The founder of Japanese video hosting site FC2, Riyo Takahashi, once ran unsuccessfully for election in Japan's upper house. His campaign platform was to "crush mosaic censorship," referring to the pixellation that covers genitalia in Japanese porn to protect producers and retailers from prosecution under Japan's obscenity law, which is usually interpreted as drawing the line at showing a penis or vagina. (This same logic is applied to nudity in mainstream movies too.) Now Takahashi has been arrested by police in Japan when he returned to the country. The 51-year-old was arrested on ...

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Back in May, we reported on the shocking arrest of the incredibly popular Japanese OnlyFans adult creator Naomiii. The performer was likely a victim of her own success, which got her noticed by authorities and who found a way to nab her on obscenity charges. The 32-year-old adored by millions for her sensually curvy body and perfectly shaped labia was arrested with Nobutoshi Kiri, who helped make her videos and upload them. The "amateur" porn (shot in 4K) the pair made was actually very high quality but the uncensored content was what attracted police attention. Most people reacted with ...

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Police have arrested a 24-year-old man on suspicion of violating the new adult video law after he was caught filming a sex act with a 16-year-old girl in a karaoke room. One of the most common places to go to karaoke in Japan is a building with lots of small soundproof rooms, little more than booths really. This gives you privacy to drink and sing, and thus also ideal date spots. A bit of cuddling and smooching in the karaoke booth is the perfect prelude to moving on to your home or a love hotel. Inevitably, sex does happen in karaoke rooms, but actually making a porn film without ...

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A candidate for the upcoming Tokyo governor election is using a naked female model on his campaign posters. Yusuke Kawai's schtick is cosplaying as the Joker and doing provocative stuff, though this might be the most extreme of all his stunts to date. The model is Miu Sakurai, a gyaru model, music idol (with the group Devilsis), and race queen who has appeared in beauty contests and who appears to have Filipino roots. She describes herself as the "world's top will-do-anything gyaru" and has also been helping Kawai put up the posters of her naked body on boards around Tokyo. Various ...

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We have written before about political candidate Yukiko Kaname, who is hoping to win election one day as a Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker. Having failed to win a seat in 2022, the sex-positive feminist Kaname is undeterred and her main campaigning revolves around key issues related to equality for sex workers. With a Lower House election likely to happen this year, the 47-year-old Kaname is still working hard to make a name for herself among potential voters. She recently stirred up controversy by promising a since-deleted tweet to ask the prime minister if he has ever ...

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Like millions of others, you have probably seen and enjoyed the homemade porn content by Naomiii, recording her sexual exploits with a partner in various parts of Japan, and showcasing her amazing body, which probably includes the best-shaped labia we have possibly ever seen. But publicly shared sex tapes and amateur porn are still subject to the same obscenity law in Japan that demands censorship of genitalia, and you are especially liable to attract police attention if you are successfully selling content online -- and ultimately face arrest. And so it has come to pass for Naomiii, ...

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Early last year, we reported on the lawsuit by former porn star Kaho Shibuya over the leaking of her past content. What happens to your work after you retire is a matter of concern for adult video performers, who have historically lacked control over how production companies and distributors make money off their bodies. It has been common for studios to continue releasing older content in anthologies long after a performer has officially stopped working in the industry. A new lawsuit at Tokyo District Court shows another side to this issue. The stripper Miyuki Ariga (有賀美雪) is suing ...

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A US Marine corporal has been arrested for filming a female sex worker in Naha, Okinawa. The 22-year-old was arrested at the scene on May 4 for breaching a little-known law against filming sexual acts. The Marine is attached to Camp Kinser (Machinato Service Area) in Urasoe on the main island of Okinawa. He told police, "I didn't know it was illegal [to film]." And if we're honest, that's fair enough. While a customer likely knows it's almost always against the brothel's rules and liable to land you in trouble, it might surprise many that you can actually face arrest for filming your ...

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The controversial adult video law, which requires productions to allow for one-month contract cooling-off periods and gives greater powers to performers to prevent releases even up to four months after completion of a shoot, was introduced in June 2022. These well-meaning measures are meant to curb coercion, which has been a rampant issue in porn, but many insiders say that the new law's restrictive conditions are too harsh and risk killing off the JAV industry. Some of the most vocal opponents of the law have been porn performers themselves. Several prominent AV stars launched a petition in ...

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Famous (or possibly infamous) Japanese entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, aka Horiemon, has weighed in on the issue of adult video censorship. Japanese adult video, despite being possibly the biggest porn industry in the world, is censored: no genitals are shown. This is a strange workaround to avoid prosecution under the obscenity law that was introduced to Japan in the Meiji era. The same policy is used in softcore porn and mainstream cinema, even if the nudity is not in a sex scene. In a Japanese movie, the makers will simply shoot in a way to avoid genitals. If it's a foreign film, they will ...

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