One of the year's biggest stories continues to get bigger.
Exploitation and coercion in the Japanese AV industry has been condemned for trafficking. It has sparked a public debate about labor rights for porn performers, or the lack thereof.
The issue of coercing women to appear in porn has even led to arrests. In days past, such people in the porn industry were presumably protected by the Yakuza but the ongoing civil war may have shaken up the system.
Amid intense media attention, now an AV industry association has issued a formal apology and promised reform.
The Intellectual ...
The recent interest in Japanese AV performers' labor and human rights continues to develop. It's one of the big stories of the year so far.
Following the arrest mere days ago of a porn performer agency for forcing its roster of women to appear in porn and other recent developments like a damning report and seminar on the issue of exploitation and trafficking, now comes news that former AV star Mariko Kawana has launched a new orgnization to help.
There are already groups like Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims (formerly Polaris Project Japan) and Human Rights Now (HRN) as ...
A company president of a Japanese AV talent agency has been arrested for allegedly forcing a woman to appear in pornography.
It was learnt on June 11th that Marks Japan was raided by cops and three of its employees arrested. Police also raided other related businesses, including two production companies.
The allegations stem from a woman who signed up to Marks Japan's roster of talent as a gravure idol in 2009, but was then sent to a porn shoot in September 2013 despite knowing she did not want to appear.
Marks Japan's talent includes everyone from relatively innocuous things like ...
Porn workers of the world, unite! Do Japan’s porn actresses and actors have labor rights? This was the question asked in a recent feature in the Japan Times.
Ostensibly a report on a May 4th talk at a Koenji cafe, it was about the AV industry's response to Human Rights Now (HRN), which had issued a damning report about the local AV industry.
The international NGO, which is based in Tokyo and has U.N. special consultative status, reported the results of an in-depth investigation into the pornography business in Japan. The report concluded that the industry had violated the human ...
What are the dark secrets of the entertainment industry in Japan? Here is our subjective list.
1: Sex
Despite the control exerted by talent agencies over idols' private lives (who they can and cannot date, or in the case of some groups, not letting them date or have sex at all), the truth is that there is plenty of sex happening -- it's just not all that pleasant or consensual.
Makura eigyo (sleeping with people to get ahead, like the casting couch) is rampant at many levels of the gravure and idol industry, with female models and entertainers frequently having sex with older male managers ...
An AFP article doing the rounds on sites like Japan Today and Mail Online has some bad things to say about Japanese porn.
The headline blasts: "Japan's porn industry preys on young women, say rights advocates".
Well, not an unfamiliar topic, we hear you say.
Japanese women are being exploited and abused in Japan’s multi-billion dollar pornographic film industry, rights advocates said on Thursday, calling on authorities to strengthen laws to protect them.
Pornography is widely available in Japan, where some actresses become well known enough to appear on mainstream TV chat ...
After the recent court ruling against the underage idol who "broke" her contract and had a relationship, and the ruling in favor of the hostess who had a long-running affair with a client, there have been some interesting legal developments in Japan of late.
Now a woman who refused to take part in a porn shoot and was sued for ¥24 million (over $200,000) for breach of contract by the production company has won her case.
The court in Tokyo ruled that the "nature of the work is one that you cannot force someone to do it against their will".
The judge threw out the production ...
It's long time we turned our lustful attention to Mihiro.
This lady of many names (Mihiro Taniguchi or Mihiro, real name Hiromi Yamase) is also an idol of many job descriptions: nude model, AV star, singer, actress, writer...
She was born in 1982 and made her debut about 10 years ago. Although long retired, she continues to be a presence on the sidelines of the industry and also wrote an autobiographical novel that was the basis for the film nude, which charts how a model gets pulled into the world of Japanese pornography essentially by coercion.
The film version starred the very ...
We love uncovering and sharing with the world the unsung heroines of Japanese ladies!
We often blog about sexy idols but there are plenty of very, very beautiful regular Japanese actresses as well. They don't do gravure style bikini shoots but they still often do nude shoots or very sexy photos. In Japan this isn't seen as degrading or damaging to your acting career, and typically the shoots will be collaborations with famous photographers.
Naoko Watanabe (渡辺奈緒子), born in 1984, is a very attractive actress who, though not a star, has been in several high profile releases, ...
