Ex-porn star, now manga artist Nayuka Mine looks back on her adult video career

Nayuka Mine is one of the most high-profile ex-porn stars in Japan.

She worked as an adult video performer for five years from 2005. She has since become a popular manga artist. Her latest book, a semi-autobiography, came out in December last year.

In a recent two-part interview with the Bunshun online, 36-year-old Mine explained her past.

She was scouted for AV at the age of 19. She hadn’t appreciated that she had big breasts until then, when her assets were praised by the scout. Rather, at high school, she had been teased for being “fat” by her male cohorts. At the time, she had come from a rural part of Japan to study at fashion school. Having always carried a condom with her in case of a sexual encounter, she was surprised that girls in Tokyo did not seem to care about contraception.

Mine was able to debut as a lead performer, earning ¥1.5 million per solo appearance. Her debut sold 30,000 copies and she built a successful career in the industry.

She remains proud of her breasts. “If I hadn’t been popular [as an AV star], I would only have got to shown to a boyfriend. Isn’t that sad? I don’t think they would then have been ‘correctly appraised.'”

She recalls various details, not least that despite the image that porn stars do drugs, she was warned by industry people not to dabble, since it would make her thin and bring her value down as a performer.

Today, she doesn’t regret her porn past, saying that everyone feels that their life has its own “demerits,” whether it’s harassment in a marriage or a low salary at work. “Whatever choice you make, there are always going to be demerits.”

Last April, Mine announced that she had gotten married and given birth to a child.