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 ...
Chanyota (ちゃんよた) may have had one of the most unusual careers in Japanese entertainment.
She is currently a professional wrestler and YouTuber, but has previously worked as a porn star -- and as a police officer.
Born in Tokyo and brought up in Niigata, the 29-year-old graduated from high school and then made her porn debut in December 2020. She appeared in AVs until September 2024, the same year she also released a print photo book showing off her muscular body.
She was simultaneously moving into wrestling, making her professional debut in 2021.
"I didn't think I was right ...
It's very common to meet romantic partners or even future spouses at work, something that has remained the case even in the age of dating apps.
Things work a bit differently in the porn world, though, because the nature of the work involves incredible levels of intimacy with other performers (and even the crew, to a certain extent). In effect, you are having a sexual relationship with your coworkers already. Would you be interested in having a romantic and emotional one as well?
The ex-porn star Anna Kami has announced her marriage to adult video performer Tetsuya Shido.
The ...
Beloved for her slinky body, boyish looks, and short hair, the Japanese porn star Riasu Mizutani has announced her pregnancy on social media.
We had noted Mizutani's recent social media absence and lack of releases, after making a bit of a splash with her debut in 2023. She broke her silence on March 1 with the announcement, accompanied by a picture of her cradling her pregnant belly.
Mizutani has carved out a very unusual presence in the adult video industry, mainly because she is a highly educated young woman who also works an English-Japanese translator.
Since emerging on the scene, ...
In tabloid terms, Anri Sakaguchi is the gift that keeps on giving.
The celebrity, who is the daughter of an actress and golfer, and was a feature on TV shows in the 2010s, has had a checkered career and past, to say the least.
She entered porn in 2016 pay off her debts. She also did a full-frontal nude shoot.
After her porn career ended, she was twice arrested for extortion and trespassing.
Since then, it's an open secret that she (like other minor celebrities) makes ends meet by compensated dating.
More recently, she married and then swiftly split from a trans man.
The latest Anri ...
Former Japanese porn star Rei Chinatsu (千夏麗) has been arrested for an alleged romance scam with a man she met through social media.
The 26-year-old has appeared in several adult video releases, with 12 titles currently listed on Fanza, Japan's largest online porn retailer, though this includes anthology-type releases with footage from multiple performers' previous releases. Most of her releases have a schoolgirl theme and seem to date from 2019. Her other performer name was Nozomi Nakase.
She is not currently active as a professional performer, it seems.
The allegation is that ...
After they retire, most JAV porn stars disappear into obscurity, though a prominent handful have remained in the public eye in other roles, such as writers and photographers.
Yua Mikami is pursuing a career in modeling and apparel, though has faced some criticism over her association with other brands, and former adult video star Minami Aizawa recently announced she would no longer use her performer name in her post-JAV career.
Among the many things that porn stars have expertise at, understanding about hygiene, physical health, and STDs and STIs surely ranks near the top.
As regular ...
The former Japanese porn star Minami Aizawa has announced that she is to go on hiatus and fully retire her old performer name.
Aizawa worked in AV from 2016 to 2023, and has continued to use her name since retiring.
However, in social media posts on August 25 to her hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and X, the 28-year-old announced in English and Japanese that she would stop using the name Minami Aizawa because she was fed up with the limitations of being always introduced as a "former porn star."
It makes her feel like she is, in her words, "clinging to past glories" and ...
When Yua Mikami retired last summer at the age of 30 and after carving out one of the most successful careers in Japanese porn ever, speculation was rife over what she would do next.
For a start, she appeared to date two male celebrities at the same time.
She has since focused on developing a line of apparel under the brand name MISTREASS, as she had announced she would last year (and a long-term passion project for her). She models for the brand too.
Sadly, some things have not gone quite to plan.
Mikami announced on social media yesterday that she was going to take action against the ...
As regular readers will know, we are as interested in the current professional activities of Japanese porn stars as we are in their post-career lives: What do they do are they retire from adult video? What jobs do they do? Can they settle down with a partner and start a family?
An interesting example of this is Suzumi Suzuki, who used to work as a porn star under the name Ruri Satoh in the mid-2000s.
She then got a graduate degree from the University of Tokyo (she also holds an undergraduate degree from the equally prestigious Keio University) and launched a career as a sociologist and ...
