Japan, along with the US and Russia, are the three “powers” with the world’s most developed adult entertainment industry. The Japanese porn industry is currently the largest in size, bringing in profits of up to 20 billion USD per year. In the US market, profits account for about 10-12 billion USD. The rest is divided among other markets such as Russia, Europe and East Asian countries, notably South Korea.
Pornography in Japan includes many unique features that are easily distinguishable from Western pornography. Porn is known as “adult video” (JAV) in Japan, which refers to the Japanese porn industry.
Erotic anime is called hentai in English, but in Japan the term “adult anime” or “erotic animation” is used in Japan. In addition to porn videos and magazines with live actors, now there are erotic comics and cartoons (hentai), erotic online games (eroge).
| Porn magazines are openly sold in Japan |
Reflecting Japan’s views on sexuality and culture, Japanese pornography delves into a range of heterosexual, homosexual, and transsexual acts in addition to lustful acts. Beginning with erotic stories and woodblock prints from before the 20th century, Japanese pornography evolved into separate sub-categories aimed at circumventing Japanese censorship laws. The actors and producers brought up many topics not seen or rarely depicted in Western pornography.
Japan’s Penal Code from the early 20th century has a rule against indecent material, so any legally produced pornography must be censored through covering or blurring the genitals. of the actor. This censorship also extends to the graphics of hentai manga, video games, and anime.
After the Meiji Restoration in the second half of the 19th century, the publication of pornographic publications fell under government pressure.
Thriving in the 20th century
At the end of the Taishō period (Taishō 1912-1926) and the beginning of the Showa period (Shōwa 1926-1989), an art movement known as Eroguronansensu, literally “erotic-odd-nonsense” took place. due to the influence of decadent works in Europe. Overt sexual expressions have been allowed in the novels and manga, but strict controls still apply on photos and movies.
After World War II, during the Allied occupation of Japan, which lasted until 1952, all forms of pornography were banned in the country. The American forces occupying Japan imposed Western ideas on morality and law. The Japanese public gradually accepted this. Negative ideas about pornography, which are alien to Japanese culture, have been accepted and applied through visual depiction.
As a result, when the occupying forces left, the Japanese government maintained a ban on publishing pornographic material until the late 1980s; Images or movies depicting frontal nudity as well as genital images are prohibited. Prostitution was outlawed in Japan in 1958. Face-to-face nudity was not allowed in films in Japan until 1986.
Japanese people are influenced by reading magazines like Playboy, or various pornographic magazines printed shortly after World War II. Articles of Playboy talks about the American way of life, mostly non-Asian women, interviewing people who are barely known in Japan.
In the early 1960s, several studios began producing “pink films”. With censorship laws that forbade the display of the genitals and the freedom to show anything, these films quickly diversified to satisfy audiences of all kinds, including rape and bind. During the 1960s, “pink movies” were mainly produced by low-budget, independent filmmakers such as Kōji Wakamatsu. In 1971, the major film studio Nikkatsu entered the production of the “pink film” genre.
From 1971, gay magazines began to appear, including Barazoku. Gay magazines tend to be tailored to specific segments of the population, such as Badi for young adult men. Samson for chubby men and G-men focus on muscular men.
Japanese romance movies In the Realm of the Senses by director Nagisa Ōshima was banned in Japan due to nudity and pornography. Although it quickly became a sensation at film festivals in New York and Cannes, in October 1976, the film was seized by Japanese authorities.
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| Scenes In the Realm of the Senses |
In the Realm of the Senses Based on a famous true story in Japan. In 1936 in Tokyo, Sada Abe was a former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel. Hotel owner Kichizo Ishida sexually harasses her, and the two begin a tense affair that includes sexual experiments with various types of selfies. Ishida leaves his wife to pursue an affair with Sada. Sada becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of Ishida, and Ishida wants to win her heart even more. Their mutual obsession escalates until Ishida discovers that she likes to strangle him best during sex and that Ishida is killed this way with the words written in blood on the hotel owner’s chest: “Sada-Kichi , we are always together”.
The film was considered too obscene by the Japanese public. The film’s producer and screenwriter were taken to court, charged with obscenity, but found not guilty.
Eiko Matsuda was born in 1952, in Yokohama, Japan. Passionate about acting for a long time, but the actress has not had the opportunity to show her ability. In 1975, the opportunity opened up for Matsuda when she took on the lead role in the controversial film In the Realm of the Senses (Vietnamese title: Sensual Kingdom), released in theaters in 1976.
In the film, she takes on the role of the female lead Sada Abe, a hotel waitress with a past as a prostitute. Sada quickly falls in love with a male guest. This man was so infatuated with her that he left his wife and children to run after his lover.
In order to have the most realistic scenes, Matsuda refused to use stuntmen, taking on hot scenes in the film himself. However, her efforts were not well received by the audience. The actress suffered heavy consequences after her role in life, living in exile for 20 years. Meanwhile, the male lead of the film, Tatsuya Fuji (as Kichizo Ishida) continues to act, his career is not affected like the female co-star.
Explosion of JAV porn due to… Covid-19 pandemic
The rise in the number of pornographic videos in the 1980s is often referred to as A/V (short for adult video) because most Japanese homes at the time had at least two TVs and a VCR (the first one). videotape) at home. Some A/Vs are sold in laser disc format.
According to John Carr, the UK government’s adviser on children’s internet safety policy, two-thirds of pedophile images on the Internet in the late 1990s can be traced back to Japan. He added: “We think child pornography, in all its forms, promotes values and sends the message that child sexual abuse is possible. It helps pedophiles justify their ideas or behaviour, and discredits society as a whole.”
Many Japanese women say they were tricked into signing “model contracts” and forced to act in pornographic films. There have been calls for stricter regulation of the sex industry.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, global viewership of Japanese porn (JAV) increased significantly as more people were forced to stay at home.
Possession or performance of child pornography is illegal in Japan as of June 2014. The distribution of child pornography was made illegal in 1999 following international pressure from the United Nations, UNICEF and other international organisations.
Before that, in June 2008, a bill proposing to apply a ban on possession of child pornography was submitted to the House of Representatives of Japan, then introduced before the Parliament in September 2008, but was not passed. .
