Porn star Ai Hongo to suspend activities after affair with YouTuber exposed

A few days ago, we reported on the amusing and somewhat outlandish tale of the popular YouTuber whose adultery was caught out by his own social media posts and TV coverage of the Shohei Ohtani baseball game in the United States that he had attended.

Streamer and YouTuber Junichi Kato (also known as Unko-chan) had boasted about going to see the Japanese sports legend play, but he was not there alone as he had claimed.

Thanks to some clever detective work, it turned out that Kato was attending the match with his lover, who was none other than porn star Ai Hongo.

Kato fessed up and openly declared that he was going home to face the music with his wife.

The repercussions for his lover, Ai Hongo, were less clear at the time. After all, why should we hold a performer to supposed standards of loyalty and morality? Let’s be honest, it’s her job to sleep with lots of men (albeit under very professional conditions).

Hongo, whose used to perform as Yume Nikaido, announced in her own apologetic YouTube video that she had been deceived by Kato, who apparently told her that he was single.

However, it seems that the intense attention the viral story has generated has been too much even for a mainstream porn star to continue her work.

She announced yesterday that she and her agency have decided to temporarily halt her activities. Whether it was entirely her decision or if she was pressured into this by her manager is unclear.

We think it’s somewhat ridiculous that Ai Hongo should be forced to curtail her career like this, especially if she was simply deceived by a sleazy (and damned lucky) guy. (According to a recent report in News Post Seven, Kato has a liking for AV and gravure idols, and has met them at a certain members-only bar in Roppongi. It’s suggested that he had relationships with other porn stars.)

On the other hand, porn stars tend to keep their relationships and romances fairly under wraps. Though not as religiously observed as with music idols, JAV performers are discreet about their love lives, since they are ultimately selling the fantasy of intimacy. This scandal has, even aside from the adultery issue, spoiled that fantasy and it’s a cloud that will cover her future releases, at least in the immediate future.

Similarly, when a gravure idol’s relationship with someone is reported, the model may struggle to land major cover shoots because the image of her as an “available” woman to fans has been compromised.

And then there are the legal complications, since Kato’s wife might sue Ai Hongo as the adulterous partner. This is allowed under Japanese law and quite common. Hongo might have to spend the next months preparing for that instead of doing porn.

Let’s hope she can make a comeback soon. Perhaps it’ll even be in a production that parodies her unfortunate story, since we know how much the JAV industry loves to lampoon topical and controversial events!