair of a nonprofit
organization. She tried to pass these payments off as “restitution for breaches of
promises of marriage,” claiming that made it nontaxable, but the tax bureau disagreed
and called it income. Even so, making ¥28 million ($237,000) a year just by dating a few
men? Not to mention tax-free (for as long as she got away with it)? I’d say that makes
her quite a service industry success.
Interestingly, the tax bureau classifies money received from a sugar daddy differently
according to what it was paid for. If the recipient claims it was paid with no expectation
of receiving anything in return, it is classified as a gift. If the payment was for a date, or
for sex, it is classified as “miscellaneous income.” If it is a main part of the income the
recipient uses to support herself, it’s “income from business activities.” Of course, many
porn actresses don’t even file taxes, so I doubt they are overly concerned with the
details of how their papa-katsu income is categorized, and the shady nature of the
business makes it hard to consult with tax accountants, even if you wanted to.
I once spoke with a lawyer about this subject as part of a YouTube project. He said that
even if sex is involved in a papa-katsu arrangement, it isn’t an arrestable offense in
Japan so long as it’s between consenting adults (although it may be ethically
questionable). The problem arises when there’s an intermediary—in other words, a
pimp.
As to how these relationships get established, an actress who is regularly seeking
clients may start with an introduction from a scout or the like, then deal directly with
the client. She also might introduce him to other actresses for a commission.
Regardless, while there’s a lot of leeway when it comes to deals between individuals,
pimping as a business is of course completely illegal.
A close-up look at escort work
While having sex is part of making adult films, one can claim that it’s an aspect of
cinematography, or of entertainment, creating a gray zone for justifying the act. It’s a
lot harder to consider being someone’s mistress for money as anything but
prostitution. For that reason, the idea of doing it has always scared me. Although I don’t
want to be involved myself, my journalistic tendencies made me curious about the
details of how escort work actually takes place, so I agreed to help out as an interpreter
at a related event.
The event I witnessed happened when a wealthy Hong Kong man wanted three women
to entertain three Indonesian clients who were coming to Japan. The six of them were
to start out having dinner and drinks at a hotel lounge, during which time the men
would select a woman to take back to their room to spend a couple of hours. I was asked
to join them in the bar as a Japanese–English interpreter to smooth out the conversation
while everyone was getting to know each other.
I heard the women were paid ¥250,000 ($2,100) to spend a maximum of three hours
with their clients. Including a cut for whoever was acting as the middleman, the host
must have been paying something like ¥400,000 ($3,400) per woman. I was to be paid
about ¥10,000 ($85) over regular rates for an on-site interpreter, but after a series of
previous-day and same-day cancellations and schedule changes, I ended up getting
about four days’ pay for one night of work. The constant rescheduling was annoying
enough, but on top of that, they found out I used to be in adult films, resulting in a
never-ending stream of tedious questions, so I don’t think that’s a job I’ll be doing more
of in the future.
By appearances, the three men could have been tourists, but they turned out to be film
producers and investors, two of them with “verified” badges on their Instagram
accounts, so I imagine they were industry bigwigs. They apparently wanted to brag to
their friends back home about the chicks they’d banged in Japan, so they wanted to
know all about the women, who of course had to be pretty, but also had to be models or
entertainers or whatever. The men also wanted to know what kind of following they
had and all that jazz. The women, of course, didn’t want to reveal anything about
themselves at all.
Two of the women were active adult film actresses, and the other, who called herself a
“lingerie model,” claimed to be a former actress who was now working in sales at a
cosmetics company. She was the one who kept her guard the highest, determined not to
reveal any personal information. When one of the men asked where she worked, she
would only say “You’ve never heard of it.” When he asked for a social media contact, she
claimed she didn’t have any. Aside from that, however, she was the best communicator,
so maybe she really was in sales. The other two seemed peeved about having to spend
time drinking, wanting to just head up to the rooms and get the job over with.
The women likely would have preferred I wasn’t there, since without an interpreter
they could just pretend not to understand any questions they didn’t want to answer.
But I suppose the men were hoping for something like affection in addition to the sex,
so they wanted to know intimate details about the women they’d be with. That can be
difficult to deal with if you aren’t skilled at maintaining an appropriate distance and
manipulating the flow of conversation.
When everyone had paired up and headed off to their rooms, I went to the coordinator
to report that my job as interpreter was done. He told me he also does work with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that he was looking to expand his dealings to VIPs in
other countries. He even went so far as to suggest that next time I should consider
working not as an interpreter but as a date, to which I replied I wasn’t taking jobs like
that, unless a shared meal was all that was required. I guess the fact that I’d once been
an adult film actress made him assume I’d prefer sex work, especially if it paid more.
I’ve experienced a variety of jobs and income levels throughout my career, but I’ve
never made pay rates a priority in my decisions, and I think that’s why I’ve always
enjoyed my work. From what I’ve seen in this industry, focusing too much on money
leads to jobs you don’t want to do and jobs you’re embarrassed to admit you’ve done. It’s
hard enough to admit you’re in adult films without having to worry about that! In other
words, needing the money is probably one of the worst reasons for doing porn.
Chapter 5
Life Off the Set
In previous chapters, I’ve mainly discussed work-related aspects of being an adult film
actress in Japan, but in this chapter I’d like to focus on other aspects of an actress’s life.
Taking care of your body
When I was acting, one thing I made sure to keep up with in my daily life was
moisturizing. I have sensitive skin, and with all the showers I had to take, I was
constantly slathering myself with creams and oils to prevent it from drying out. I even
used to bring my own skincare kit to film shoots. I would of course apply skincare
products to my entire body, but K-cup breasts get a lot of attention in films, and a lot of
physical contact, so I started going to a “bust salon” to give them extra care.
Breasts have sensitive skin, and rubbing against pubic hair or, even worse, stubble
from shaved pubes hurts. When that’s part of a titty-sex scene it’s even worse, because
all that up–down does a job on the deltoids. I made things even worse on myself by
constantly trying to be inventive, doing things like varying the angle at which I
sandwiched the guy’s cock, using it to play with my nipples, even crazy bend-overbackwards acrobatics.
Even when I tried to avoid abusing my breasts, they were subjected to rough
treatment. I think that was exacerbated by a common misunderstanding that bigger
boobs are less sensitive. In one rape scene, the actor used one of my own tits to cover my
mouth to prevent me from calling for help. Another actor with the nickname “The
Beast” once used my boobs in place of a towel to wipe the sweat off his face while he was
screwing me in the missionary position. So yeah, had I continued acting much longer,
I’m pretty sure my tits wouldn’t have survived.
Other body parts demanded care, too. I never knew what was going to be subjected to a
close-up shot to satisfy whatever fetish, so I frequented various salons to get rid of any
roughness or redness that might be exposed. All of that added up to significant
expenditures, but if you’re going to be an actress who exposes her entire body, some
maintenance will be required.
As an aside, adult films for women don’t show closeups of the naughty bits, because
unlike men, most women don’t get off on the visual stimuli of individual body parts.
Some women claim to have fetishes for fingers, or for a certain kind of voice, or even for
the veins in someone’s hands, but I don’t think they’re describing a sexual excitement
similar to what men experience.
Once a woman debuts as a porn star, receiving unsolicited dick pics through social
media becomes an everyday occurrence, but I can’t help wonder what the senders think
they’re achieving. Do they really think any woman would find that appealing? Of
course, there are certainly some women who are thankful that men can get off just on
closeups of specific body parts—the women who can wear facemasks to preserve their
anonymity while appearing in fetish films.
Porn stars in love
Love is a favorite topic of discussion among women, and adult film actresses are no
exception. The biggest difference is that actresses are used to topics that aren’t normally
addressed in “polite” conversation, so there’s little resistance to delving into the details
of what’s going on in the bedroom. Among people in the industry—including staff as
well as actors and actresses—it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t have a boyfriend or
girlfriend or friend with benefits, or some combination of the above. Many, in fact,
seem to have something of a love addiction. I think it may take a fundamentally lonely
personality to be able to perform such physically exhausting work, then go do more of it
off the clock.
As I discussed earlier in this book, few porn actresses are from Tokyo, but surprisingly,
many of them get pets after they arrive here. That includes everyone from exclusive
actresses who are only making one film per month to the busiest of freelancers. When I
imagine keeping a pet, no matter how cute it might be, my thoughts immediately turn
to the negative. How suffocating it would be to have to be at home every day. The
amount of work that would go into taking care of it. The burden of being responsible for
another life. I guess it’s no surprise that I’ve never lived with anyone, unlike most of my
coworkers. Maybe it was because they were far from their hometowns or because they
were lonely by nature, but unlike me, those women found sharing the same time and
space with someone to be soothing, rather than stressful. They also tended to have long
relationships with boyfriends and ex-boyfriends, which I took as a sign they were well
suited to love.
Unlike women who aren’t in the industry, adult film actresses never complained to me
about not having opportunities to meet potential love interests. As you can imagine,
however, many of the men in those circles are very into sex, so they’re more likely than
not to cheat. When porn actresses are discussing relationships, many of the
conversations are along the lines of “I know there’s someone better out there for you,”
or “You’re too good for him.” Instead of complaining about not having the opportunity
to meet new people, they talk about how they need to meet someone else.
I always wondered what it would be like to do adult film work while having a steady
boyfriend, but from what I saw, it was rarely a good situation. Even if it’s strictly for
work, not many men can deal with their girlfriends getting down with other dudes. I
guess I can understand that. But then again, I can also see how women would be pissed
off at that kind of attitude from a guy who’d come on to them knowing they were in
adult films. One thing nearly all porn actresses agree on, however, is that they don’t
want to date a porn actor, so I guess aversion to your partner fooling around with other
people goes both ways.
When I was a student, and when I was working in journalism, I was surrounded by
young women who complained about their inability to find a boyfriend. By contrast,
the women I knew working in adult films had no problem finding a boyfriend or a
friends-with-benefits arrangement or whatever they wanted. They certainly had the
sex appeal for it, and many were the devoted type, so they were surrounded by willing
men who may not have had an excess of money or sincerity, but if nothing else had
considerable sexual appetites. It was an unorthodox case of balance between supply and
demand.
Then again, actresses often keep quiet about boyfriends or husbands even if they have
one. They hide the fact that they are dating someone out of courtesy toward their fans,
even if they are relatively open about other aspects of their private lives.
Dealing with jealous partners
Adult films about women cheating on their boyfriend or husband have become
popular in Japan recently, and ever since, more actresses have begun publicly claiming
to be involved in porn because they have a boyfriend who gets off on seeing them with
other men. I’ve never heard any woman make that claim off the record, however, so I
think we can assume that’s all part of building a public persona. There was one well-
known actress who was working with her husband’s knowledge, but that was strictly
for the money and eventually she had to quit because apparently her husband would get
weird on filming days, and it was putting too much of a strain on their marriage. I can
still remember the sad smile on her face when she told me that. Rumor was that she
later found a new boyfriend and got divorced, but I heard that before she quit, she was
so stressed out she would do things like shut herself up in the shower room and refuse
to come out.
One actress who was dating a porn actor told me they fought all the time. Adult film
production in a large studio sometimes involves multiple shoots taking place
simultaneously, and thinking about what the other was doing with someone else just
down the hall would drive them both to distraction. But at least when both are in the
industry, there’s some level of mutual understanding. When a porn actor or actress
tries to date someone from a straight job, it can be hard for their partner to accept the
sex as work and nothing more. That’s why actors and staff who are appearing just as
extra cocks usually hide their faces: so their wives and girlfriends won’t find out what
they’re doing.
I know of one hair and makeup artist, herself a former actress, who married a working
porn star, but because she knew all about the shenanigans an actor could get up to, he
quit acting completely, despite his popularity at the time, and got a new job as an
assistant director at a production company. I found that gender-equal solution to be
quite refreshing in an industry where it’s common for an actress to quit while her actor
or director partner keeps doing what he’s been doing. I understand that in a relationship
where two people are going to spend their lives together without tying each other
down, it’s best for neither to have a problem with what the other does for work. On the
other hand, I can also see how someone might not be comfortable in a relationship
where their partner makes a living from even just flirtatious acts, whether that’s sex
club work or being a pop star. Balancing love and respect will always present such
dilemmas.
The worst treatment comes from outside the industry
Some men tend to treat you in a certain way once they learn you’ve done porn. Going
out for drinks can devolve into something like an interview. Some men think they’ve
been given license to touch your body. If you take them to bed, they tend to expect you
to do all the work, or they turn pervy, or take other liberties. Things might be different
in a loving relationship, but when an adult film actress is with a guy who’s after a one-
night stand or a friends-with-benefits arrangement, she should probably expect him to
treat her the way he sees her treated in films.
Some readers may be surprised to hear that men sometimes become passive when they
find themselves hooking up with an adult film actress, so let me explain. Many porn
films feature actresses who take the lead in sex, and they often use camera angles that
allow male viewers to project themselves into the action, watching as the actress
seemingly goes down on them or rides their cock. Avid consumers of porn can therefore
develop the idea that a woman’s job is to serve them, particularly if that woman is a
porn actress. Either that or they consider you a font of experience and skill that they
want to kick back and enjoy. So they end up lying there doing basically nothing. (In
Japan we refer to sex partners like this as maguro, meaning tuna, because they lie there
like a big dead fish.) Not one of the fifty guys I’d banged before getting into porn took
such a passive attitude. So be warned. This is one of the few things I truly regretted
about appearing in adult films.
In addition to the school of maguro you’ll likely encounter, there are also those men
who for some reason assume that as a porn actress, you’re the perfect person to share
their fetishes with. When I was still acting, another actress once invited me to go out
drinking with some guys, one of whom was the young president of a tech startup. At
the end of the evening, I started to head home with my friend, who was going my way,
but he pulled me into his taxi and took me home. Domineering up to that point, sure,
but—
“There’s a side of me I’ve never been able to show the women I’ve been with in the
past,” he told me. “But I feel like I can be myself with you.” I was fine with things up to
that point, figuring if we were going to spend the night together, I’d do what I could to
show him a good time, but then in bed he closes his eyes, smiles like a buddha, and says
“Do with me as you will, mistress Kaho. Anything you want…” Do with you as I will? I’m
thinking. What the hell am I supposed to want to do to you?! He continues: “Punish my
asshole. Take my anal virginity.” Wonderful. I’d landed a pervy maguro.
I take pride in my skill in bed, and I have a reputation to maintain, so I didn’t want to
leave a partner unsatisfied. I therefore did my best to get the guy off in the way he
wanted, but for me the whole encounter was tiresome. Basically, the guy had brought
me home to service him.
Seriously guys, think about it: Do you really think a couple of hours of conversation
over drinks entitles you to the treatment a porn star gets in a film? That afterwards you
can take a woman home and expect her to pleasure you while you just lie there? Maybe
you should wait until she’s at least a steady girlfriend before you lay claim to such
prerogatives. But still, keep in mind that even a girlfriend isn’t likely to be thrilled by sex
that ends up being more work than pleasure.
There’s another species besides pervs and maguro that porn actresses attract: the
absolutely hopeless type of man who thinks that since he’s seen it in films, he, too, is
entitled to come inside of you. Yes, creampie is a porn staple, but most of that is faked in
Japan, and when it isn’t the actress is probably on the pill, unlike most women outside
the industry. So no, gentlemen, having sex with a woman who’s been in porn does not
give you carte blanche to start making your own creampies.
Another thing I found annoying was when guys asked me to put their condom on for
them. While women working in sex clubs might become proficient at putting condoms
on their clients, when filming porn, the actors usually handle that themselves. In fact,
the only times I had to reshoot a sex scene were cases where I was supposed to do it, but
I fumbled. It’s hard to know how much pressure to apply, and I always worried whether
I was hurting the guy, so honestly it’s a duty I’d rather not take responsibility for. I
guess some men think it’s endearing or something, but for me it’s a huge turn-off. I
much prefer a man who’s adult and experienced enough to just slip the thing on when
needed.
More generally, my preference is for men who don’t assume anything different about
me when they learn I was once in adult films. Unfortunately, such men are rare.
Enough with the drinking!
I’ve never gone to drinking parties for pay, but I’ve certainly attended drinking parties
I wish I’d been paid for, and even some I would happily have paid money to avoid
attending. Establishments for drinking alcohol have always scared me a little,
regardless of whether I’m entering one as part of my job. I worry that some man will
take liberties with me, then use drunkenness as an excuse for what he did. (As a
nondrinker myself, I can’t help but think, “If you’re going to end up having to make
excuses for your behavior, maybe you shouldn’t be drinking so much in the first place.”)
Anyway, I don’t like attending events where people will be drinking unless I have to.
I felt that way even when I was a student and when I was a reporter, but things are
even worse if you’re in adult films. You tend to be bombarded with questions, and men
get touchy-feely. “Can I touch your boobs?” some ask, even plead. Not in a sexy sense,
some will say, just because they’re so big, and they want to see how heavy they are, or
how soft they are. As if that makes things okay. It makes me want to lecture them on
sexual harassment, about how the issue isn’t their motivation but rather how it makes
the woman feel. Of course, that would cast a pall over the scene, so in the end I usually
smile and play it off, then block them on social media as soon as I get home.
Regardless of whether you are or once were a porn actress, many men categorize you as
a slut. These are the men who ask you about nothing except porn work when you’re
trying to have a conversation. After I retired and decided I was ready to find a steady
boyfriend, a close actress friend of mine set up blind double dates with an architect and
a doctor, both around forty years old. I went expecting to be asked about where I’d
grown up and what hobbies I had and how I spent my days off and things like that, but
the more the men drank, the more they just wanted to talk about porn and sex. Is a
ménage à trois fun? Does it feel good to be spanked? You’d think that at their age, they’d
have realized that everyone has different tastes when it comes to sex… Then there was
the stage actor in his early twenties and the band manager in his fifties, both of whom
bragged about never having gone down on a woman, something I imagine is possible
only because they were in jobs that attracted women to them; otherwise, they wouldn’t
find many women willing stick with them.
As a rule, adult film actresses have had their fill of banal conversations about sex, so
the only one enjoying that kind of talk is the men. I suppose those men are overjoyed to
find themselves out drinking with women who don’t clutch their pearls at the mention
of sex, and will even make witty rejoinders, but all that feels like work to us, and there’s
no pleasure in it. “Why did you get into porn?” “When did your boobs get so big?” These
are questions I answered in interviews when I was acting, so please just hold them until
you can get home and Google for the answers. Then again, I suppose I’m partly to blame
for playing along with a smile, hoping they’d catch on themselves.
Yes, I understand that if you go out drinking with a porn actress, it’s natural to want to
hear inside info about the industry. But what I want men to understand is that
interviews are something professionals engage in for their promotional effect, and
there’s no way I can get romantically involved with a man who’s only interested in
talking about porn. Having a man be interested in you as a porn actress, but in nothing
else about you, is just painful.
No, you cannot touch
There are also men who think it’s okay to touch the bodies of adult film actresses. They
not only put their hands on waists and shoulders and other relatively innocuous parts,
some even help themselves to some T&A, something they would never openly do to a
woman who isn’t in porn. I wonder if when visiting a farmer they consider his fields as
a free buffet.
I was once taken to a sushi restaurant as part of an event held by one of the oldest adult
film production companies. It was in an out-of-the-way location, but I got the
impression that my hosts were regulars and often took actresses there. After the meal,
the owner-chef asked if he could take a photo with me, and I agreed. Then, just before
the person taking our photo pressed the button, the hand that only minutes before had
been making my sushi reached up and grabbed a handful of breast, like taking a “check
out these titties” photo was a natural thing to do.
Pointing is one thing, but direct physical contact crosses a line. I was so shocked I
found myself paralyzed, but because I was with a client, I felt unable to ruin the
atmosphere by expressing my anger, especially since they were regulars. Of course, I
also wondered if they regularly allowed the staff here to fondle the actresses they
brought. The chef certainly seemed to take copping a feel as something he was naturally
entitled to.
My manager at the time did say something like “Oops, no breasts, please,” but that
milquetoast stance and hand-wringing protestation just pissed me off even more. I
didn’t want the guy to be touching me anywhere, and I wanted my manager to get
angry in my place. If we actresses aren’t allowed to express our anger because we might
annoy the fans, an on-site manager should do the job for us, saying what we cannot.
Such a shame, really—the sushi was very good, but then the chef had to go and ruin the
experience. I was looking forward to an entertaining evening, and I ended up being part
of the entertainment. I later sent an official complaint to the production company, and
a sales manager came all the way to the hot spring resort where I was shooting on
location to apologize. Which is also kind of strange, since the chef was the worst
offender, but I imagine his attitude was something like “What, I’m not allowed to
touch?”
Things like that happened all the time. At least in that instance my manager said
something and I later got an apology of sorts. In many other cases the witnesses didn’t
say anything or tried to brush the whole thing off with a laugh, which ended up
supporting my harasser.
My breasts are part of my brand, so when I’m in a work-related situation I wear clothes
that show them off, and I don’t mind if people gawk or have some big reaction.
However, that does not mean I’m giving anyone permission to touch me. Touching a
woman’s breasts without permission is a crime. I understand that many men will get
the urge to cop a feel, but I expect adults to be able to control themselves before urge
becomes action.
Come to think of it, back in my reporter days I heard that to welcome new employees,
my newspaper used to have a bowling tournament and invite adult film actresses, but
they had to stop after one new employee hugged an actress, claiming he was “so excited
after getting a strike.” I guess no matter where you go, there will be men who think
they’re free to grab at porn stars.
Is there love between porn stars?
You might wonder, then, if perhaps it’s better for women in porn to date men working
in the same industry. In fact, it’s something of a taboo for actresses to have a
relationship with their colleagues, so when something serious develops, couples tend to
stay mum about it until they’ve decided to get married. I myself have had contact
information slipped to me by assistant directors, hair and makeup artists, actors, and
directors.
Regardless of what the job entails, working in adult entertainment is work, and just
like anywhere else, relationships sometimes extend beyond the workplace. Indeed, that
may be even more common in an industry like adult entertainment, where everyone is
to some extent living in the shadows of society. Because most people on the production
side are men and there are so many women on the performing side, I get the impression
that the wives of most directors and other staff are former or current actresses.
Marriages that took place in plain view, so to speak, include that between SOD Create
CEO Goro Tameike and Mariko Kawana, the former actress who established the adult
entertainment performer rights group AVAN. Then there’s Saki Otsuka, who appeared
in the film “My Wife is a Porn Star” alongside her husband, who she met when he
became her manager. Actor–actress couplings include the 2007 marriage of Ken
Shimizu and Raito Ayuhara, and in 2008, marriages between Hiroshi Shimabukuro and
Yumi Kazama, Ken Pierre and Arisa Matsumoto, and Ryo Sawai and Rio Hamasaki. The
list goes on. Among the couples I’ve mentioned, only Goro Tameike and Mariko Kawana
are still married, but if you include marriages that are kept quiet, the porn industry
seemingly provides no shortage of opportunities for finding a spouse.
Sexual harassment in the adult film industry
In the adult film industry, many topics of conversation that would be considered
sexual harassment in a typical workplace instead relate to information that is necessary
to perform the job. Interview questionnaires include questions like, “Where did you lose
your virginity, and with who?”, “How often do you masturbate, and what’s your
preferred method?”, and “What kind of sex toys do you like and/or dislike?” Often you
will be answering the questions orally and will also be expected to discuss whatever
fetishes you may have. Given that such discussions are commonplace, what would be
considered sexual harassment of an adult film actress?
Here’s an example: I once appeared in a film that was shot in an old public bath. We
used the men’s bath for filming and the women’s bath for the performers to shower
before and after scenes. I was the only actress, and I didn’t want to take up the entire
shower room by myself, so I went in to shower when another actor was using it. I guess
seeing me wash myself turned the guy on, because he turned to me with a boner and
said, “Do you mind?” Going in bareback, he came after just a few thrusts. I remember
being impressed by his stamina, since he was also cumming during the shot, but then I
realized that while we were technically at work, the cameras weren’t rolling, and I
started worrying that we might get in trouble if someone else walked in. I’d done the
guy before, so the act itself didn’t seem like such a big deal, and I was still new to the job,
so I figured the occasional off-camera quickie was just how things were done. Were the
same thing to happen today, however, I would have a very different take on the
situation.
So sexual harassment from male actors can be a problem, but at least actresses have
right of refusal regarding any future appearances in their films, regardless of how
famous or connected the actor may be. The bigger problem is when sexual harassment
comes from people like producers and directors who are responsible for providing
actresses with work, which makes it a form of power harassment.
The rules today call for complete transparency regarding what is to be filmed. In the
past, however, it was commonplace for companies not to provide a script in advance, in
the name of “getting an honest reaction” or “preventing leaks before the release date.”
As an example of how that practice got abused, I heard about a director telling one
actress, “We’re going to shoot one more blowjob scene,” then taking her aside into a
restroom to service him. No matter how transparent the ploy, when it comes from the
director of her film, a naïve actress can be swept along, intimidated and unsure of
herself, and therefore unable to resist.
A director once sucked my nipple while my manager was out of the room. We had
already shot the clothed scenes for the dramatic bits of the film, finishing with me in
the role of an English teacher leading a class in front of a whiteboard. We were next
supposed to have a meeting regarding the sex scenes, which were to be filmed on
another day, so the director sent his assistant to fetch my manager for that meeting.
Once we were alone, while I was changing from my costume back into my street
clothes, he made his move. “Show me your tits,” he said, and figuring it had something
to do with filming, I didn’t hesitate to do so. But when his dick came out it became
obvious what kind of guy I was dealing with.
At the time I had neither the time nor the opportunity to meet men outside of work, so I
was ironically struggling with the issue of not being able to get laid. This allowed me to
put a positive spin on things, looking at it as a chance for some extracurricular nookie.
Of course, such feelings came with a dash of fear, fear that failure to play along would
spoil my relationship with the man who would be making my next film, something I
wanted to avoid at all costs. Add to that the fact that this was a somewhat well-known
director, and if I were to become one of his favorite actresses, he might drop my name
into his social media feeds or mention me in interviews. So sure, I thought, it’s a career
move. If I ever need to tell the world about it, I can do so later—as I am now.
Since he had made his interest in me clear, I was sure we’d end up in bed on the day we
were scheduled to do the sex scenes, but I figured it would happen after filming was
complete, on the assumption that as director he’d be prioritizing the film above all else.
But I guess he couldn’t wait that long: on the day of our next shoot, he made his move in
the hotel suite room where we’d be filming once the rest of the staff arrived.
I’d spent the entire week before that day busy with things other than filming, so my
pussy had gotten quite lonely. Not only that, my first scene that day was scheduled to be
with a well-hung actor who I knew could get me off, and I was looking forward to him
breaking my fast, so I wasn’t happy about that honor going to the director instead. More
to the point, I found it highly irresponsible of him to place such a physical burden on an
actress who would be appearing in his own film, tiring her out before the filming even
started and thus lowering the quality of her performance. This caused me to feel
contempt for him, if not as a man, then as a director. So while it may seem strange now,
at the time it wasn’t so much the presumption of a right to sex that annoyed me as the
timing—if he was going to tire me out I wanted him to do it after work. Yes, I’m
perfectly aware that’s not what I should have been angry about, but such were the
times.
One interesting thing, though, is that his sexual play exactly mimicked his movies.
When I said, “I’m about to come,” he came back with, “Not yet, not until I allow it.” Once
things got really going, he started chanting, “Come, come, come, come…” like he was
casting a spell. I’m sure he thought the twitching of my body was me having a powerful
orgasm, but actually I was trying to hold back the gut-splitting laughter that threatened
when I saw the extent to which he wrote himself into his movies. Now I was doubly
annoyed, because it felt like I had to do the same scene twice, but once without being
paid, and my work life was intruding into my private life.
I only had the one shoot with that director, and no plans to work with him again, so
when the timing felt right, I reported him to my talent agency. This worked in my favor
since I was already getting ready to quit, or at least change agencies, and using that
episode as evidence of how they failed to protect an actress smoothed the way toward
an agreement to part ways. Ultimately, I benefited from the situation, and hopefully I
was able to prevent the same thing from happening to other women.
Beware sexual harassment from those with power
Whether the offending party is an actor, an assistant director, or a director, the fact
that an actress affiliated with a talent agency is being assaulted demonstrates the
incompetence of that agency. I’ve heard that agencies humiliated in that way react very
harshly toward the men accused of assault, charging them nuisance fees or blacklisting
them in an attempt to save face.
Still, some men are easier to discipline than others. Over ninety percent of male actors
in adult films are freelancers, and contracted directors and their assistants working on
a by-project basis don’t have much clout, so they can be slapped down when necessary.
But agencies find it hard to directly confront some employees at adult film production
companies. Powerful executives who get to decide which actresses will get exclusive
contracts often require some amount of ass-kissing, and female or gay managers will
often only half-jokingly make comments about whether they should go spread their
legs to secure a contract. I once heard a young, handsome manager talking about how
he’d made out with a veteran female producer to score points with her, as if he’d
accomplished some heroic feat.
However, thanks to an increased awareness of the importance of compliance with the
law in recent years, major filmmakers now strictly adhere to rules prohibiting their
employees from touching actresses appearing in their productions. It’s gotten to the
point where those employees will quickly back off from actresses who aren’t so contactadverse, saying it’s against the rules if an actress tries to hug them.
I do remember one production agency where the younger employees did their best to
stick to the rules but one long-time employee would use fixing costumes as an excuse to
touch the actresses, or would slap us on the ass as a way of greeting us, or stick a finger
in our cleavage, or whatever other harassment he thought he could get away with. It got
so extreme that whenever I spoke to other employees of that company I would bring it
up, but everyone just played it off, saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, or
talking about how he was their superior, so they couldn’t confront him. They knew
what he was doing was wrong but felt powerless to stop it, so they just let it slide.
It’s easy for those with power to start believing they can get away with anything while
they’re playing in their own backyard. In one recent scandal, the president of a clothing
manufacturer got in trouble for sexually harassing multiple company employees. He
denied it at first, but once the Line messages he’d been sending came to light, heart
emojis and all, he resigned. (Of course, he only had to give up his position as CEO, not
his stock holdings in the company…) As you can imagine, the situation is far worse in
an enterprise that sits in a social gray zone, particularly when you’re working as an
independent employee. The situation calls for some amount of self-defense.
While actors and actresses are sole proprietors, filmmakers and producers are
companies, and like most companies, they tend to want to sweep things under a rug. No
matter what rules are in place, veterans and top management will sometimes view
those rules as not applying to them. Anyone experiencing harassment needs to make
their complaints to the talent agencies they’ve signed with, not some low-level
employee at the company where the offender works. If that doesn’t have much of an
effect, then a large social media following might help; your tormentor likely only has
power within his own company, or among his circle of friends.
Being outed
Women hoping to appear in adult films on the down-low fear one thing more than
anything else: being outed. In my own case, I first signed with a talent agency in June
and the DVD of my debut film didn’t come out until November, so for a relatively long
period, I didn’t have to worry about anyone finding out. When I was interviewing for
porn work, I was a full-time employee at a language school, and my contract forbade
any other employment. I therefore asked to switch to a part-time position, using the
excuse that I wanted to take on some sideline work as an interpreter. After my film
came out, I told them I’d gotten busy with other work, so I wanted to quit. I did in fact
do some interpreting, and it wasn’t until after I’d quit as a full-time employee that I
started porn work, so I never violated the terms of my contract. I think it’s important to
keep such things nice and tidy before starting a new career.
One thing about my parents’ home being right in the heart of Tokyo was that it left me
without a good excuse for moving out, so I was still living with them. Every day after
the embargo on Kaho Shibuya-related news lifted, I was afraid to open the door when I
got home, walking on pins and needles until I heard my mother’s cheerful “Welcome
home!” Of course, it wasn’t long before that ended.
Considering the number of porn actresses working in Japan, and the fact that nearly all
of them use stage names, you might wonder how anyone gets outed at all. In nearly all
cases, it’s because someone she knows stumbled across an image of her on the Internet,
for example in a still or a video that was used in online ads. Before I got into the industry
myself, a friend told me he’d once seen someone that looked like an ex-girlfriend in such
an ad, and clicked on it. That showed him a larger, clearer image that removed any
doubt, especially since he’d seen her naked. Even I am inundated by ads for adult
websites, despite the only adult media I consume being manga, so I guess anyone who
actively watches porn will end up seeing a large number of the women who appear in it.
Effects on work and friendships
I quit working for the language school soon after starting porn work and was only
working under my real name a few times a year, so I didn’t have to worry much about
coworkers or colleagues learning about my new career. That can be a problem for some
women, however, such as one actress I know who got fired from her part-time job at a
well-known amusement park because her film work “conflicted with the park’s image.”
And of course, appearing in adult films puts future jobs at risk as well. I find this very
unfair, but the world is what it is.
Setting aside the morality of firing someone for such reasons, appearing in adult films
carries risk of stigmatization. That’s why talent agencies will publicly deny that
someone is registered with them, even if the person in question looks exactly the same
as one of their actresses, down to every mole and crooked tooth, as happened with the
lead voice actress in a certain anime. Even so, the more you work with other people
outside the industry, particularly those with a wide range of ages, the more careful you
need to be about your past or current work as an adult film actress.
When it comes to friends, I’m of the opinion that you can dump any who have a
problem with your porn work, but I know things aren’t so easy for everyone. I often
heard women talking about someone from their childhood looking them up after years
because they’d found out about their porn work, or someone pasting a pornographic
photo to an online group of friends. People I knew from before have messaged me on
social media many times, but I delete those messages without reading them. The
senders no longer have any bearing on my life, and I know they just want to get off on
the fact that they used to know someone who ended up in porn. I gain nothing from
being friends with people like that.
When I’m dealing with someone I have a business relationship with, I might put up
with their bullshit to some extent, but beyond that I don’t see the need to go out of my
way to accommodate anyone. As soon as I find myself not actually wanting to meet
someone or respond to their messages, I just ghost them. I’m perfectly happy spending
time and eating alone. Even on my birthday, I don’t really feel a need to celebrate with
others, as if it’s their goodwill that gave my life meaning up to that point. That just leads
to expectations that I’ll do the same for them, something I’d rather avoid (because I
know how sad it is when people forget), so I keep my birthday a secret. Even when I die,
I don’t want to upset or inconvenience anyone who might witness it happening, so I’d
rather be alone then too. This is the personality I was born with. I suppose I could put a
positive spin on it and say I have a low dependency on others, but the truth is that
worrying about those around me exhausts me, and I’d rather not bother.
That being my attitude, before my debut film came out, I thoroughly KonMaried my
personal life by deleting contact info for all the men I knew except my parents and
siblings, along with everyone I’d added since college. I knew that once they found out I
was doing porn I’d start getting annoying emails and phone calls, especially from the
men, and I didn’t have the time or the desire to deal with their curiosity. I kept the
contacts of people I’d met through high school, because in many cases their parents
were friends with my parents, and suddenly going incommunicado might draw
attention to me. That was one of the few times I was glad I’d gone to an all-girls school,
since it might delay any rumors from arising.
After your parents find out
My parents learned about my new career because of the sports newspaper I’d started
working at right out of college. It was a male-dominated workplace, in an industry that
feeds on gossip, so an ex-employee becoming a porn star was just too good a story to
pass up. One of my former colleagues, a reporter on the pro wrestling beat, told the
former pro wrestler Akira Maeda about me. Maeda was a long-time acquaintance of my
father, and apparently called him out of concern for me. “The adult film industry is
controlled by the yakuza,” he said. “Do whatever you can to make her quit.”
Maeda was associated with The Outsiders and various other martial arts groups, and
had some contact with the adult film industry in part because those groups used porn
actresses as ring girls. I suppose the agency that provided those girls gave him the
impression there must be yakuza involvement.
Of course, that information went straight from my father to my highly emotional
mother, who considered having sex in front of other people to be a sign of mental illness
and begged my father to send me to a psychiatrist. They did indeed take me, after
providing the doctor with their preferred diagnosis—that I was appearing in adult films
only because I was emotionally disturbed—and asking him to convince me to quit. My
mother accompanied me on that initial consultation.
The psychiatrist, having been given this troublesome assignment, asked my mother to
leave the room so he could speak to me alone. He then listened to what I had to say,
maintaining a kind attitude and expression the entire time, after which he said this: “I
can see that you are thinking this through very logically, and have your own reasons for
doing the work you’re now doing. You have no need for a psychiatrist. That being said,
your mother is very upset, and you currently live with her, so I’m worried that might
spill over and affect you. I’m going to prescribe some medicine for your mother to take
when she’s feeling overwhelmed, and if you like you can take it too and meet her
halfway.”
He also mentioned that while he didn’t see a need for psychiatric treatment, it was
clear I’d been raised in an oppressive environment, so I might find some counseling
helpful. When I met with a counselor at a later date, she said, “Your story is so
interesting. I’d love to hear more.” In fact, talking with her was so refreshing, it helped
me open up in interviews and the like.
Previously, fear of being outed made me give bland, safe answers in interviews, but
now that it had happened, I had a new outlook. By forcing me to go see a shrink, my
mother ironically helped me realize that not worrying about who knew I was doing
porn allowed me to speak more frankly than other actresses, giving me a way to
differentiate myself among them. She also gave me the final nudge I’d needed to move
out. I no longer had to limit myself to playing some kind of typical porn actress persona.
I was free to be me, which enabled me to look at this new development in a positive
light, regardless of what others might think.
My agency had a very different take on the situation. There’s a bit more to the story of
my outing, you see. An unforeseen event exposed my identity not just to my friends,
parents, and former colleagues, but to the entire world: a gossip magazine wrote an
expose about me.
Unwanted media coverage, and an unexpected reaction
As it turned out, I was glad my father heard about me from someone he knew, because
about a week after Akira Maeda spilled the beans about my new career, Dad started
getting calls from magazine and newspaper reporters asking if he knew about me. I
guess the end result would have been the same, but hearing something like that from a
genuinely concerned friend is different from hearing it from a reporter wanting to spice
up a story. In that respect, I’m grateful to Mr. Maeda.
My father had written columns before and done media interviews, so the mass media
knew how to contact him, and getting a call from a phone number he didn’t recognize
was no uncommon occurrence. I myself had exchanged business cards with people
from those magazines, but because I’d scrubbed my contact list and changed phones
since, I guess they weren’t able to contact me directly.
One reporter, from Shukan shincho, did get hold of me though, through my father,
saying he had just taken a new posting and wanted to talk to me about when I covered
pro baseball, things like that. This was just before Maeda’s phone call, so being unaware
of what was really going on, my parents urged me to meet with him. Of course, it
turned out he’d heard about my new career, and none of his questions had anything to
do with baseball. Add to that the fact that despite the wedding ring he’d been wearing,
he emailed me a few days later to ask me out for drinks. “Not if it’s for a date instead of
an interview,” I replied. Guess who I never heard from again?
There was nothing I could do about becoming grist for the rumor mill at my old
newspaper, and since I’d already quit, I really didn’t care, but I never thought they’d
write an article about me. I remembered that one time when everyone was talking
about another employee who’d previously appeared in an adult film, but I figured that
was because she was still working there. As a former employee, I thought I was no
longer a person of interest.
As it turned out, however, the gossip rags all piled on, possibly because other reporters
viewed me as not requiring the kid gloves treatment because I was a former reporter
myself. The weekly magazine Friday devoted a full color, two-page spread to me. There
was so much hullaballoo that other people I knew in the adult film industry commented
on it, surprised to learn that I really was a former reporter; they’d assumed that was just
a gimmick, part of my fake profile.
Reporters also contacted my agency, and the company president surprised me when
she just kind of shrugged it off like it was no big deal. “Aren’t you going to stop them
from printing the article?” I asked. “As if I could,” she replied. I’ll never forget that smile
and her flippant attitude, how she’d started our relationship with promises that nobody
would ever find out I was appearing in adult films, then how after my first deal was in
place and there was no turning back, she’d mentioned the possibility of people finding
out, and now that my debut film was out, she was telling me, “They say the article will
be published next week.”
Distrusting my agency
From that point on, I knew I couldn’t consider my managers to be anything like friends
or family, no matter how hard they tried to play the part. I knew I couldn’t turn to them
when I had issues to deal with, and that an actress’s personal problems were often to
their benefit. For example, an actress with a live-in boyfriend might be having a rough
time and struggling with how they can stay together, while her agency will be rooting
for them to break up, since that would make it easier to get her to work. In my own case,
living with parents who were dead set against my porn work wasn’t in the agency’s
interest, so I had a female manager saying things like, “I have a young daughter myself,
but I sure hope I don’t turn out like your mom. I think kids should be allowed to do
whatever they want.” I don’t think her smug attitude and unasked for criticism of my
parents had the effect she was aiming at. I was able to take advantage of that attitude in
some ways, like when she introduced me to a realtor when I mentioned wanting to live
on my own, but that wasn’t enough to wash away the bad taste of her disparaging my
parents.
By cutting off connections to other communities, talent agencies make themselves the
only place of refuge for the women they sign, which makes those women easier to
control. That’s why they hold so many dinner parties and hot-pot gatherings and other
events that sometimes it feels more like a social club than a business. As someone who
prefers to eat alone, I found it all a bit tedious, but I can see how such events might be a
welcome benefit for women who have just arrived in Tokyo and don’t have many
friends, especially any they could talk shop with. Plus, they get a free meal.
I heard rumors that a producer of one of my films was the one who took the story of a
former reporter turning porn star to the media. I also heard that it was my talent
agency going behind my back. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually someone I used
to work with at the newspaper who by chance found an image of me online. The time all
the managers at my agency insisted a little too stridently that they had nothing to do
with it did raise my suspicions. But regardless of whether they planned it themselves or
not, I later learned that they were quite thrilled with the situation.
When I debuted with Alice Japan, they used a fake profile of me on the video packaging,
supposedly as a way of preventing people from finding out who I really was. Just six
months later, I was with Idea Pocket, and they were all in on providing actual personal
details, including a headline that read “The huge-breasted ex-reporter who once
interviewed Shohei Otani!” I can understand that as part of their marketing strategy,
but what really pissed me off was when the owner of my agency insisted that he attend
our first meeting with the production company because it was the first time they’d
worked together. During the meeting he started going on about how much media
coverage I was getting, and as proof he pulled out the article that had first outed me!
I was of course shocked to see him grinning as he opened the magazine article that had
caused me so much pain, which he had obviously preserved for this purpose. I wanted
to complain about it then and there, but since we were in a meeting with a producer
who might be giving me a lot of work, I had to remain silent. I guess I have to blame the
utter ignorance of a company executive who normally didn’t do the grunt work of
attending meetings between clients and the actresses they represent.
Having the world find out you’re appearing in porn is never a fun time. When I was
depressed about my parents finding out and my story being featured in a gossip
magazine, that owner often took me out in an attempt to cheer me up. It made his
betrayal all the worse when he used my situation as a sales pitch, knowing how I felt
about what had happened. If he had only asked how I felt about the idea of his using
that article, I wouldn’t have ended up hating him so much.
My agency should have felt embarrassed, not proud, about the fact that a gossip
magazine was able to publish that article. This is particularly true because at the time I
was still under a no-publicity agreement that forbade them from allowing use of my
name or unedited image in mass-media publications.
Marrying out of the job
While much is being made of Japan’s aging population and declining birthrates, and
while women today are increasingly career-oriented, the majority still hope to get
married and have children. From what I’ve seen, that’s particularly true for women in
adult entertainment. Nearly every porn actress I met said they wanted to quit the job
when they found a marriage partner. Many did quit as soon as they started talking with
boyfriends about getting married, even if they were still new to the job. Conversely, I
knew veteran actresses who were convinced their failure to find a marriage partner
meant they’d missed their opportunity to get out of porn. In one sad case, an actress I
knew announced her retirement when she got married, but ended up starting again
when she discovered that her new husband was deeply in debt. I’m sure she was
disappointed by how things turned out, but she was a star performer with a popular
filmmaker, so her agency and fans were no doubt happy to hear about her change of
heart. I knew another very popular actress who quit because her possessive boyfriend
demanded it, but just half a year later left her new job as an office worker to return to
porn because he wouldn’t marry her.
Not once in my life have I wanted to get married or have kids, so all that struck me as
kind of weird. My parents get along fine and none of my friends were having affairs or
getting divorced, so I don’t have any particular reason to be anti-marriage. Maybe it was
just because I was more into boys’ manga than Disney princesses, or because I have a
penchant for doing things differently than everyone else, but whatever the reason, it
was partly my lack of interest in marriage that allowed me to give porn work a shot in
the first place.
Before my porn debut, my parents tried several times to arrange a marriage for me.
That was especially annoying because it started right after I told them I had a boyfriend.
So even though as I signed my first contract to appear in porn I heard a little voice that
whispered “This is something you’ll never be able to undo,” at the same time there was
another voice saying “At least your parents will never again try to make you get
married.” That second voice was louder, promising freedom from having to pretend I
had any interest in the life my parents had planned out for me.
Women decide to appear in porn for a variety of reasons. If you made a pie chart
showing those reasons, “money” would probably be the biggest slice, but there would
also be “curiosity” regarding what the job is like and “dreams” of becoming a
performing artist, doing things like appearing on television and giving concerts. A
woman whose biggest dreams are related to love and marriage, however, will likely find
that working in adult entertainment makes realizing those dreams more difficult.
Women who make that choice anyway have either found something even more
appealing in it, are in a situation that forces them to set different priorities, or simply
aren’t very good at looking beyond their current circumstances.
Perhaps even I will someday decide that I want to get married and have kids. If so, I
may wonder why I ever decided to work in porn, or I may regret how that decision
affects my husband and children, not to mention my husband’s family and others. I
sometimes become scared thinking about these things, despite having no plans to
marry. But still, in January 2018 Sola Aoi got married and in December of the same year
announced she was pregnant, and other former actresses have similarly announced the
existence of husbands and children. Mihiro Taniguchi had a particularly moving
wedding ceremony attended by many of her fellow actresses, but sadly divorced in
February 2019. I certainly hope that the precedent set by such famous actresses will
remove some of the fear and stigma other former porn actresses experience, even if
only a little.
Is it possible to have a career after porn?
When I quit acting, my intent was to no longer appear in adult films, but to keep doing
the peripheral work. For a while I did some nude modeling, and I appeared at events
when I got offers from filmmakers. I was still happy to have my previous films sold, and
I was planning to stick around the industry for a while. I even wanted to give something
back to an industry that had given me so much.
As time went by, however, I increasingly wanted to emphasize the “former” part of
“former porn actress,” so I gradually started being more selective about the jobs I took. I
avoided being cast in the same light as currently working actresses, for example by
saying I might serve as MC for an event featuring actresses, but not as a guest.
Recent restrictions on social networking sites, especially YouTube, have made it
difficult to emphasize eroticism in content published there. Thankfully, that trend
coincided with my retirement. Post-retirement I started appearing in normal clothing
more frequently than in underwear or bathing suits. That is as it should be, but it’s
harder to compete in terms of sexiness. So post-porn, I decided to get into cosplay.
Up through high school, I was a complete and utter manga and anime otaku. While I
was in college and working a straight job, I tried to keep up with a few titles that caught
my eye, but not to an extent that would put off those around me. Once I started acting, I
didn’t have the time for even that. After retiring, however, I found myself with a little
more free time, so I decided to try my hand at cosplay. Previously I had only been a fan,
but I’d really enjoyed doing some cosplay in an adult film.
Cosplay allows you to completely change the way you look. I get bored of looking at the
same face in the mirror every day, so the thrill and constant change of cosplay hooked
me. I also found it exciting to be able to show off my huge tits in something other than
the various colors of V-neck ribbed knits and triangle bikinis I was constantly being
forced to wear while doing films. Another advantage is that I have a very plain face,
allowing me to use makeup to drastically change my appearance. This combination of
simple looks and enormous boobs is well suited to representing two-dimensional
characters, particularly if I choose one that’s stacked in the original. That doesn’t really
describe any of my favorite characters, but I tend to have favorite stories rather than
characters, so that works out okay.
Just taking photos is fun and all, but what I really wanted to do was tie it into work.
That’s easier said than done in Japan, however, as the cosplay scene here is already well
established by its native adherents, who aren’t eager to make room for refugees from
the porn industry. I therefore decided to take a shot at participating in anime events in
the U.S. and Europe instead. I already had something of a name overseas through my
work in adult films, giving me a head start, not to mention plenty of otaku knowledge
and enough English to discuss it. I found my initiative to be rewarding overseas, and I
took pride in doing something that other people couldn’t do, so my time after
retirement has been fulfilling.
My first cosplay appearance was at the 2018 Anime Expo, the largest anime convention
in North America, shortly after I announced my retirement. Before that I had appeared
at the Adult Entertainment Expo, a convention held in Las Vegas sponsored by Adult
Video News Magazine, where for two years in a row I represented Japanese porn stars
from DMM’s international porn streaming service, R18.com. They didn’t participate the
year after that, so I decided to make use of my connections and go on my own.
Thankfully I’d spent my breaks during the two previous years visiting all the booths,
making friends with the people working there while I shopped.
TamaToys, a sex toy subsidiary of the Japanese cosplay porn producer TMA, had a
commercial booth at the time, and when the staff learned I’d come as an independent,
they stopped by to say hello. They told me about Anime Expo, another convention they
regularly attended, and I asked if I could join them and share their booth.
Our booth attracted a long line of customers, and I ended up selling out of DVDs that
wouldn’t have sold in Japan even at used rates. The company asked me to join them
again the following year, so I went in 2019 as well. After that I started receiving
invitations to be a guest at other anime events in the U.S., where I did things like sign
autographs in sections of the convention that weren’t age-restricted, gradually moving
me from the adult world to conventional work. I was also getting work related to anime
and manga, which I truly adore. I now have connections far removed from adult
entertainment, like anime song DJs and people running clothing shops, further
broadening my horizons. Recently, I’ve been invited to major anime events in the U.S.
and other countries as a cosplayer, writer, voice actor, and sometimes even as a
celebrity.
Doing what I want and what I can
My post-porn experience may be somewhat unique. Rather than staying in the
entertainment industry, most retired actresses who go solo make their money in
“closed” spaces, like photoshoots and private parties. When people like that see me in a
magazine or whatever, they tend to ask how I got the offer and how much I got paid.
When it comes to overseas events, they want to know who’s buying the plane ticket.
Not wanting to deal with any jealousy, I tend to say “I am,” without getting into the
details. To be honest, I don’t trust people who come out and ask things like that. I knew
one actress who despite not being an otaku thought there might be money to be made in
the cosplay scene, and all I ever heard from her was an unending stream of questions
about funding and budgets and the like.
In truth, there have been times when I attended an event just as a sales representative,
receiving a fee for appearing at the event but having to pay my own travel expenses. At
the time I was highly motivated to rebrand myself, and viewed such expenses as an
unavoidable investment. I needed to take advantage of the freedom I’d obtained; profit
would naturally come later. Living in downtown Tokyo allowed me to save money in
some areas, and I could cut expenses in my private life if I had to. Things probably
would have been much harsher if I wasn’t willing to change my lifestyle.
Rather than setting demands and conditions, I decided to focus first on generating
buzz and gaining fans. Once I’d done that, others approached me with job offers at the
rates they were willing to pay. When working with overseas clients, however, I found it
difficult to build a relationship of mutual trust without meeting in person and letting
them know I could communicate in English. In this way, little by little I used my
motivation to create opportunities. I also impressed others with the energy with which
I took on projects, making them want to work with me. Rather than ask others
specifically what to do, I would first think and try something on my own, then modify
my approach through trial and error.
Compared to mainstream entertainers and even soft porn models, adult film actresses
have an easier time attracting social media followers. That’s simply because followers
look forward to erotic content, but actresses can easily mistake that for personal
popularity. That in turn leads to mistakenly thinking they’ll have jobs after they retire,
but work won’t just come along on its own, and being known as a former porn star can
be a stumbling block rather than a launchpad for one’s post-porn career. Indeed, I was
turned away from some smaller anime events in the U.S., on the basis that it was
supposed to be a “family-oriented” affair. Today I’m an invited guest at far bigger
events, but at the time it really hurt.
Today, videos and articles appearing online after I’m interviewed at events directly
lead to YouTube stars and major distributors from the U.S. wanting to collaborate with
me or do their own interviews. Posting to Twitter or using other text-based formats
doesn’t do much to show in-person charisma, so taking advantage of opportunities to
interact with fans and interviewers in person really paid off.
Japanese porn has many fans overseas, so by the time I started going to anime events,
my past participation at adult expos in Las Vegas, Taiwan, and Shanghai had already
made “Kaho Shibuya” something of an established name. I was thrilled to meet people
overseas who had heard of me and I was thankful for my fans in other countries, even if
they likely got to know me through illegal downloads.
Working for myself and being able to speak English gave me a great amount of
flexibility, and fit perfectly with my preference for taking care of things myself. I also
like that YouTubers and streamers are individual content creators, not companies, so
they tend to respect the direction I want to take. When I interact with Japanese media,
they inevitably fixate on the “former porn actress” thing and only ask me about making
adult films or topics related to sex, but when I’m overseas I’m free to talk about a
broader range of topics. When I approach them as someone wanting to go pro as an
otaku, that’s the direction we head in.
Cosplay, too, is different overseas, where you’ll often see men wearing female
characters’ outfits, or people putting their individual touches on a character’s normal
outfit. In Japan that would be cause for complaint that you’re “messing up” the
character, which I suppose reflects a difference in cultures. Regardless, manga and
anime fans overseas are knowledgeable about and interested in Japan, so there are
many non-erotic topics that they’re happy to talk about. I also find it rewarding to pass
on in other countries the otaku culture I’ve acquired as a native, doing my own part to
promote Cool Japan.
You can’t take on a role like that as a half-assed otaku. If you only know the anime you
watched as a child, or only what’s been popular recently, you have to make up for the
gaps in your knowledge. You need to know not just the titles, but enough about them to
provide some criticism and analysis. You also need a comprehensive knowledge of titles
from all genres of manga and anime, from shonen manga to male homoerotic titles
written for women, robots to witches, the harem genre to the reincarnation genre.
Going pro as an otaku requires passion. Thankfully, as someone with a passion for
anime and manga, as well as international communications, I feel lucky every day to be
able to make it my work.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of many anime events worldwide.
To make up for that, I joined the live video streaming platform Twitch, which primarily
focuses on gaming but also has sections for online chatting. There, I could stream while
living in quarantine, talking about manga and anime with fans from overseas. I had no
idea what I was doing at first, but once I figured things out I managed to get accepted to
the Twitch Partner Program and made steady progress toward starting to stream
games, too.
I originally had no interest whatsoever in online chatting or live-streaming games, but
my desire to connect with other otaku overseas overcame that. Despite having been so
against the idea of pop-star-esque activities when I was making films, now I’m eagerly
doing things like participating in karaoke competitions at anime events and writing
original pieces to perform onstage. Perhaps doing not just what you like and what you
want to do, but also things you might learn to like and things you can do, is the perfect
recipe for enjoying your work.
Members-only adult sites
While I’ve distanced myself from purely adult entertainment, another recent trend,
particularly in the West, is being a “camgirl,” doing topless or nude live-streaming while
viewers get off. Another popular option is content subscription services like OnlyFans,
which allow paying subscribers to see sexually explicit images and videos that content
creators have uploaded. The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to create adult
content in groups, leading to an over seventy-percent increase in new registrations on
that site while lockdowns were in place.
OnlyFans staff in charge of recruiting content creators from Japan say they approach
women who are or were adult film actresses, or who model in R-rated magazines.
Women living in Japan legally cannot post images showing genitalia, but mainstream
social media platforms are even stricter, deleting anything showing nipples or even
handbra shots as “harmful content.” Uploads to those platforms thus become teasers,
directing viewers wanting to see more explicit content to OnlyFans.
Many soft-porn models and cosplayers who don’t want to go X-rated use the
membership and subscription service platform Patreon. That site allows some nudity
but forbids explicit images such as masturbation and other overtly sexual acts. Simply
put, Patreon is for sexy, while OnlyFans is for outright porn.
For someone like me who wants to actively participate in media, closed communities
like these are problematic in that they don’t provide opportunities for promoting my
name. On the other hand, membership sites are exactly the thing for former actresses
wanting to stay out of the public eye. I once spoke with someone on the management
team of an adult streaming service, who told me they’re seeing increased participation
by former porn actresses who retired with the intent of keeping their clothes on in
future work but found themselves needing a little extra spending money.
Actually, right after my retirement a friend introduced me to a Taiwan-based
streaming app, saying it was a lot like the mainstream site 17Live. As it turned out, it
was all sex content, but I’d gone to all the trouble of registering and installing it on my
phone, so I decided to try it for a couple of months. I found the need for daily updates to
be a pain in the ass, though, and I really wanted to get away from sex work, so I ended
up quitting. I mean, what’s the point of retiring if you’re just going to head right back
into the same kind of work? I would have been deeply saddened if after retirement I’d
had to keep selling my nude body.
For many women, however, Internet-based sex work is highly advantageous in that
they never have to come into direct contact with their clients, which greatly reduces
physical risk. It’s a wonderful opportunity for women who don’t mind showing their
bodies, but don’t want to be touched. That said, no website can guarantee perfect data
security, and even on a membership site there’s always risk of personal data being
exposed.
Dealing with data that’s been leaked online
Another thing an adult film actress has to worry about after retirement is having her
films leaked online. Ever since coerced appearances in adult films became an issue,
contracts have included a clause giving the filmmaker portrait and publicity rights for
five years and six months from the date of shooting or five years from the date of sale.
Officially, therefore, a film cannot be sold or edited five years after its release without
the actress’s permission. Of course, that stipulation is only meaningful with regards to
legal sales routes; dealing with films that have been illegally uploaded is much harder.
Major adult websites in the U.S. pay actresses royalties for the videos they upload. I
once discovered that someone had uploaded several of my films to a certain adult
website, and I contacted them with a request to have those films deleted. They
suggested that I register on the website and collect royalties instead. In the U.S., an
actress retains the rights to her own image, which makes things like that possible, but
that right does not exist in Japan.
I’m more interested in getting illegally uploaded material off the Internet than I am in
the money, so I took on the challenge of having my videos removed from every overseas
website I could find. When I talked about this with someone working at a major
Japanese adult film producer, they told me they were being victimized too, and that
every website other than R18.com, which was designed to offer downloads to audiences
overseas for a fixed rate, was illegally uploading their films. I contacted Pornhub, the
porn website with most users worldwide, and they deleted the page featuring my films
without much hassle. They were also very cooperative when it came to deleting other
films I’d appeared in, handling my requests quickly and efficiently.
While all kinds of copyrighted works are illegally uploaded to the Internet, if you can
contact the hosting website in English you can usually get them taken down. I found
that those with Japanese versions of their website could also cope with inquiries in
Japanese. However, when I tried to get one film taken down from a website called Zenra,
which describes itself as “legally broadcasting Japanese porn with subtitles to the
world,” they came back saying the film’s producer had given them permission to host it.
In that case, the filmmaker was actually doing the illegal uploading. In my response to
Zenra, I asked them to inform me of any other filmmakers who had given permission to
host my films, and I issued a cease and desist order for their distribution.
Royalties
Even in Japan, actresses can receive royalties for past films in some cases. One example
is when excerpts of a film I’d been in were included in an omnibus film called “Special
Selection! Fifteen Voluptuous Sets of Enormous Titties!” Because of things like that,
even today I occasionally get royalties wired into my bank account. However, in Japan
that only holds for films made in 2018 or later. That is when AVAN, the Adult Video
Artists Network (which I’ll describe in more detail in the next chapter), established its
Basic Ethical and Procedural Rules for an Appropriate Adult Film Industry, which
included the following stipulations:
Article 8: Copyright and Secondary Use
Copyright ownership and neighboring rights for works produced must be clearly
specified. Compensation for secondary use of copyrighted works shall entail
payment of royalties to performers appearing in that work in a manner specified
elsewhere.
Rules like this were newly established as a part of efforts to clean up the adult
entertainment industry, which had come under scrutiny due to media coverage of
young women being coerced into appearing in adult films. In one case, this led to the
arrest of a company president for browbeating a nineteen-year-old into performing (the
age of majority in Japan at the time was twenty; it has since been lowered to eighteen).
Previously, women had no right to payment other than the initial fee they received for
films they appeared in, regardless of how or how often those images were reused. But
now that the rot in their industry is being exposed, adult film talent agencies and
production companies have found themselves in a much weaker position. A year after
my retirement, payments between ¥100,000 ($870) and ¥150,000 ($1,300) started
appearing in my bank account every six months. While I would have received a lot more
had the rules been changed a little earlier, at least now I was getting something.
I’m still a little dissatisfied with one thing, though: I’m not automatically informed
what film or films I’m being paid for. Different filmmakers use different auditing
agencies, and payees in my bank records are listed simply as “AVAN” or “JVPS” (Japan
Visual Production and Sales), which doesn’t tell me much. JVPS used to call to notify me
of impending royalty payments, but when I asked what I was being paid for, they would
say they’d look into that and send the details to my agent. I mean, how could they not
have that information from the beginning?
When I emailed AVAN about royalties, they replied that twice a year, in June and
December, if accumulated royalties due for secondary use of films I’d appeared in
exceeded ¥9,000 ($80), they would remit payment to the bank account they had on
record.
AVAN was founded in response to the issue of coerced porn performances, with former
porn star Mariko Kawana as its representative. As I’ll describe in more detail in the next
chapter, they have been very proactive regarding the payment of secondary use fees. I
once emailed them with some concerns. Namely:
You previously notified me of the timing and amounts of royalty payments, but
would it be possible to receive a breakdown of which titles I’m being paid for, and
how much for each? Does the amount of secondary use royalties I’m being paid
differ depending on factors such as the duration of my appearance in the film, or
its content? For example, would I be paid different amounts for a film in which I
appear in with many other women, like “35 Busty Babes,” verses one that is made
up solely of scenes of me from my other films? Are filmmakers faithfully
reporting secondary use for adult films like project films where actresses are
uncredited?
A few days later, they replied as follows:
Royalties for secondary use of films will vary depending on the number of
minutes in which an actress appears in that film and the number of other
actresses appearing. Payments are allocated among actresses over a given time,
so the amount you receive for a solo performance will be different from the case
where you are one of thirty-five. Where we do not have a record of an actress’s
name, we submit reports in the names of actresses as listed in official profiles.
As you can see, they gave me a courteous reply with no hint of trying to hide anything.
They also sent me a list of over two hundred films I’d been in that had generated
royalties, and how much I was being paid for each, which ranged from a few dollars to a
little over a hundred. (Which was very interesting, as was reading through the list and
realizing how frequently I was being cast not only for my enormous breasts but also
because I apparently look like I might be someone’s wife.)
Thanks to ongoing royalty payments, appearing in adult films is now a job that keeps
paying after you’ve retired. That will be even more the case if royalties on videos
streamed online ever become a thing in Japan. Being able to profit from archival works
over the long term might increase the attractiveness of porn work for some women,
since it is no longer a job that pays only while you’re young. That’s certainly not the case
for sex club workers. Further control over the rights to films in which we appear will
help make adult film work not only a source of lavish spending money for the young,
but also a way to support ourselves when we’re old.
Agents for adult film actresses
In response to the issue of coerced appearances in porn, director Kaoru Adachi founded
an organization called the Contents Creators’ Network (CNN). The members are adult
film producers and distributors—who are not members of the Intellectual Property
Promotion Association (IPPA), which conducts activities such as copyright protection—
submitting works based on their own criteria. This group, too, aims to make the adult
film industry a healthier place to work, but takes a different approach than does AVAN,
stating, “To protect the rights of all people involved in legal compliance and production
of adult films, we will promote research and activities for creating an environment in
which our member corporations and individuals are protected, mainly through lectures
and study groups.”
I was once invited as a guest to one such study group, where I presented the opinion
that adult film actresses should be represented by agents, not talent agencies. Actresses
should assert their rights, I said, like in adult film industries overseas where actresses
retain rights for use of their image. If that happens, however, I’m sure there will be
powerful pushback, because it would become harder for agencies to exploit their
actresses, and managers would have greatly reduced value. It would also be difficult to
change things so that actresses are paid royalties directly, rather than through their
agencies. We have a long way to go before realizing an agent system. However, it is a
step forward just for filmmakers to realize that in some ways, direct negotiation with
actresses will make their own work easier.
Come to think of it, I hate to even consider the idea that someone other than myself has
rights over images of my nude body. I do hope that at some point in the future we move
to an agent system in which actresses retain those rights. This is an industry that tends
to slide toward the dark side given the chance, so actresses need to do what they can to
protect themselves.
Chapter 6
A Changing Industry
Do adult films violate labor laws?
In 2016, the Japanese NGO Human Rights Now issued a report titled “Coercive
Appearances in Adult Films and Human Rights Violations Against Women,” which
resulted in increased social interest in the issue of women being coerced to appear in
porn. This had profound effects on the Japanese porn industry.
The issue triggering this report was a 2013 porn film called “Cum Inside Her Camping,”
for which a staggering 52 people, including 9 actresses and 24 actors, were arrested for
public indecency, because filming for that title occurred outdoors at a mountain
campsite the producers had rented out for two days.
The affair was instigated when one actress went to the police several years after the
film’s release, saying she had been forced to appear in the film, which resulted in the
June 2016 arrest of the president and other employees of her talent agency, Marks
Japan, for violation of the Worker Dispatch Act. A key point in her case was that sending
a woman under contract with them to a film shoot involving real sex acts can be
considered a violation of the Worker Dispatch Act. So far as that law is concerned, a
“film shoot involving actual sex acts” equates to “work that is detrimental to public
morals.” If that’s the case, I can’t help but wonder whether lawmakers consider all
women appearing in adult films as harmful to society. Regardless, it was unusual for
investigators to use the Worker Dispatch Act in an investigation of an adult film
company, and their doing so was taken as a sign that they had decided to crack down on
coerced appearances in porn.
There’s a certain ambiguity to “coercion,” however, as opposed to outright threats, so
even when both sides are giving the same description of what happened, what one side
calls coercion the other can claim to simply be a miscommunication, and it’s hard to
prove otherwise. There’s nothing ambiguous about filming people while they have sex
in the woods, however, so I guess the cops were sure of getting a conviction on that
charge, and that’s why they arrested over fifty people not for coercion but for public
indecency at a campsite, a place where the public might inadvertently catch a glimpse.
I heard that one of those arrested was an actress whose parents found out their
daughter was in porn when she ignored the initial summons and the police called their
home. Another actress reported being sexually harassed during questioning, with
detectives asking her things like “You really let those guys come inside of you? You’re
okay with that?” Everyone, however, was asked whether they were coerced into
appearing in the film, suggesting that was the police’s primary interest.
It’s interesting that all the actresses the police questioned denied being tricked into
anything and said they knew they were being hired to make pornography. Regardless,
the police viewed the fact that they had been hired for the job in the first place as
somehow harmful. If that’s the case, it’s hard to see how the adult film industry was
allowed to exist at all. I guess it was accepted only as long as it remained in society’s
shadows and didn’t cause any problems, similar to sex clubs.
In any case, the immediate effect of the “Cum Inside Her Camping” incident was the
Japanese porn industry deciding to nix all filming in any location that bystanders might
possibly catch sight of. That generally ruled out anything outdoors, even in places that
had been fully rented out. My debut film featured a scene where I changed clothes in a
studio courtyard, but even that would likely be hard to pull off today. When filmmakers
can’t resist shooting outside, they post guards around the set to make sure nobody
approaches, and blur backgrounds so no one can figure out where the scene was shot.
Once a filmmaker faces criminal charges, searches for the company name bring up
news about those charges, and the company comes under increased scrutiny by the
police. That’s why adult entertainment companies change their names so frequently;
for instance, the company behind the “Cum Inside Her Camping” series changed its
name from CA to WILL. Talent agencies do the same thing.
I actually appeared in a film similar to those in the problematic series at about the
same time, and as a result it was never released, despite filming being complete. I was
crushed, because I’d worked hard for that film and was really looking forward to its
release. I’ll have more to say about that in the final chapter of this book.
The fuzzy line of legality
As the case of “Cum Inside Her Camping” shows, sometimes it’s hard to know exactly
where the border between legal and illegal lies until the cops sweep in and clarify
things. Honestly, as best I can tell standards differ according to who’s making the
judgment, and raids and arrests are partly just for show, so the industry is still groping
about, trying to figure out what’s okay and what isn’t. What does “no outdoor filming”
mean, exactly? Are they in danger if outdoor scenery is visible through a window?
Every company has its own interpretation. Some blur out any scenery visible through a
window during sex scenes but leave it in scenes where everyone is just talking. Others
blur out everything but the people, even in conversation scenes, on the basis that it’s
still part of a porn film. As if Japanese porn doesn’t have enough blurring in it already!
There was even an odd film called “Porn Actresses Go Treasure Hunting in Colorado’s
Rocky Mountains” that blurred out everything in the background for its preview clips. I
mean, what’s up with that? There’s nothing sexy going on in the previews, so what were
they trying to do? Avoid getting the Rocky Mountains into trouble? The company even
wrote the movie title as “Porn Actresses Go Treasure Hunting in Colo__do’s R__ky
Mountains,” partially obscuring the location name. I think the company was going to
extremes to protect itself because they weren’t sure what would be deemed illegal.
After practically being branded as a public nuisance following the “Camping” incident,
the industry panicked, fearing all sex scenes might become illegal. This caused a
decrease in the number of creampie scenes, but not of non-simulated sex. Production
companies would no doubt have given up even that if the government had clearly
stated its illegality; many said they would have preferred that to the current state of
ambiguity. One problem for the actresses, however: Porn work pays better than straight
work precisely because it occupies a gray zone. Should that zone turn white, pay rates
will fall accordingly. And it is gradually whitening over time, through industry efforts
to protect itself from becoming a legal target.
The AV Human Rights Ethics Organization
The Adult Film Industry Reform Promotion Committee was established in April 2017
in response to the coercion issue. It was later renamed the Adult Video Human Rights
Ethics Organization (AVHREO) and continues to function as a watchdog group today.
Porn films made in adherence to the rules of this organization are designated “fair adult
films.” The rules are designed to ensure that performers’ rights are considered in
everything from how the actresses are recruited to how the films are shot and sold, and
most filmmakers abide by them. The AVHREO also engages in a variety of other
activities, such as drafting contracts and rules when filmmakers use freelance actresses
who are not affiliated with a talent agency and ensuring that actresses are paid
secondary use fees for their appearance in omnibus works, as described in the previous
chapter. Another service they provide is issuing orders for the cessation of sales of
works. When an actress wishes to stop the sale of a film she appeared in, she can issue
that request using an AVHREO-provided template, and the AVHREO will handle
communications with the seller at no cost (aside from actual costs such as postage).
I used their services for one film I was in. When I issued Pornhub a takedown notice for
that film, they came back saying they had received permission to host it from a
company that had acquired the rights for its international distribution with subtitles.
That itself was surprising enough, but equally so was that the film in question was the
one I’d appeared in as a condition of getting out of the pop idol group my agency had
tried to force on me. On the day of the shoot, I had nearly a 39 °C (102 °F) fever and
bronchitis so bad I could barely speak, so I barely made it through the dramatic scenes
and narrations. That was the only shoot I ever felt uncomfortable at, like I was being
forced to do something I didn’t want to do. Had coerced appearances in adult films been
an issue back then, I likely could have brandished it as a shield to protect myself.
Unfortunately, I had no such protection at the time.
Issuing cease and desist notices
My first step toward having that least-favorite film of mine erased from the Internet
was going to the AVHREO website, downloading their template order for the cessation
of sales of a work, and filling it in. When issuing such an order for more than one film,
you have to attach a list of the films. Considering that as a project actress I’d made over
two hundred films throughout my career, providing an exhaustive list would have been
quite a job. That was the first time I almost wished I’d stayed a feature actress.
After I applied for issuance of the order, the AVHREO sent me the following reply:
Thank you for applying for an order for the cessation of sales of a work or works.
Please note that we will use this email address for future correspondence related
to this case (we are unable to communicate by telephone, postal mail, etc.). We
have reviewed the information on the application form you sent us and verified
whether the entity claiming rights to the work(s) for which you are requesting
cessation of sales falls within the scope of our organization. The results of our
inquiry suggest that this is indeed such an entity, making the work eligible for an
order of cessation of sales. Final confirmation will occur upon consultation with
the entity that is the target of the requested order.
Note that entities claiming such rights will be unable to enforce orders for
cessation of sales in cases where the work(s) has been widely distributed without
the entity’s permission to websites in Japan and overseas that host illegal
uploads, or for bootleg DVDs and other illegal physical copies. Examples of such
websites include the following: https://jp.pornhub.com/
https://jp.xhamster.com/
https://www.youporn.com/
https://jp.tube8.com/
Furthermore, we will be unable to enforce cessation of sales in cases where a
third party purchased used products for resale, where a retail store has
purchased products originally available for rental, or where ownership has
otherwise transferred beyond the entity’s control. If you wish to continue with
the application for an order for cessation of sales of your work, please continue
with the following two procedures: Please provide us with the specific reason for
which you wish to issue this order. We will notify the entity of the reason you are
giving. If you provided supplementary information on the application form or in
a letter included with the application, feel free to duplicate the contents of that
letter.
Please send us by postal mail a copy of documentation that confirms your
identification. This can be a driver’s license, passport, or other officially issued
photo ID, and must be sent by postal mail. If the name on your identification
differs from that in the work(s) in question, such as if your family name changed
due to marriage, please note your name at the time of creation of the work(s).
The deadline for submitting the documents described in the two procedures
above is six months from the date of this email. This case will be automatically
closed should the required documents not be received by that date.
In response to this, I sent them an email that described in detail my reasons for
wanting to submit an order for cessation of sales. Around six weeks later, they did
indeed successfully submit the order, and my film was no longer available for sales or
streaming.
From this I learned that while the procedure is somewhat involved, the examples
provided on the AVHREO website are a big help, and the organization itself will do what
it can to help. However, it can take a while to hear back from them, and film companies
have some discretion over whether they comply with the order, so cessation of sales is
not guaranteed. Nevertheless, these are the official hoops you must go through if you
want to have a chance of success.
Companies are concerned about their public image and compliance with the law, so
former actresses who are still working as celebrities after their retirement from porn,
particularly those with a sizable social media following, will likely get their way. An
employee at one production company actually told me that if an actress has erased all
her social media accounts and therefore doesn’t have much of a public voice, it’s
possible that only her most prominent works will be taken down, with VR and
streaming works left up. Also, as noted in their email, even the AVHREO is unable to do
anything about the sale of pirated works, used DVDs that their owners have put up for
sale, and online distribution of illegal uploads.
Trends within the industry
The Adult Video Artists Network (AVAN), an organization for adult film actresses and
actors led by former actress Mariko Kawana, was established in response to the issue of
coercion in the porn industry. This organization took actions such as issuing a
statement that it is unacceptable for actresses and actors to be coerced into performing,
which provoked criticism from talent agencies and other groups. Ms. Kawana also made
some enemies in the industry by trying to directly contact actresses via phone calls and
messaging; while I imagine her goal was simply to hear their opinions, according to
what I heard from industry insiders, her method for doing so undercut and therefore
angered their agencies. The first commandment in the adult film industry is thou shalt
communicate with an actress only through her agency. This is primarily because
communications outside the agency might lead to work they cannot claim half the
profits from, which is where they make all their money.
On the agency side of things, in April 2017 a group of talent agencies formed the Japan
Production Guild (JPG) and announced that only guild members would be allowed to
use the “fair adult film” brand to assert their clean and proper management style, which
of course precludes any coerced appearances in films. Surprise, surprise…in April 2018
the guild representative himself was arrested in a coerced appearance case. While the
Guild had started out as just fourteen of the largest talent agencies styling themselves
as the only “fair agencies” in the industry, and thus subject to the sweetest deals, with
this arrest they lost their grounds for claiming exclusivity, and membership suddenly
swelled to forty companies. A group of agencies not in the JPG also banded together to
create the Secondary Production Association (SPA), giving the entire industry an “ustoo” kind of feel.
As shady as all this may sound, it does indicate some progress, in the sense that
agencies today at least seem to feel a need to comply with the law. I haven’t seen any
news about the industry establishing guidelines for shooting during the COVID-19
pandemic, but agencies are certainly trying to present a cleaner image. Today, the
presidents of each talent agency gather once a month to discuss joint events, transfers
of actresses between agencies, and the like. This doesn’t have anything to do with
coerced appearances, but it is a nice byproduct of that issue.
Talent agencies that recruit porn actresses tend to take the blame for forced
appearances, but they are also the ones that get jobs assigned. Their managers go out
and market the actresses, and without those managers the entire industry would grind
to a halt. The entire industry, not just talent agencies, needs to be involved in
addressing forced appearances. Actresses especially need industry support after they
quit acting, such as assistance in their transition to mainstream entertainment and a
guarantee that all royalties due to them will be paid.
AVAN today has a different leader, but it continues to operate as an extension of the
AVHREO. AVAN does important work, such as maintaining key documents that
actresses have signed and facilitating the payment of royalties. It also maintains a
helpful webpage that allows actresses to search for their name to confirm whether
royalties have been paid for their films.
Today, support systems exist for former actresses who are no longer affiliated with a
talent agency. Secondary use fees are paid not through an agency, but directly into the
actress’s bank account. An actress who has appeared in porn in the past but quit to
escape her agency can simply search for the name she was acting under at the time.
According to an article in the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper dated 7 February 2020, at
that time 2,649 actresses were still owed outstanding royalties.
Witch hunts against women reporting coercion
There used to be an unwritten rule in the industry stating that even if you were a
target of coercion, you weren’t to report it. This was of course because insiders wanted
to protect the industry that supported them, and an actress raising a stink could get in
the way of that. Everyone therefore pretended they’d never seen any hint of coercion.
Everyone, that is, except people who had gotten out of the industry.
In 2017, an article titled “A Porn Industry Women’s Roundtable” published on an
informational website aimed at women attracted a lot of attention. This article took the
form of a conversation between three women with knowledge of the porn industry: a
former employee of a major film production company, a former project film actress,
and a currently active freelance hair and makeup artist. While they said they hadn’t
seen coercion based on physical violence, they did see women being taken to shoots
without being notified of what kind of film was being made, and described some
women showing up still thinking they were being hired as hand models. As an industry
insider myself, I immediately recognized that as truth that could be spoken only
because these women were using assumed names.
However, that article disappeared less than one week after it was published, reportedly
at the participants’ request because they were afraid their true identities might be
discovered, causing repercussions from those they worked with at the time or
previously. While the photo of the three of them obscured their faces, their hairstyles
and clothing would likely be enough of a hint to those that mattered.
I myself have had multiple actresses tell me that they got into porn without realizing
what was happening. These women said they found themselves unable to say no that
first time, then kept doing it for one reason or another. No matter how long they
continued, however, that feeling of having been tricked lingered, so there’s something
not quite right about blanket denials of any women appearing in adult films because
they were forced. I understand the argument that you can’t call it coercion if you didn’t
unequivocally say no at the time, but not all women are brave enough to do that when a
yakuza-looking dude is staring them down.
In the “Camp” case, the woman who claimed she was coerced apparently said that to
save face after her fiancée found out she was in porn, according to tweets by other
actresses at her agency and actresses who had been arrested. The fiancé subsequently
went to the police with a demand that sales of the film be halted. Those first tweets
emphasized that while such was the situation in this case, they weren’t claiming that
there was no coercion in the industry overall. However, the conversation soon devolved
into abuse of the actress in question (“So she was coerced into appearing in all 500 of
her films? Please…”) and denials that coercion exists at all (“If you believe that, you’re
just stupid”). Probing a bit into her background, we see that she appeared in uncensored
films the same year she debuted as an exclusive actress, and that she deleted her blog
and Twitter accounts, suggesting she was involved in some amount of trouble during
her porn career. The “500 films” she was in includes compilations featuring clips of her
from other films, so the number of days she spent filming would have been far less than
that, and while she didn’t have the shortest of careers, I can see how she might have
been unable to quit despite wanting to.
But regardless of whether this particular actress was forced to appear in “Camping,”
the fact remains that this case had profound effects on Japan’s adult film industry, and
even if we assume she was not forced into anything, that does not prove coercion is a
non-issue today. At the time, I worried that all this bashing of a former actress would
make people even more likely to consider the porn industry an anti-social environment.
When somebody in the industry gets arrested, I consider it only natural for other
industry folk to apologize for the uproar they’ve caused, but when they instead turn
inward and start calling the woman a liar, they just make themselves look like the bad
guys.
Even when a woman in a porn film looks like she’s having a good time, it’s impossible
for anyone but her to know how she truly feels. She could even be experiencing a manic
state associated with depression. There’s just no way to tell from surface appearances.
Do we really need to see her kicking and screaming “Stop! I want to go home!” before we
admit she’s doing something she doesn’t want to do?
I can only hope a few more people will learn to give actresses the benefit of the doubt
when they claim they were forced into making a porn film, rather than get angry and
call her a liar. That will be a step toward the industry cleaning itself up. I know one
woman who openly attributes her current success as a general entertainer to her former
career as a porn actress and feels thankful for that experience, but behind the scenes
admits she was initially tricked into porn work. Many women hoping to become
entertainers stumble into porn in that way, with recruiters taking advantage of their
dreams.
Women in that situation will often put a positive spin on things, talking about how
porn eventually led to the kind of entertainment work they were after, or how it helped
them to build a fan base. However, these cheery takes are the privilege of those who are
currently able to procure such work; there are plenty of women who were led to porn
through promises of becoming famous that never became reality. Perhaps these women
simply weren’t talented enough to achieve success, but it’s still a shame that their adult
film work now serves as nothing but a stain on their past.
“No touts” does not mean “no coercion”
The first talent agency I joined loved to tell potential clients that all their actresses had
come to them, rather than being pulled off the streets by touts, thus obviating any risk
of coercion. In truth, however, they tricked many women by recruiting them as hand
models, or, as in my case, to be “sex toy reviewers,” which doesn’t seem fundamentally
different from coercion. In fact, this tactic is even more intimidating than being
approached on the street, where a woman can just walk away; once you’re sitting in
their offices, it can feel much harder to escape.
Of course, it’s the agency that benefits from this recruitment method. Their hook is
“high-paying part-time work,” so from the start they’re bringing in young women who
are highly motivated by money. Add to that the ease of work and the daily paychecks,
and they’re bringing in women who want money now. When they target women
interested in modeling body parts like hands and feet, or underwear, or those interested
in trying out a variety of sex toys, they’re attracting women they expect to have a
higher-than-average interest in sex. If an attractive one wanders in, they’ve hit the
jackpot.
From the talent agency’s perspective, young women looking for high-paying part-time
work are easily led into porn, but from the women’s perspective there’s a huge
difference between being paid to use a sex toy in private and being paid to be filmed
while having sex. Enjoying sex just does not equate to wanting to show the world your
naked body. But consider my own path into the industry: I go through a long interview
process, making me feel bad for taking up everyone’s time, so I figure I’ll just register
with them for now, but that very same day I’m swept off to photograph promotional
materials and to interview with a filmmaker and everything’s happening so fast I don’t
get a chance to refuse… How is that less coercive than using touts on the street?
Another positive change since coercion in the porn industry became a hot topic,
however, is that major talent agencies have come to a shared understanding that
talking women into signing contracts on the same day as their initial interview is a nono. Any time a woman is presented with a piece of paper that’s filled with legal-
sounding text, even if it’s only to register with an agency, she can now say she wants to
take it home to review before signing. An agency that pushes back is likely shady. Some
women may find it difficult to take such paperwork home, fearing that people there will
see it and learn what she’s up to. However, if a woman is even the least bit hesitant
about what she is doing, it’s wise to take that space to think. Without taking a step back
and some time to breathe, she can find herself in a situation she’s later unable to escape.
Signs of a changing industry
As described above, the issue of coercion in porn has instigated change in the industry.
In fact, production companies themselves are pushing for change, even if talent
agencies aren’t, because when a production company finds itself in trouble over a film
and therefore unable to release it after investing a lot of money, they take a serious
financial hit.
Contracts to appear in films made by the industry’s largest companies now include a
clause stating that it may be impossible to maintain the actress’s anonymity, and the
contract gets read out loud. Contracts also give the actress exit points at which she can
back out of the deal before filming begins. She may of course experience pushback from
her agency, but filmmakers are now more likely to pull out themselves if she clearly
doesn’t want to continue, out of fear of the legal ramifications that might result from
continuing.
Today, larger companies are more sensitive about these issues, as are companies that
have had executives arrested in coercion-related incidents that left them unable to
release completed films. There are still some smaller companies that haven’t been
burned and therefore haven’t caught on, but the industry as a whole is gradually
adapting to a new template for how to work with actresses.
Recently, companies have also begun requiring actresses read contracts out loud and
recording them while they do. This is of course an act of self-preservation, providing
them with proof that an actress was aware of her contract’s content should coercion
become a legal issue. Managers are asked to leave the room during this recording, to
prevent claims that constant monitoring of the actress was a form of brainwashing or
emotional duress.
Finally, the biggest change since discussion of coercion started is that contracts today
specify that an actress can pull out of a film even after filming is complete, giving her an
out all the way up to release.
“No coercion” videos during filming
Various other changes have occurred since 2016. I worked with one company that
records entire shoots from beginning to end in case they need to demonstrate that there
was no coercion involved. Which is fine, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of them
keeping a record of the sex scenes, because I worried that one of those videos might
somehow get passed around uncensored. Then again, if anyone started doing
something to me I didn’t like, I could just point and half-jokingly say, “Don’t forget,
you’re on camera!” so I guess the system has its merits.
I was once in a film where the director kept nagging me to drink more water so I could
squirt. There was a lot about that shoot I wasn’t happy with, and the director was really
getting on my nerves, so making sure I was in sight of the surveillance camera I said,
“Please stop trying to coerce me into squirting,” which immediately put an end to that.
Not the most elegant way of handling things, maybe, but it sure felt good.
Another change is that today, all filmmakers require actresses to sign a contract for
every film. Previously, smaller companies often didn’t even use contracts, but now they
are a necessary part of receiving “fair adult film” certification. A persistent difference
between large companies and smaller ones, however, is that while major companies
will have you sign a contract before filming starts, most minor ones still wait until the
morning of. I have mixed feelings about this. It does feel more professional to get all the
paperwork done before filming begins, but on the other hand, you’re making yet
another trip to the filmmaker’s offices just to sign your name. Finding time for that
must be hard for women who are acting in porn as a sideline gig, particularly if they
don’t live in Tokyo.
Back in the day, even the bigger filmmakers used to mail contracts, asking you to sign
and return them, and that was only for the really hardcore stuff, like S&M or bukkake
films. Things are a bit more of a pain now that every film requires a contract, and it feels
like porn is no longer a job woman can easily dip into for a quick buck. Of course, none
of this would be legally binding if it could be proven that women were being forced to
sign contracts and read them on video as “proof” they weren’t being coerced, so to some
extent all the rigmarole may be just another performance by the industry.
Monthly STI tests
Another big change is how testing for STIs is handled. My first shoot was around July
2014, and at that time actresses weren’t required to bring certification showing them to
be disease free. Actors, however, were constantly bouncing from place to place, and
were therefore required to maintain current health documentation.
The only times I was required to get tested was before girl-on-girl scenes where we
would be rubbing our pussies together and thus exchanging fluids, or creampie scenes
where the actors would be going in bareback. The girl-on-girl scenes required all
actresses to have been tested within the previous month, and condom-free scenes
required testing within the previous two weeks.
The issue of coercion in porn changed this, too. Rules are stricter now, with some
production companies requiring tests within the past two weeks even for girl-on-girl
scenes. Even if an actress will only be in scenes with condoms, she’s required to be
tested for STIs at least once per month and to show documentation that she’s clean.
Furthermore, while filmmakers used to cover the cost of testing, the burden has shifted
to the actresses now that it’s a constant requirement. A whole suite of tests is required
for porn work, and they don’t come cheap. For example, the “STI Testing Set A” at the
Shinjuku Clinic, a mainstay of the porn industry, tests for six diseases (hepatitis B,
syphilis, HIV, chlamydia, candida, and gonorrhea) at a cost of ¥12,050 ($105). This is
said to be the cheapest around, but as a monthly cost it adds up, and can really cut into
the income of a woman who’s doing porn as a sideline, or one who can’t find much
work. Conversely, those with as much work as they can handle might have difficulty
finding the time to get tested, and going all the way to Shinjuku can be a real hassle if
you don’t live in Tokyo. For that reason, I often saw managers going to pick up results
for actresses.
Before coercion became an issue, actors often skipped the condoms when taking
photos for packaging and promotion, since there was no actual insertion going on
behind the blurring out. These days, production companies tread more carefully and
ask the actors to wear one “just in case.” This higher awareness about sexually
transmitted disease is another benefit of the coercion discussion.
Actresses, too, need a professional attitude
The coercion issue has transformed the Japanese porn industry from an easy way for
women to make some quick cash to something like an honest profession. Women must
now approach the job with a certain degree of preparation and professionalism if
they’re going to stick with it. I think that’s a good thing. Honestly, since the work leaves
behind images of a woman’s naked body and her performing sex acts, I don’t think it
ever should have been something a woman could engage in lightly.
By professionalism here, I’m not talking about acting techniques or workplace
etiquette or anything like that. Rather, I’m talking about things like knowing that those
monthly STI tests are a business expense you can claim on your taxes, and even that you
really do need to file your taxes every year, which some popular veteran actresses have
somehow still not figured out. I’ve seen actresses brag on social media about the fact
that they paid their taxes, as if it’s something they should be congratulated for rather
than their obligation as a citizen.
I suppose that attitude is commonplace because there are still women in the industry
who wound up there because they hate things like paying taxes and just want to get
paid to spread their legs. Also, they of course don’t want tax refund notices sent to their
home address, tipping off parents or husbands about their career.
In recent years production companies have gotten more careful about making sure the
actresses they hire are of the age of majority. Still, the average age of actresses remains
quite low, and most don’t have a lot of experience adulting. I once knew a freelance
actress in her early twenties who always had her pay wired into her bank account the
day after filming was complete, but complained to me that nobody had taught her how
to pay taxes, saying she’d heard the women at another talent agency were all paying
theirs and now she was getting worried. I think talent agencies ought to train the
women they represent to function as members of society. Fun in-house events like
cherry blossom viewing to build camaraderie are fine, but tax-season seminars teaching
actresses how to file would be much more useful.
Agencies like to project a fun image and then start talking about professionalism after
an actress has released her first film, but it isn’t fair to recruit people by saying the work
is easy, only to get serious once they’re hired. Telling actresses they’ll only be filming
once a month ignores all the PR work they have to engage in, including blogging,
building a following on social media, and keeping that online presence up to date if they
don’t want to be called “unprofessional.” I think everyone would benefit if agencies
dropped the “easy work” line and instead sold porn work as a category of professional
acting that women shouldn’t even start if they’re worried about being outed.
For actresses, the coercion issue has led to stricter regulations that make porn less of
an easy-money job, but the flipside is that they are now guaranteed the right to protect
themselves and fight back if something bad happens. The industry is now less designed
to exploit naïve young women, and while constant social media updates add a lot of
work, your followers become another resource to fall back on when needed.
There’s a lot more than money to be gained by working in adult films. I hope those who
are just starting out will have opportunities to discover that.
Chapter 7
Why I’m Glad I Did Porn
Fond memories of the Bangin’ Bus
Allow me to close this book with a discussion of my most memorable job as a porn
actress, one that became a turning point for the way I approached filming. I’m talking
about none other than the film that got shelved due to the issue of coercion in the adult
film industry: Moody’s “Bangin’ Bus Tour 2016.” I usually don’t hold on to scripts for
films I’ve been in, because the final product is all I really care about, but I felt so
attached to this film that I made sure to hang on to this one. I had no clue back then as
to the fate that would befall this film, so I’m certainly glad I did.
Incidentally, final scripts are usually destroyed after filming to prevent leaks. Some
actresses like to keep scripts as a memento, though, and are usually given permission to
do so if they ask. It’s also common for busy staff to forget to collect them, so many
actresses just leave their copy in the makeup room at the end of the day. They’re sent
out as PDF attachments in an email the day before, so if you need to keep a copy as proof
you were in a porn film, just hang on to that mail.
“Bangin’ Bus Tour” is a very popular series that had swept the AV Open industry
awards the year before. The 2016 title had quite the lineup of talent, featuring eighteen
actresses, both those on exclusive contracts and popular freelancers. There was also a
“backup bus,” on which rode actors who were having problems getting it up or whom
women on the main bus were complaining about, along with four popular project
actresses. Filming took place during an overnight trip outside of Tokyo on a motor
coach bus, including visits to hot springs, pools, and a traditional ryokan inn with a
botanical garden. Alongside the performers were a couple dozen camera operators and
promotional staff, and multiple cameras were rolling at all times. It’s painful to think of
how much money the company lost in appearance fees for the actresses alone when this
film was canceled. No wonder the company tightened up its policies on contracts and
other procedural matters.
Unlike “Cum Inside Her Camping,” no filming took place outdoors, so you might think
this film was safe. However, there were scenes of actresses giving blowjobs and the like
while the bus was running, which could possibly have been considered as “detrimental
to public morals” if visible from outside. The company was very sensitive about road
safety laws and insisted that we kept our seatbelts fastened whenever possible (making
it very difficult to remove underwear). They also did things like close the curtains on
the side of the bus where sexy things were happening but keep curtains on the other
side open, on the basis that limited visibility all around might result in a traffic
violation.
The main selling point of this series wasn’t just that viewers could watch a wide
variety of famous actresses, but that the cast also included “real” amateur male actors,
selected by a panel including the director and producers. In truth, to ensure the filming
went smoothly, some actors who had previously appeared in other “amateur” films
were also hired, but they certainly weren’t professional actors who supported
themselves solely through porn work. This was to some extent a cost reduction move:
the selected men had to pay their own way to Shinjuku, the location in Tokyo we
departed from, and they weren’t paid for their roles. A surprising number of them came
from far away. One actor I spoke to came by bullet train, which is quite expensive.
When I mentioned that, he replied, “Yeah, but the price of a ticket is nothing compared
to how much I would have to spend at sex clubs to bang an equal number of girls as hot
as you all.”
I was also glad to see many men taking pride in their “Bangin’ Bus” appearance and
showing their face despite the risk of being outed as a result. Being able to interact with
my fans in that way was so moving, I started to cry, right there in the middle of all the
bump and grind.
The first thing that really got to me was when an amateur actor thanked me for
squirting for him. And it wasn’t just one actor who thanked me for that—they actually
formed a line! Squirting is a wet, messy affair that the actors and other staff wouldn’t
want to deal with if it didn’t make for such a stimulating image, so having so many
people express their thanks for my efforts was very touching.
Amateur actors are notorious for getting excited too easily and coming too quickly, but
that lack of control, that contrast with professional porn actors, is kind of charming.
What isn’t charming, however, is when they’re too nervous to get it up. That not only
delays the filming, it offends the actress. The ideal amateur performer is one with the
stamina to come over and over again, even if they don’t last long between ejaculations.
Those who couldn’t manage to get off even once were relegated to the backup bus and
replaced with a stand-in. Those who could get it up and come multiple times were of
course valued, but no man can do that without the tank eventually running dry. After a
few times, they’d shout, “I’m coming!”, but a glance at the condom they removed
afterwards would show that it contained nearly nothing.
I asked one such actor how many times he’d come that day, and he told me he was on
number six. Six orgasms in one day is quite a feat, and seeing the few drops of jizz he’d
managed to milk out brought home how hard he was working for us. I couldn’t help
welling up at the sight. The couple who were going at it next to us looked over and,
without pausing, asked if I was okay. Completely understandable, I guess; they must
have thought I’d been hurt somehow. I apologized and assured them I was okay, but I
couldn’t stop crying. I grabbed the nearest box of tissues to wipe my eyes, then burst out
laughing when I realized I was using cum-wipes to blot my tears. Only then was I able to
convince those around me that I really was okay.
Anyway, it was two days of drama for everyone involved, and at the end I had an even
longer line of people wanting to say goodbye. I sent each of them off with a kiss and a
smile. We’d all come to the shoot together on the same large bus, but our return journey
was in separate groups, by microbus. We women left first, so by sitting in the back seat,
I could look out the back window and watch the men until they disappeared out of
sight. As we pulled away, I made a heart shape with my fingers and pressed it against
the rear window, hoping they would see it.
Later, a female producer told me they did indeed see me sending my love. That
embarrassed me at the time, but I’m glad I was able to get my feelings across.
My best shoot of all
I actually turned that job down the first time it was offered to me. If you recall, my
initial goal in becoming a porn actress was to bang fifty porn stars, same as the number
of men I’d bedded before my career switch. Well…let’s just say I had far surpassed my
goal. And now I was being approached to make a film filled with amateurs? What’s the
point? I thought. I don’t need to be in adult films to get laid by dilettantes. Is this a sign
that it’s time to move on? I had, after all, been doing this for a year and a half, and I was
already thinking about retiring.
But then again, “Bangin’ Bus” was a hit series, and I figured maybe it wouldn’t be so bad
after all, to experience my first shoot where the men weren’t pros. My agency was all for
it, since getting one of their actresses into such a well-known film would be a feather in
their cap. They even held fast in negotiating a high rate for me, despite the filmmaker
downplaying the number of sex scenes I was likely to appear in; after all, everything
depended on the boner power of a bunch of amateurs.
However, the presence of the amateur actors allowed me to focus on them, rather than
the professional actresses I was working with, diffusing my attention in a good way. I
was the only actress in the “huge tits” category, attracting overly familiar actresses who
wanted a feel, who brought along otherwise shy actors wanting to get in on the action.
During one sex scene, a younger actress came in to kiss me, later admitting that she’d
actually wanted to do a full girl-on-girl scene. During an orgy scene in the public bath, a
couple scooched my way mid-screw, him still pumping away behind her. The actress
whispered to me in the cutest way, “He says he’s hoping you’ll squirt on him, is that
okay?” I was really letting go with the squirts, being in a place that was easy to clean and
all, and one popular actress begged me to give her some pointers. I was very grateful to
have people like that approach me, as I tend to be anxious about interactions with
people and end up on the sidelines as a result.
When we were shooting the grand finale, an orgy in a domed botanical garden with a
pool, I climbed up to a high vantage point, shouted “Watch me make a rainbow!”, and
started squirting from left to right like a sprinkler. One of the cameramen was highly
disappointed when he realized he’d captured that from the wrong angle, because if he’d
been on the other side the light really would have made a rainbow. That made me laugh,
but I was also glad he’d appreciated my act.
Perhaps because the actresses and staff were all top notch, we built relationships
quickly, and by the end of the first day, we were joking and teasing each other. I later
heard about a similar shoot where the men were misbehaving to the point of causing
complaints and the women were so rambunctious that it killed the mood. I think group
chemistry plays a huge role in situations like that.
I had been worried about sharing a room with the other actresses, but everyone was
kept busy by the tight filming schedule, and what little time we had left was filled with
filming extra scenes, photography sessions, autograph signing, streaming events and
what have you, meaning everyone was in the room at different times and there
wouldn’t have been many opportunities for chitchat even if I’d wanted it. The only
thing that was slightly off-putting was when one of the staff gave us a camera and
asked us to film some scenes of “the girls chatting in their off time,” which sounded like
a pain in the ass. But even being able to gripe about that pain-in-the-assiness brought us
together and made us feel more like colleagues. Possibly because I’d gone in with such a
negative attitude, things like that allowed me to have way more fun than I’d ever
expected.
The experience also allowed me to go beyond the simple pleasures of the profession—
the fun of acting and the physical gratification of good sex—by awakening me to the
professionalism of wanting to better please my co-stars and viewers. The only erotica
I’d ever been interested in was two-dimensional manga, so porn films held little appeal
for me. Lacking any love or passion for the product I was making, I was unable to take
pride in what I was doing or feel the industry was contributing to society, for example
by reducing sex crimes. All I’d managed to do was to satisfy my curiosity and build a
bankroll. But having people tell me they’d been looking forward to meeting me, that I’d
moved them, really made me happy. For the first time, I felt like I was doing something
for other people.
The now-deceased baseball manager Katsuya Nomura once said, “Amateurs strive to
please themselves. Pros strive to please others.” It was working on “Bangin’ Bus” that
made me realize I was still an amateur and want to spend the same amount of time
going forward working as a pro. I therefore consider the first half of my career as my
“amateur” period and the second half as the time during which I finally became a
professional.
I made my last film on May 18, the same date as my final day of filming for “Bangin’
Bus.” In fact, while scheduling for that last film, I requested that the shoot be on that
day. That’s how much “Bangin’ Bus” meant to me. Without that film, I would have
ended my career far sooner and without ever having truly become a professional. It was
only as a porn actress that I finally grasped the concept that work should be performed
for the benefit other people, a lesson I never learned while working as a company
employee in a straight line of work.
An environment welcoming to women with large breasts
My first job out of college was with a sports newspaper. I thought that job would be a
good fit because I’m so easily bored, and I figured that dealing with ever-changing news
would help satisfy my curiosity and provide me with the constant change I craved. I did
an internship with a major newspaper, but the seriousness of the other students made
me think I might do better in a looser environment, like a paper that ran lots of gossip
stories. I chose a sports paper because I knew I’d be one of the few women reporters
there, and I liked the sound of “former female sports reporter” as a moniker later on.
Setting aside the fact that I was making plans for quitting before I’d even gotten the job,
just as I did when moving to porn work, I also liked the idea of working in a
traditionally masculine field where I figured I could use my femininity as a weapon.
It was only after I entered the working world that I finally realized the extent of
prejudice women can face. As a student, from kindergarten all the way through college,
I had always been in environments with a high percentage of women, so while I knew
that women could become jealous of each other, I’d never been in situations where men
envied women as rivals. But the male reporters I met would say things like, “Must be
nice to be a woman. It’s so much easier for you to get interviews, and everyone you talk
to remembers you.” Personally, I envied my male colleagues for their ability to invite
other men out drinking, allowing them to get juicy off-record info, without having their
intentions misunderstood. When male reporters become friendlier with the people they
want to cover, by going out drinking or playing mahjong or what have you, they’re
laying the groundwork for smoother communications in the future. If a man I was
interested in writing about were to ask me out, however, it would be with different
expectations, and my inviting him would run the risk of misunderstanding, making
that form of relationship-building unavailable to me.
My newspaper assigned me to cover baseball, the one area of sports in which I had
neither knowledge nor interest. I had to keep a player roster on hand at first, because
the players in uniform all looked the same to me. I felt guilty for that, like I was an
impostor who shouldn’t be covering baseball in the first place, and I guess I tried to
make up for that with lots of smiles. But some people took that the wrong way, like I
was trying to entrap the person I was speaking to. Even worse, a reporter from another
newspaper once saw me give a baseball player my card and started a rumor that I’d
passed him a note to set up a tryst.
During the summer I wanted to stay cool by wearing a shirt without a jacket over it,
but that made my chest too prominent, prompting a certain minor leaguer to whisper
to me how just seeing me standing there gave him a hard-on. When I wore glasses, a
certain southpaw (dropped from the team the following year) told me that made me
even sexier. I can only imagine what other reporters thought about me when they saw
players making comments like that just because I was wearing my everyday clothes.
A female baseball reporter can’t wear heels, because she will sometimes need to walk
on the field, so a pants suit is the standard dress code. Once they get more comfortable,
however, both men and women tend to wear more casual attire, like black denim and
shirts. I had my own tastes in fashion, preferring things like Paul Smith shirts with
flowers along the side, or illusion-patterned shirts with a jacket, and in spring and fall I
would wear a trench coat with a fun lining. I wasn’t dressing to attract men. Putting my
own touch on otherwise boring work clothes made my days a little brighter and boosted
my confidence. That wasn’t limited to work. On the day I got a perfect score on the
TOEIC exam, I took the test wearing a pretty dress. I took a taxi to the test site so my
heels wouldn’t give me blisters, and the driver asked me if I was on my way to a party. I
don’t think you need to be going out on a date for makeup and clothes to put some
spring in your step.
Not everyone took my being a little fashionista well, though. One twenty-year male
veteran once commented, “What do you think you are? A newscaster?” I guess he didn’t
like seeing his polar opposite: someone who took pride in her appearance. Of course,
there was also that time I went to cover morning practice during baseball camp, and a
coach chided me for not wearing makeup, saying that’s not something grownups do. It
was absurd: I was damned if I did dress like woman and damned if I didn’t.
I also heard young baseball players talking about how certain female reporters from
other papers were “ugly,” and if a female reporter paid attention to her appearance, I
always heard her male colleagues whispering about who she was sleeping with.
Whether they were attractive or not, friendly or not, women were always a target for
backbiting.
There were kind people too, of course, but I think there’s something about being on the
same baseball field with the same players every day that makes even adult men feel a
kind of territoriality, like what you see in junior high or high school. It’s a very
masculine society, one in which feminine women stand out.
I spent my first twelve years of formal education in girls’ schools, followed by a liberal
arts degree in which the women far outnumbered the men, so finding myself set apart
and discriminated against as a woman felt awfully suffocating. If I was going to be
accused of taking advantage of my femininity even when I wasn’t intending to, I
thought, wouldn’t it be easier to work in a job where my femininity was the whole
point? I think that had something to do with my decision to work in an adult
entertainment field. I saw it as a place where I could shine as myself.
Whatever I do, my larger-than-normal breasts attract stares. Given that, I find it less of
a psychological burden to smile and strike a pose that shows them off than to shrink
away in disgust every time I feel someone’s gaze. Working in porn made life in
mainstream society more difficult in some ways, but it also eased my life in ways that
would have been impossible otherwise.
My unique life experience has also made for some interesting days, even after retiring
from porn. I’d always eagerly engaged in dirty talk, and now I have no end of tales to tell
based on my previous career. Many Japanophiles overseas are fans of Japanese porn in
addition to manga and anime, and as an English-speaking otaku myself with some level
of fame from my previous career, I now find myself in an environment where I can
make use of my personal interests.
Retirement has also been a great opportunity for taking on new challenges. Some
former actresses stick with nude work, but that’s them being them. It’s stimulating to
consider what the next phase in your life will be like. To tell the truth, while I loved the
compliments I received, I hated getting naked because it left me without support for my
breasts, so I’m glad I can now work with my chest covered up.
For many years I gave no thought to romance, considering men simply as sex objects.
At no point did I have a boyfriend to feel guilty about, which allowed me to fully enjoy
appearing in porn films. But now I’ve had my fill of sex with strangers, and I’ve closed
the gates while I await someone I can love. I haven’t so much as kissed anyone for years
now, and I’m happy with that.
Looking back, I can honestly say that my decision to act in adult films was a good one
for me. But that’s just me.
Appearing in porn requires knowledge
Different people are suited to different jobs. You can gussy porn up by calling it “a form
of artistic expression” or “entertainment” or whatever euphemism you like, but at its
core it’s people fucking on film. That puts it in a variety of gray zones. The industry has
always existed on the fringes of society, making it an occupational field no one should
enter lightly. That’s particularly true for anyone thinking about becoming a performer,
where the social risks are all the greater.
I got into porn and left it for my own reasons, and despite the occasional hiccup during
my career, I’ve been happy since before my debut film was released. I hope that anyone
who wants to start in this profession for their own reasons will end up with a happier
life as a result.
When you started hunting for your first job, you may have attended various
presentations and seminars or heard talks by people from the industry you were
interested in. You should do the same for the adult entertainment industry if it’s
something that interests you. I wrote this book as an informational resource,
particularly for women. I spent a long time writing the manuscript, being careful not to
cover up the raw truth for the sake of not hurting the feelings of men, and I used
freelance editors to avoid kowtowing to my former agencies or other industry entities.
Ever since coercion in the industry became a public issue, adult filmmakers have been
less able to “trick” people into appearing in their films. As in the case of sexual
harassment, however, many people still use “Well, back in my day…” as an excuse for
reprehensible behavior. If you are thinking of becoming an actress, you need
information to protect yourself. If the worst does happen, you will be able to respond
calmly and not become carried away as your situation develops.
Appendix:
Sample Agreement to Appear in an Adult Film
Agreement to Appear in an Adult Film
No. 31[REDACTED]
Actress’s stage name: Shibuya Kaho
Actress’s real name: [REDACTED]
Article 1: Agreement to Appear
The actress named above (“the Actress,” below) hereby agrees to perform and appear in
a film (“the Work,” below) to be produced, manufactured, sold, and distributed (in both
physical media and online, downloadable formats) by [REDACTED] Co., Ltd. (“the
Producer,” below), and asserts her full understanding that her performance will
necessarily include the acts specified in Article 2 below, and furthermore that she is
entering into this Agreement of her own free will
The actress asserts that she has received sufficient explanation of Item 1 above, that
she has not been deceived by the Producer or any third party, and that she has not been
threatened with financial penalties, etc., if she does not agree to the terms of this
Agreement.
If the Actress has appointed a talent agency or other third party to represent her and
perform paperwork on her behalf with regards to her appearance in the Work, the name
of that representative shall be noted in the space below:
Name of talent agency: [REDACTED] Co., Ltd.
Contact: [REDACTED]
Article 2: Content to the Work
The Actress recognizes that she will be making an adult film, and that doing so will
necessitate her performing the following acts while being filmed:
Performing sex acts such as those detailed below, alone or with other actors
(including extras) appearing in the Work; Disrobing and displaying her naked
body, and performing physical acts for the sexual stimulation of viewers;
Performing sexual acts including sexual intercourse, fellatio, masturbation, and
other acts associated with these; and Performances simulating acts including
intercourse accompanying violence and threats, vaginal intercourse, anal
intercourse, fellatio, “deep throating,” and performances of such sexual acts after
having simulated consumption of drugs such as sedatives, aphrodisiacs, and
alcohol.
Article 3: Sales of the Work
The Producer will retain sole rights to freely edit the Work, including adding subtitles
and/or dubbed soundtracks in foreign languages, and to create, replicate, broadcast,
and perform the Work (including display on closed-circuit television systems),
including public availability for downloading via the Internet and the sale and rental of
the Work on physical media.
The Producer will retain sole rights to perform the actions detailed in Item 1 above
related to distribution, broadcast, performance, sale, and rental of the Work both in
Japan and in other countries.
Article 4: Assignment of rights
The Producer and the Actress both recognize that all rights for copyright of the Work
will be assigned to the Producer as they arise.
The actress does not assert neighboring rights related to her performance, nor to
performer’s image rights as specified in Article 90 Item 2 and Article 90 Item 3 of the
Copyright Act.
Article 5: Use of the actress’s image
The Actress assigns to the Producer rights for use of the Actress’s stage name, likeness,
autograph, personal profile, etc., free of charge for the purposes of advertisement and
sales of the Work. This assignment will last for three years following completion of
filming of the Work, after which time this assignment will be automatically extended
for a period of one year. If the Actresses wishes to cancel assignment of this right, she
must provide the Producer with written notice of that intent no later than one month
before its expiration.
The Actress grants the Producer exclusive license for use of all neighboring rights, to
display the Actress’s name, and to alter, edit, and modify the work in any way they
choose, in connection with this work, other works created by the Producer in which the
Actress appears, and any future work in which The Actress will appear that is created by
the Producer. This Item also applies to Item 1, above.
Article 6: Marketing and publicity
The Producer is assigned rights for taking whatever measures it deems appropriate
with regards to online and real-world marketing and publicity with the aim of
maximizing the value of the Work. Furthermore, the Actress assigns to the Producer
rights for the use of her image in such marketing and publicity activities, and she agrees
to cooperate in the realization of those activities within reasonable limits.
Article 7: Warranties, etc.
The Actress warrants to the Producer that she is at least eighteen years old.
The Actress warrants to the Producer that at the time of signing this Agreement, to the
extent of her knowledge, she is not pregnant and that she is free of any sexually
transmitted infections. She furthermore warrants that she is responsible for taking
measures to avoid becoming pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted infection
from the time of signing this Agreement until completion of filming for the Work, by
taking measures such as use of birth control, awareness of her menstrual cycle, proper
health management, etc.
The Actress warrants to the Producer that she will not, without the Producer’s express
permission, take any actions that will significantly alter her appearance. Such actions
include but are not limited to dyeing her hair, becoming suntanned, undergoing plastic
surgery or breast enhancement surgery, getting tattooed, becoming pregnant, or
experiencing significant weight change. In such an event, she will take sufficient
measures to revert such a change in appearance. If such reversion is not possible
without delaying filming, the Actress will make monetary restitutions to cover the cost
of any filming delays.
If there is any change to the talent agency specified in Article 1 of this Agreement, the
Actress must notify the Producer immediately.
If the Actress decides she wishes to withdraw from filming of the Work, she must
notify the Producer immediately. If she withdraws from the film, the Actress is
forbidden from participating in any adult film projects for a period of six months. In
such an event, the Actress and the Producer will in good faith strive to reach an
agreement regarding continuance of sales of the Work.
Article 8: Nondisclosure
The Actress will not, without prior permission from the Producer, reveal to any third
party any information relating the existence of this Agreement or its contents.
The requirements for nondisclosure in the previous Item shall hold even in the event
of dispute between the Actress, the Producer, and/or the Actress’s representative, and
the Actress will make no attempts to contact stores or other outlets for sales or rental of
the Work, either directly or through a third party.
Article 9: Restitution for damages, etc.
Should the Actress cancel her participation in the Work for her own reasons, or should
the Actress’s own reasons prevent the Producer from being able to sell or otherwise
market the Work as provided in Article 3, the Actress shall recompense the Producer for
all costs incurred in the production of the Work, including her appearance fees, filming
costs, and all other production costs.
Unless otherwise stipulated in a separate agreement, if some act or negligence by the
Actress results in damages to the Producer, she will provide financial restitution for
said damages.
Similarly, if some act or negligence by the Producer results in damages to the Actress,
the Producer will provide financial restitution for said damages.
Article 10: Governing law, negotiated settlements, and jurisdiction
The stipulations of this Agreement shall be interpreted by the governing law of Japan.
If any disagreement arises related to the contents of this Agreement or some matter
that this Agreement does not cover, the Actress, the Producer, and the Actress’s
representative will work in good faith to achieve resolution. If such discussions do not
result in resolution, any outstanding disputes will be settled in the exclusive
jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court.
I assert that I have thoroughly read and understood this Agreement, to two copies of
which I have affixed my seal to signify that this Agreement is hereby established, and of
which I shall retain one copy. I also assert that I have received one copy of this
Agreement on this date.
Glossary
bukkake— Ejaculation by multiple men onto an actress in an adult film. Scenes featuring this act
originated in Japanese adult films in the 1980s, but have since spread to U.S. and European
pornography.
cabaret— A bar in which female staff sit with male customers, plying them with drinks and
engaging them in conversation. Hostesses do not generally engage in prostitution, but can
sometimes be hired to go on platonic dates with customers before or after their club shifts. These
clubs are frequently used not only by men wanting female companionship, but by
businesspeople wanting to impress clients.
gōkon— A drinking party intended to give men and women the opportunity to meet people of
the opposite sex. Usually, equal numbers of men and women are expected to be present.
gravure model— A model who generally appears in risqué (though not necessarily nude)
photographs in men’s magazines, photobooks, and multimedia.
gyaru— A fashion subculture that peaked in the 1990s and 2000s as backlash against traditional
Japanese beauty standards and expected social roles for young women.
host club— A bar in which attractive young men entertain female customers, like a genderreversed cabaret. Often a very expensive form of nightlife, the Japanese mass media is replete
with stories of women experiencing financial distress due to a host club “addiction.”
idol— A young celebrity who is primarily known for singing and dancing performances and who
often has a strong following among teenagers and young adults. Idols typically work for talent
agencies and have a carefully crafted image that is designed to appeal to their target audience.
Lolita fashion— A sub-genre of kawaii (“cute”) in Japan, strongly influenced by Victorian
fashions. “Lolita” here refers to the Nabokov novel, but in Japan does not necessarily have sexual
connotations.
soapland— A form of brothel combining bathing and massage services with paid sex acts.
tokusatsu— A cinematographic style for science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres that makes
frequent use of special effects. Well-known examples include the Godzilla and Ultraman movies
and television shows.