Orient Industry, maker of luxury Japanese sex dolls, to close after 50 years
For almost as long as we have been involved with the adult industry in Japan, since the late 2000s, two big names have always dominated: Tenga, revered for its innovation and sophistication with masturbation toys; and Orient Industry, which has almost single-handedly made Japanese sex dolls internationally famous.
The maker of customized, premium silicone sex dolls has become legendary, its hyper-realistic products have featured in books and documentaries, and are admired by all. If you have never seen an Orient Industry doll in person, be assured that photos don’t do them justice.
This week sadly brought that the news that this era is ending: Orient Industry to to close and stop producing its amazing line of sex dolls.
The company made the announcement on August 21. It means the end of a company that has been in business for around 47 years.
It ultimately comes down to age and health. The founder and CEO, Hideo Tsuchiya, is now well past retirement age and understandably wants to rest up for the time he has left. And it seems he has no one suitable to whom he can pass on the business.
It’s surely not a question of demand and declining sales. Love dolls enjoyed increased sales during the Covid pandemic, according to media reports in 2022.
Orient Industry released its first doll in 1977. Made of urethane and PVC, Hohoemi was really simple: a head, breasts, and a waist with a hole.
The company quickly progressed to making full-body dolls. Everything changed with the release of the Candy Girl series in 1997, which were dolls entirely made from silicone.
In the 2000s, Orient Industry began to attract more mainstream attention from the media and photographers like Kyoichi Tsuzuki and Kishin Shinoyama. Its love dolls gained recognition not only as adult toys but also as works of art and incredible craftsmanship.
Its 40th-anniversary exhibition in 2017 attracted 10,000 visitors.
The gallery/showroom in Ueno, which first opened in 1982, will close on September 20 and the studio/factory will cease producing dolls on October 10.
Due to the amount of time required to make its incredibly detailed dolls, the company is no long accepting orders to new parts and bodies, no doubt because it wants to allow enough time to fulfill existing orders before it closes.
For many years, Orient Industry silicone dolls have been available internationally via Kanojo Toys (through an exclusive arrangement). Among our personal favorites were the Yasuragi and Ange dolls.
5 Comments
Congratulations Tadashi on focusing on something that is current instead of something where the time to report on it was several years earlier
@Tadashi
you have to get over your fragile ego and realize that running a website costs money. You need to bring in readers and having newly published articles about subjects that are years old aren’t cutting it when there are materials already out there about that subject.
You don’t need to be “breaking news” fast but you do need to focus on more current subjects instead because your current method is just making you shoot yourself (the site) in the foot. A task of staying current shouldn’t be hard at all seeing as how short your articles are and most of the article space is taken up by pictures you post with the articles anyways. Focus on what’s new instead of old subjects if you want to help the website at all
@Tadashi
your comment earlier actually shows how much of a fragile ego you have when your skills (what little you have) as a writer gets criticized. If you can’t handle your articles getting criticized then you have definitely chosen the wrong career path (though I definitely wouldn’t call working at this site as much of a career, the “team” could do better btw). So you should definitely hang up the writing career for one where you don’t have to deal with people directly in a way.
Your recent comment is also ironic in the way that you try and tell me to park my sense of entitlement at the door when your entire comment shows your own entitlement that you think that you can hide and shove away bad criticism, a move that definitely shows that you have a fragile ego.
Looking at the sad state of the website you have definitely been shooting yourself in the foot over the years, no wonder the old topics are apparently what gets you the highest traffic especially with your low skills of a writer. With how floundering about the site has been doing over the years it is a absolute miracle that it has survived for this long, miracles don’t last forever though so you and the team should definitely be calling it quits while you are still financially stable to do so and move onto greener pastures. Flailing about while keeping your head barely above water can only last for so long.
@Tadashi
just wanted to let you know that you just proved my point after my congratulations comment and after I gave you extremely helpful advice.
Surprise = 1
Tadashi = 0
remember focus on new material instead of old material and honestly work on your writing skills.
Surprise = 1
Tadashi = 0