Erotic Japan Glossary

This is a working list of terms, slang, and other words related to the Japanese sex industry and sexuality.

ahegao The “weird face” made by Japanese women during sex.

ahiru-guchi Duckbill mouth, regarded as a cute feature in girls.

aidoru An “idol,” generally meaning a type of singer or performer in the music industry, though also used to refer to models (“gravure idol”) and porn stars (“AV idol”).

ashikoki Footjob.

asoko “Down there,” slang for the pussy.

Akihabara District in east Tokyo famous for its anime and otaku subcultures. Also home to many sex toy retailers and maid cafes.

AV “Adult video,” pornographic videos.

baishunfu Prostitute.

bakunyu (bakunyuu) “Explosive bust” or giant breasts.

bara Type of male gay manga or fiction.

bijin A beautiful girl (also bijo).

bijinga Old prints of beautiful ladies, the gravure idols of their day.

bicchi A female slut.

bukkake Ejaculating on the face of a partner.

burusera Portmanteau word for “bloomers” and “sailor suits,” this refers to sets of schoolgirl panties and clothes. “Used” sets are sold to men with fetishes.

chakuero (chaku-ero) A type of gravure idol shoot in which the model is nude but still wearing clothes. It is more explicit than a swimwear shoot but not as extreme as a “hair nude” or semi-nude shoot.

chikan Groping, a real-life issue on commuter trains and a common fantasy in porn and certain sex services.

cosplay Costume play.

dakimakura A “hug pillow,” typically a kind of substitute girlfriend or sex doll. May have an anime character cover and/or holes of penetration.

deai-saito (de-ai site) “Encounter website” for meeting people. Notoriously a place for men to pick up younger girls for enjo kosai or dating that is effectively prostitution.

debusen Someone with a fetish for larger ladies.

delivery health An in-call escort/call-girl service, where a call girl is dispatched to either your home or hotel.

denma A “massager” or “wand massager” vibrator that is a staple of Japanese porn. The most famous model is the Hitachi Magic Wand, though the Fairy series is also well known.

Dutch wife An old Japanese word for sex doll. Frequently today often used with cheaper types of sex dolls, such as air dolls or plush/foam dolls.

emu “M,” or masochism.

e-su “S,” or sadism.

ero “Erotic,” or adult content.

eroge Erotic or adult video game.

ero-manga Erotic or adult manga.

ero zasshi Erotic or adult/porn magazine.

enjo kosai (enjo kousai) “Compensated dating,” a form of ersatz prostitution that became a media sensation in the 1990s. Typically between high school girls and older salarymen.

etchi (ecchi) Dirty or lewd.

fashion health Euphemism for a type of sex club (fuzoku) with booths for blow jobs or other forms of sexual activity, often non-penetrative to avoid the laws against prostitution.

fechi Fetish.

forty-eight ways The Japanese version of the Kama Sutra, this is the shiju-hachi te — or 48 sexual positions.

furin Adultery.

futanari A type of Japanese hermaphroditism or “two kinds,” in pornography or erotic manga/anime this typically means cute young girls with large penises. This may be faked in adult videos with special dildos.

fuzoku (fuuzoku) A sex club, brothel, or other establishment offering sex services. These may not be penetrative, due to official anti-prostitution laws, though services where patrons leave the premises with a girl to a nearby love hotel are usually penetrative.

gaijin A foreigner, especially a white or Western foreigner.

girls bar A low-end hostess bar, where the staff are all female and wear slightly sexy clothes. Drinks will be a little bit above the norm and there will be a moderate seating charge. However, there are usually no booths like at typical hostess clubs.

gokkon (goukon) Group blind date event.

gokkun Drinking semen.

gomu Condom.

gradol See “gravure.”

gravure (Gravia) Female idols known for their cute looks and large busts, similar to glamor models. Typically gravure shoots are bikini or swimwear. The gravure industry subsists on magazines, photo-books and DVDs (“image videos”). Gravure idols are also called gradol.

gyaku-anaru Being penetrated anally, particularly in the case of a woman using a dildo on a man or a newhalf penetrating a man.

gyaru A “gal,” a type of fashion group popular in the 1990s famous for slutty clothes and tanned skin.

haafu Someone of mixed race. It is a matter of debate as to whether the term is positive or contains implicit racism by othering biracial people as not “whole.”

hair nude A full-frontal photo shoot, so named because the pubic hair is visible, which was long a taboo due to Japan’s obscenity laws.

hako-fuzoku (hako-heru) A name for a sex club/brothel where everything happens inside the “shop,” from the reception and payment to the service itself.

hamedori A type of Japanese pornography shot from a point-of-view perspective (such as by phone camera), similar to Gonzo porn.

happening bar A club for consenting adults to have sex with each other. One that caters to couples is known as a “couple kissa.”

harem Erotic anime subgenre featuring a male protagonist with multiple members of the opposite sex.

hentai Controversial term, meaning “pervert” or “perverted.” Often used outside Japan to refer to extreme forms of pornography or erotic manga/anime, such as involving seemingly underage participants. The word is much more common and generic in Japan.

hihokan (hikoukan) Literally meaning “secret treasure hall,” this is a type of retro sex museum, once common in regional Japan.

hinnyu (hinnyuu) “Poor breasts,” meaning very flat-chested.

host (hosuto) The male version of a hostess, hosts tout for business from passing young women outside busy stations. They often have elaborate hair styles.

hostess The modern-day geisha, hostesses entertain clients in very expensive bars. There are many levels of hostesses, from high-class drinking companions to girls in run-down “snack” clubs. They are not prostitutes but may sometimes sleep with clients.

hotel health Type of fuzoku outcall sex service where you go to the club to choose and pick up your companion, and head to a love hotel.

hotetoru A type of fuzoku sex service where there is no “shop” or club, but instead you call to get a girl “delivered” to your home or love hotel. Similar to “delivery health.”

idol See entry for “aidoru.”

iku To come; to orgasm. Literally means “to go,”

ime-kura An “image club” is a type of sex club catering to roleplaying and other fantasies.

inbu More formal word for genitalia.

JAV Japanese adult video, or the local pornography industry.

J-girl A term for a young Japanese woman, often used disparagingly by foreign men.

JK (josei koukosei) A female high school student, a frequent trope in manga, anime and porn.

joso General term for cross-dressing as a female.

josoko A female cross-dresser.

junior idol Idol aged in her low teens or even younger. Sometimes called a chidol, or “child idol.”

Kabukicho District in Shinjuku, central Tokyo, and notorious for its sex clubs, though it has gentrified and cleaned up in recent years.

kagema A historical word for young male prostitutes.

kami-machi “God-waiting” girls who are runaways hanging around areas like Kabukicho, looking for work or shelter.

Kanamara Matsuri Japan’s most famous traditional Shinto penis festival.

kawa no ji “River character,” a reference to the kanji character for “river” with three vertical strokes. Since young kids tend to sleep in the same room as their parents and even on the same futon, the kanji also visualizes how children literally come between a couple — and stop them from having a sex life.

ketsu A slang word for butt, stronger than the slightly euphemistic-sounding “oshiri.”

kikumon Literally meaning “chrysanthemum gate,” this is slang for the anus. It is a pun, playing on a word meaning “chrysanthemum seal,” which is the seal of the Imperial Family.

kimochii “Feels good,” a phrase frequently said when Japanese people have sex, especially young women.

kinbaku Japanese rope bondage, also called shibari.

Kitashinchi Area in north Osaka famous for its hostess clubs.

kito (kitou) The head of the penis.

konpa A singles party, typically for members of the same club or social group.

kuki-ningyo An air doll or inflatable sex doll.

kupaa The noise of a tight vagina opening up.

kyaba-jo A hostess.

kyabukura A hostess or cabaret club.

lolicon (rorikon) “Lolita complex,” an attraction to young (or young-looking) girls, typically in adult manga or anime.

love doll (rabu do-ru) A euphemistic or alternate term for sex doll.

love hotel (rabu hoteru) A type of hotel offering short stays for sexual trysts.

maguro A “tuna” or starfish, a frigid girl who does not move during sex with her partner, probably due to inexperience.

maid cafe A type of hostess club, most famously located in Akihabara, when the staff are all female and dressed in French maid uniforms. A version for girls is a “butler cafe.”

manaita A “chopping board,” or slang for a Japanese girl with a flat chest.

manko (omanko) Pussy or vagina.

mizu-shobai The “water trade,” a euphemism for hostesses or snack bar workers

meiki A special kind of onahole.

mesuiki A dry orgasm.

moe A certain kind of cuteness associated with otaku culture.

mosaic Japanese pornography is pixellated to avoid obscenity laws. Also traditionally the case for mainstream films and TV when genitalia is shown, though more and more scenes are left uncensored if non-sexual in nature.

muryo annaijo A “free information/guidance” booth or kiosk, often found in downtown areas like Kabukicho, offering referrals and info on sex services or hostess clubs in the area.

nakadashi Cream pie, or ejaculating inside a woman without a condom on.

nampa (nanpa) Picking up members of the opposite sex, typically in a bar or club, or even on the street. Gyaku-nanba usually means when a woman picks up a man.

nanshoku Traditional word for male-male love.

nawashi A rope bondage artist, also called a kinbakushi or bakushi.

newhalf A full transsexual, typically men who have transitioned to women. Trans women (that is, born a man) may keep their penis and still be categorized as newhalf. A “new quarter” is sometimes used to refer to a transgender who retains some (or even all) of their original genitalia.

Nichome The biggest gay district in Tokyo, located in Shinjuku.

nikubenki “Human toilet,” a promiscuous woman.

Nippori Area in northeast Tokyo where there are many love hotels.

no-pan When a woman is not wearing panties.

nureba “Wet place,” a nude or sex scene in a film or TV show.

nyan-nyan shashin Leaked sex or nude photos.

nyotaimori Quasi-mythical practice of serving sushi on naked bodies.

paipan When a woman is fully shaved.

pink salon (pinsaro) A blow-job parlor.

pinku eiga (pink film) Softcore porn film, very popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

oiran A type of high-class courtesan in Edo-period Japan.

okama A drag queen or transvestite. Not a term used by the transgender community today.

OL An “office lady” or white collar company employee. A common trope in pornography, an OL wears smart office wear and is docile. Her job is to make tea and serve her male colleagues.

omorashi Fantasy for having a girl wet herself.

onahole (onaho) A masturbator sleeve. “Ona” means onani, or onanism.

Onda Matsuri Fertility festival in Asuka, Nara Prefecture, which features prominent spanking.

Orient Industry Manufacturer of Japan’s most sophisticated sex dolls.

otaku　Type of Japanese geek, famously found in the Akihabara area.

otoko no ko “Male daughter” cross-dresser, typically with a nuance of cosplay and cuteness.

paizuri Type of mammary intercourse also known as a boob job, titfuck, titjob, or titty fucking.

panchira Visible panties, a frequent trope in fantasies, porn and adult manga.

petannko Flat-chested.

Roppongi Area in Tokyo famous for foreigners and sleazy nightlife, though in recent years it has been cleaned up.

roshutsu Exhibitionism fetish.

ryojoku Insult or shame fetish.

sailor uniform A type of Japanese schoolgirl uniform.

sanpi Threesome.

seifuku A uniform.

seisui “Holy water,” a euphemism for urine.

sentakuita “Washing board,” another euphemism for flat-chested.

shinbari Japanese rope bondage, along called kinbaku.

shiofuki Female ejaculation, or squirting.

shokushu goukan Tentacle sex, sometimes referred to as “tentacle rape,” this is a trope common in Japanese pornography and extreme adult manga and anime. However, its roots go back centuries.

shotacon “Shotaro complex,” an attraction to young boys or the depiction of young-looking boys.

shuchi “Shame,” a subgenre in pornography.

shudo (or wakashudo) Traditional word for gay relationship between older man and younger boy.

shunga A type of historical woodblock print with pornographic content.

shucchou A “business trip,” a euphemism for a call girl visit.

snack bar A type of cheap hostess club.

soapland Type of brothel where women offer men sexual services while washing them, formerly known as toruko.

SOD (Soft on Demand) Japan’s biggest producer of pornography.

sukebe A pervert.

sumata Crotch frottage or intercrural (femoral) sex where a woman gets the man off by rubbing his cock with her thighs. A service often available at brothels to circumvent official laws against prostitution. Sumata can also just mean “thighs.”

Taka Katoh (Taka Kata) Legendary Japanese male performer, now retired. Famed for his fingers that can make women orgasm quickly.

Takarazuka Camp all-female cabaret troupe.

tamakeri Male fantasy of being kicked in the balls by a strong woman.

tekoki A handjob.

tere-kura (telekura) A “telephone club” for hooking up with a date. Often a front for call girl services.

Tenga The Apple of the Japanese adult toy market, who burst into the industry with such groundbreaking products as the Tenga Egg, the Tenga Flip Hole and more. Now a subsidiary of Soft on Demand, their products are sold worldwide.

toruko-buro A type of Turkish bath with sex services, now known as a soapland.

tousatsu (tosatsu) Peeping Tom illicit videos

tsurupeta Flat-chested.

Uguisudani Station near the Nippori area in Tokyo and home to many cheap love hotels and sex clubs. Call girls can be seen in front of the station at almost any time of day.

ura-aka joshi Meaning “secretly dirty girls,” these are women who have hidden social media accounts for posting nude selfies, sex tapes, and other adult content about themselves.

yaeba A snaggletooth, often regarded as cute on a Japanese girl.

yaoi “Boys’ love” genre of adult manga and anime, featuring homoerotic relations. Popular with women, it is not necessarily targeted at gay readers.

yobai Old “night crawl” rural custom of men creeping into a neighboring house to have sex with the daughter. Often it would be semi-staged so they could be caught by the father and made to marry.

Yoshiwara District in east Tokyo and the site of the old pleasure quarter in the Edo period. There are still many sex clubs there today.

yukaku Designated red-light districts in Edo-era Japan.

zentai Body suit fetish.

zettai ryouiki (zettai ryoiki) The “absolute zone” of a bare upper thigh on a girl’s leg, especially when wearing a skirt and knee-high socks.