We all know and love the likes of Maria Ozawa. But something like 95% of Japanese porn is populated not by stars but by so-called kikaku joyu, or "project actresses" -- these are the unsung heroines of an industry that products 20,000 titles a year. In the same way that American porn has anonymous fluffers doing much of the dog's work, the kikaku joyu provide the meat for all the incredible JAV porn films that involve sometimes dozens or even hundreds of actresses. They will play the "regular girl" roles -- OL, nurse, student etc. They are typically scouted on the streets or recruited ...

A new film Namae no nai Onnatachi (名前のない女たち, literally "The Girls With No Names", though the English title is Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano) is about young JAV porn stars in Tokyo, a subject of course close to our heart! It's based on a nonfiction bestseller, a four-volume compilation of interviews on life and sex with kikaku porn actresses. A kikaku joyu is a supporting actress hired for the day, whose face and/or name doesn't appear on film, as opposed to tantai, the starring models. The ratio of tantai to kikaku girls is something like 5% to 95%! The ...