Rui Sakuragi was one of the biggest adult video stars in Japan in the first half of the 1990s. She made her debut in 1989 and then left the industry in 1996 at the peak of her popularity.
In her subsequent career, she was a stripper until the year 2000, and did some acting on TV during those years.
But in the past quarter-century, fans didn't know what she was up to and rumors swirled that she had passed away.
That silence ended recently.
So what is the now 56-year-old Rui Sakuragi doing today? She's working as a hostess at a club in Ginza run by another top ex-porn star, Hitomi ...
Last year, one of the biggest (and most amusing) celebrity sex scandals was the discovery of streamer Junichi Kato's affair with porn star Ai Hongo.
They were rumbled by social media posts and netizen detectives, who figured out that Kato was watching a baseball game with his lover in the United States. The attention ultimately led to Hongo apologizing and stepping back from releasing further productions for the foreseeable future.
This was followed in January by the scoop that Yokohama DeNA BayStars pitcher Katsuki Azuma was having an affair with porn star Jun Suehiro.
In some way, it ...
The internet has had an immeasurable impact on sex, from providing access to invaluable advice and information, to enabling people to watch hardcore porn at just the click of a button or swipe and tape of a phone screen.
Some argue that having such easy access to porn all the time is unhealthy, especially at a very young and impressionable age. Some blame the ubiquity of porn for the rise of certain violent sexual preferences, like choking.
In Japan, porn has long been ubiquitous since the emergence of the adult video industry in the 1980s, though porn magazines and books were already big ...
Earlier this week, we wrote about the brilliant Japanese porn parody of the Korean Netflix series Squid Game. Of course it's called Squirt Game.
Now comes a source of inspiration closer to home.
Ever year, the Japanese and international media is full of news about a record-breaking tuna auction bid. Often these bids are publicity stunts, done by people like the head of conveyor-belt sushi chain Sushiro.
This week, a 276 kg bluefin tuna fetched ¥207 million, which is a cool $1.31 million, at the first auction of 2025 at Toyosu wholesale fish market (the successor to Tsukiji market). This ...
Squid Game has inspired a brilliant Japanese porn parody, Squirt Game.
From the player and guard costumes to the publicity materials, there's no mistaking the source material for this release from adult video production company Das, here reinvented as Dasflix.
The female "contestants" in Squirt Game (code DASS00534) are played by Waka Misono, Mizuki Yayoi, Machi Ikuno, and Mitsuki Igarashi. Needless to say, the challenges the contestants face are far more intimate than in the original Netflix series.
Squid Game (known in Japan as Ika Game, using the Japanese word for "squid") is ...
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 ...
Japanese porn parodies are two a penny. Every few weeks seems to offer up yet another colorful AV parody of a franchise or real-life incident. We reported on the new Frieren: Beyond Journey's End porn parody last week, for example.
But though at times inventive or even provocative, these parodies tend to have lowish production values and, let's be honest, are basically a cash grab.
And so people have reacted with surprise at the high quality of the porn parody of My Dress-Up Darling (その着せ替え人形は恋をする), a manga, anime, and (since this month) TV drama on MBS, because ...
We recently wrote about an inventive porn parody of a long-running horror movie franchise.
Sometimes these parodies go beyond the cheeky and amusing, and are brazen or even legally dubious. A porn parodying the DJ Soda groping incident was ultimately pulled from release after an outcry.
The Japanese adult video industry's latest target for parody is the popular manga and anime Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, a franchise that is also increasingly famous overseas.
Called Premature Ejaculation Free Rental Pussy (早漏のフリーレンタルマ〇コ), which in Japanese is read similar to ...
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 ...
The Japanese adult video industry loves to parody other cultural productions or topical events, as we have covered numerous times here.
Past examples include pastiches of Demon Slayer, Joker, and Ultraman.
These do go too far sometimes. One parody porn inspired by the DJ groping incident was ultimately not released, perhaps for fear of legal reprisals from the Korean celebrity's side. A porn based on a women's support group (and anti-feminist sentiment toward it by male netizens) was likewise very controversial last October.
The parody of the Maho Yamaguchi assault incident also had a ...
