Former top adult video star Yuri Komuro calls for ban on unsimulated sex in porn

Given the wide-ranging discussions now taking place about introducing a new law with major implications for the porn industry in Japan, we wanted to share a related reform proposal from a few years ago.

Given that the potential new law is intended to protect young and vulnerable performers from coercion, increase performer rights, and give them more control over how their bodies are used, we wonder if anyone is taking note of what a former adult video actress suggested back in late 2018, when the initial coercion issue was in the spotlight.

Aged 43 at the time, the retired porn star Yuri Komuro was the most high-profile speaker at the seminar. As readers are probably already aware, she was one of the biggest names in the JAV industry during the 1990s, able to command fees of a million yen per release.

At a seminar organized by the Adult Video Human Rights Ethics Organization, Komuro argued that porn should break free of its reliance on actual, unsimulated sex (known in Japanese as honban).

During the seminar, she revealed that the productions she made involved both actual sex and simulated sex. The latter, she says, was a much better experience for her physically and mentally.

Though Komuro acknowledged during the seminar that switching to simulated sex would hurt sales, she believes it’s a bitter pill that they have to swallow, and that the benefits would outweigh the losses.

“The industry is too reliant on actual sex. In fact, unsimulated sex was just one of several options. Adult video, after all, evolved from pink films [soft-core porn, sexploitation movies], in which actresses simulate sex. Somewhere along the line, unsimulated sex became the norm. Does that count as performing? Is it actually what we can call entertainment?”

“The makers and performers,” she continued, “are sex entertainers who can still suitably arouse audiences even without actual sex.”

Komuro argued that no longer in porn shoots would also help address the issue of “porn education,” whereby many young people get their sex education primarily from watching AV and so merely imitate what they see, which may be uncomfortable or even physically painful for the female partner. Komuro believes that if viewers know if it simulated — fake — then viewers will be less inclined to treat it as real and how they should behave themselves when having sex. “It will protect the body of the woman and the mind of the man.”

Given that Japanese obscenity laws require producers to pixellate genitalia, faking actual penetration might not be as difficult as it sounds. Moreover, performers already fake one major aspect of AV: contraception. In most cases, the viewer does not see the male performer put a condom on, even though he is generally wearing one. The mechanics of the process take place off-screen. Likewise, before the money shot at the end, the performer will pull out, whip off the condom (off-screen), and then ejaculate on the female performer’s face or body. There is already a kind of deception involved in all this.

Since retiring in the year 2000, Komuro has worked as an actor and singer. She was one of the more prominent voices when the coercion controversy first appeared around five years ago, and is also involved in supporting careers for ex-performers, who face stigma over their past and may struggle to find mainstream occupations after leaving the industry. Komuro endeavors to help the women deal with their lives and introduce employment opportunities, harnessing the business network she has cultivated through her activities as a public speaker.

Last year, presenting herself as a “male-female communication expert,” she launched a very successful crowdfunding campaign for a sex education project.