New law enacted to help people pressured into porn

Money is not actually altogether that great

A girl I know who works for a major AV studio gets paid 500,000 yen per month (plus has her apartment paid for) for just two movies + various events like signing stuff and doing photoshoots. Not bad for someone with no skills. She likes her lifestyle.

Plenty of Japanese girls willingly do porn because the money is so good and they have no skills.

Money is not actually altogether that great, but certainly, too many looking to make some easy money utilizing the one asset they have, their body.

Initially it will allow contracts to be cancelled up to two years after a film is released, but that period is expected to be later revised to a standard 12 months.

The law also stipulates that porn makers must wait a month after a contract is signed to begin shooting and four months to release the work after it has been filmed.

Will it be effective? I already see some loopholes. For example, "amateur" videos can be released online anytime to earn money without a production company or retailers, and they wouldn't have to comply with the timetable or regulations. The porn industry may end up going underground.

Another point: why only porn? Young adults are vulnerable to other dubious businesses or criminal activities.

The money isn’t that good - there are several YouTube videos on Japanese AV “stars” who live in poverty, they have essentially no future post porn, and they get pressured into doing increasingly “edgy” things or get cast aside.

I’m not against porn. Banning porn is as useless as banning prostitution, but the female performers need protection. This law is a start.

There are definitely victims in the industry and they need protecting, perhaps best done in schools through education, and via free legal support. But feminist activists and academics are seeking to outlaw the sex industry entirely upon the basis that everyone in it is a victim, even if they don't think they are. We are in the bizarre position of seeing FAAs targeting the livelihoods of women who do want to work in the industry, denying them their choice. As is usual in this case, the Japanese government are not banning porn, they are just placing barriers upon it that effectively ban chunks of it (a bit like tourism).

The same activists are also demanding that school uniforms become unisex to desexualise them and promote LGBTQ rights. Which seems sensible on the surface. But, a teenage female member of my family reported that the trend amongst girls in her school is to fold up their skirts at the top until they are the length of belts, with more panty flashes than a manga. They also bend the rules on stockings, plumping for fishnets, and end up looking like women on a hen night. As with all fashion, like it or not, this is their choice and their way of expressing who they are. FAAs are trying to enforce their own beliefs on women who simply want to do their own thing. They are becoming more like the Taliban every day, demanding ever more bans and restrictions, often upon women, often for similar reasons. Governments will comply as it gives them positive PR in the press and they get to crack down on yet another sector of society. The more stuff they criminalise, the more they can control society.

quote: But there are still "non-professional and illegal films left unchecked", she said.

They want to ban you from making home movies and censor online porn too. They really would make excellent Taliban.

The new law is intended to prevent talent scouts offering work as a model or idol performer before pushing recruits into sex and nudity.

Meanwhile I just exited the station on my commute and "Vanilla Kyujin" and "City Heaven" billboard trucks were circling the exit. Advertising huge salaries for unspecified jobs with pictures of ecstatic girls that "love money".

I wonder what kinds of jobs that could be about?

Atrocious salaries generally and lack of other opportunities for women create fertile markets.

Plenty of Japanese girls willingly do porn because the money is so good and they have no skills.

Seems like a good legal measure, but it will be necessary to see how it actually applied before saying it is actually effective or not in preventing people from getting forced into porn.

One thing is that making the companies delete and recall the movies will not erase them from the endless pirate sites on the internet that are on the first place doing it illegally, so anything uploaded on the internet can still be considered there forever.

Paid prostitution of one’s body is one of the enduring evils of humanity

Good ol' religious extremism. Persecuting people for thousands of years.

In the first place, what push them into porn ? Money, easy money is mostly the answer.

In the first place, are they pressured to do some porn ? I do not think so, unless they have debts, and we are back to money as the reason for doing porn.

Now as they go into that industry, they get pressured to make movies, but if they have enough money in the bank account, it is always possible to say no and leave.

I might dream

 ...only hope they will enact further laws to improve the quality of adult material produced in this country. 

“The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made.”

― George Burns

A daughter of mine dreamed of becoming a TV announcer but then saw how the line between being a tarento and a target for sleaze and exploitation is a thin one indeed...I asked her once what she thinks of young women who get caught up in the sorry netherworld. She replied coldly (in English): "They're losers." No, it's much more complicated than that. Genuine victimhood, greed, narcissism, and sheer stupidity...It's a mixture that is terribly difficult to sort out. But one thing is clear: In a society with clear moral standards, there would be much, much less of this...(I fully expect to get attacked for saying that.)

. A bit like how the music industry has collapsed because old hits from the 80s and 90s are still good.

The music industry has collapsed because no-one wants to pay anymore when you can get it for nearly free.

J-porn, on the other hand, is still thriving because although there is as much free content as you could ever need on the internet Japanese men want to see barely out of pubescence squeakers acting as though they're being raped which is very much a domestic market.

GBR48June 15 05:46 pm JST

But feminist activists and academics are seeking to outlaw the sex industry entirely upon the basis that everyone in it is a victim, even if they don't think they are.

Looks like you have never heard of Annie Sprinkle, Tristian Taormino, Susie Bright, Greta Christian, Mistress Midori, Carol Queen, Nina Heartly .... Or more accurately, you didn't know that there are many sex-positive feminists who, quite literally, do porn and make porn and work as activists for the sex industry.

In other words, #notallfeminists

The same activists are also demanding that school uniforms become unisex to desexualise them and promote LGBTQ rights.

So ... promoting LGBTQIA rights is BAD. Gotcha.

As with all fashion, like it or not, this is their choice and their way of expressing who they are. FAAs are trying to enforce their own beliefs on women who simply want to do their own thing.

No. Feminism is about letting women make their own choices. The feminism you are imaging is um, not actually feminism, but a handy strawman to attack when people want to disagree with a particular aspects of feminism they don't like, such as #MeToo.

quote: But there are still "non-professional and illegal films left unchecked", she said.

They want to ban you from making home movies and censor online porn too. They really would make excellent Taliban.

Non-professional in this case refers to, for example, the fly-by-night porn producers who have no established office, business license, or brand name; exist for only a short time; open and close offices to avoid prosecution (e.g., for hiring underage actresses or for filming in public); are often run by people who have Yazuka connections; only make a handful of films; target niche audiences who want hardcore that skirts the line of legality.

They are not talking about stopping ordinary people from pulling out their smartphones and filming themselves for a bit of fun. You got nothin' to worry about sport! Keep on filming! :)

And I just gotta say: is it not just amazing that you and I agree completely on the importance of female sexual autonomy? WOW. :)

David Brent....

Plenty of Japanese girls willingly do porn because the money is so good and they have no skills.

No skills? Really? Have you ever watched any J porn?

It would also be good if they focussed on the content to slowly eradicate all the abuse, fake raping, humiliation or underage sexualization prevalent in j-porn. Please someone hint it to lawmakers since they never ever watch that genre of videos.

The law also stipulates that porn makers must wait a month after a contract is signed to begin shooting and four months to release the work after it has been filmed.

I'd think that was sufficient, the 1 yr cancellation of the contract and mandated recall puts far too much risk on the producers. I'm not pro-porn, but I'm not against the business having a few protections against "I changed my mind" stuff. 4 months should be sufficient to protect any porn actor.

I wonder if we'll ever reach a porn singularity where new porn is no longer produced because the amount of high quality old porn is more than enough to satisfy demand. A bit like how the music industry has collapsed because old hits from the 80s and 90s are still good.

Tastes change over time, so probably not.

This is organised rape, and flaccid, reactive measures will do sweet FA to stem it.

Tackle the bloody problem upstream and get these obscene vultures off the streets before these women have been manipulated and brutalised.

For all of you judging based off of your own opinions, please look up Nobita from Japan on Youtube. It will open up your mind on how the AV industry is here and how some agencies can be very dodgy. There are agencies that pressure young women who had no intention of doing AV, who didn't care about the money and were forced to do so based off of false contracts and having multiple people surround you so that you are not able to leave the room. Not to mention they have your identification and contact information so they will track you down and harass you until you do the video shoots. This law is to protect those people and not the people who needed the money.

I wish the law included a penalty that pays the victim as well. Once a video gets out there, there is no returning back. It will forever scar you and your reputation for future jobs.

The problem is the law doesn’t protect a thing.

like a lot of the active AV actors are saying (since no one is listening to them even though it’s about their job) This law does nothing but create an exploit for the individual vs a contract. When the power is taken away from a company, especially legit ones, they will have to rework things to protect themselves, especially when it comes to money. It also makes the assumption that predatory companies are all that exist in this side of entertainment, while making no effort to curb the ones that are.

this new law makes it more beneficial to the indie or not legit groups to make AV without contracts and guarantees. It reeks of “why would they break the law?” Nonsense thinking a lot of bureaucrats have when making laws.

This only benefits those who shoot without contracts or list their company overseas since this law for some reason doesn’t even apply to them.

So, it’s gone all the way to the Diet, where Yoshikawa and his ‘trust me, I’m a politician’ ilk can sit in law making judgement and at the same time, indulge their tumescent fantasies by doubling down on their usual porn video quota to bring them up to speed. The sheer effrontery of these hypocritical sleazebags, flaunting their ‘perks of office’ gutter morality in our faces and then sitting in judgment and making laws to deal with problems they’re personally implicated in. That this has become a national debate also gives you an idea of the sheer ubiquity of the porn industry, how inescapably sexualised Japan’s culture is, and what the society’s priorities are.

Laws are little use to those who are too vulnerable or poor to access them, or to those who are living with their parents and wish to retain their privacy.

A better practical step would be to hire ex-sex workers and make them available on a free phone number or zoom call. They could run through a list of everything that a sex worker, male or female, might be asked to do, in graphic detail, with the benefit of their experience.

The budding porn star could then make a more informed decision on what they were willing to do, and what they were not.

Any policing process has to take into account the sensitivities of the situation for those who are suffering abuse and may wish to conceal it from their family.

Incidentally, this is not unique. Army recruitment is a PR fest of seeing the world and handing out food parcels, often preying on young people with few other options. They are not up front about losing limbs to IEDs, PTSD, nightmares, depression and the rest of the stuff that a tour of Afghanistan would have delivered.

So that means these women will be shooting more than one scene a day!! Possibly 3-5 or more so that these guys can release more film.

The law allows those who appear in adult movies to cancel their contracts within a year of the work's release for any reason and without paying penalty fees.

I wonder if we'll ever reach a porn singularity where new porn is no longer produced because the amount of high quality old porn is more than enough to satisfy demand. A bit like how the music industry has collapsed because old hits from the 80s and 90s are still good.

Well said Khuniri.

theFuJune 15 11:39 pm JST

The law also stipulates that porn makers must wait a month after a contract is signed to begin shooting and four months to release the work after it has been filmed.

I'd think that was sufficient, the 1 yr cancellation of the contract and mandated recall puts far too much risk on the producers. I'm not pro-porn, but I'm not against the business having a few protections against "I changed my mind" stuff. 4 months should be sufficient to protect any porn actor.

If a girl is pressured into signing a contract to do porn, or even just up and changes her mind, she should be able to quit then and there and be protected from being sued or from having to go though with filming - in which case, having withdrawn her consent, she would be forcibly raped on flim. Didn't you consider that aspect?

If a girl is pressured into signing a contract to do porn, or even just up and changes her mind, she should be able to quit then and there and be protected from being sued or from having to go though with filming - in which case, having withdrawn her consent, she would be forcibly raped on flim. Didn't you consider that aspect?

Did you read what I wrote? I said that a year seemed too long to change your mind about a contract. That 4 months would be sufficient. How does 12 months different from 4 in any material way?

Rape is a crime. Being force ably detained for 4 months is called 'kidnapping', also a crime. If rape is too hard to get a conviction, fix that.

This is about contracts and remorse after high pressure to sign.

theFuToday 12:36 am JST

Did you read what I wrote? I said that a year seemed too long to change your mind about a contract. That 4 months would be sufficient. How does 12 months different from 4 in any material way?

Perhaps you aren't aware of how this works.

In legit porn agencies, you work contract by contract, and they ask you to sign consent forms for the exact role you will be playing, so before you even sign the contract, you know exactly what you will be required to do. Some of the more valuable stars get long-term contracts with a guaranteed number of roles; but most actresses work contract by contract.

In these fly-by-night agencies that are being targeted by these laws, however, they give the girl a general employment contract that has no details, and is just an agreement that she will work for them as a "model". Then they start a kind of grooming process e.g., asking them to do clothed ads (sexy costumes), then topless, then nude, and finally, give them a role where they have to touch or be touched. That way, they have photos and other evidence she has done sex work and they can use this as leverage against her.

So let's say a girl signs one of those "employment" contracts, and they soft-role her for several months. Suddenly she's asked to have sex, but doesn't want to . But she is told she MUST because she signed a contract. They threaten and blackmail her by saying they will sue her and show her parents all the nude photos they have already taken.

Do you see now why the girls should be able to break those contracts at any time, as soon as they begin to feel uncomfortable? In fact, I'd say this law doesn't go far enough. They should make ALL porn production companies write into the contract what exactly the girl will be doing, and if they stray form that, the contract should be automatically void. Also, the girl should be able to walk off the set just as soon as she wants to, and should not be held liable. Women should not be forced in any way to do sex work under threat of being sued. That would be RAPE.

Also know this: legit porn production companies don't make girls do scenes they aren't comfortable with. They let the girls walk away, even if it causes production problems. They (mostly) aren't horrible people and they don't want to traumatize anyone. They likely won't ever give that girl work again, but they also aren't going to force her to have sex.

In other words, the underground, illegitimate production companies these laws are targeting are using underhanded tactics that most production companies do not, specifically to trap girls. That alone should make a contract illegitimate.

This is about contracts and remorse after high pressure to sign.

Yes, exactly. In this industry, the actresses (and actors) should be able to quit and walk away whenever they want and it shouldn't matter if they signed a contract. An unscrupulous producer shouldn't be able to use the threat of suing someone just because that person doesn't want to perform sex acts s/he is not comfortable with.

Excellent news!!...

Justasking:

A good point and that USED to be true. An established star could make a couple of million per tape (back in the day it was on tape) for 3-4 scenes and upon “retirement” could have a nice nest egg built.

And then came the yaks....

Like everything else they touch, they ruined it. They flooded the market with inexpensive (low quality) videos, lured/forced the gullible and the desperate into predatory contracts and generally burned the established players to the ground.

Jeremiah

Today 09:29 pm JST 

“Fornicator” should never be anyone’s job title. Paid prostitution of one’s body is one of the enduring evils of humanity, but Japan is moving in the moral and pro-society direction

You're welcome to that belief, but many try not to impose their own religious views of s-x on people. Morality should be a personal choice, not one dictated by a majority of men in a parliament.

Cancel their contracts within a year of the work's release for any reason and without paying penalty fees

Isn't that a normal thing for working contract?

About time! They need to stop the abuse of their performers, but this legislation doesn’t go far enough. I only hope they will enact further laws to improve the quality of adult material produced in this country. As a rather portly gentleman, I rely on this key industry to provide much entertainment in these testing times.

""Lawmakers began lobbying for the new rules when Japan lowered its age of adulthood from 20 to 18 in April.""

I am going to state the obvious, why not just make the minimum age 20 or even 21 for any one before the can enter into contract for porn?? instead of going in circles and putting kids at risk and the mercy of the porn industry?

A girl I know who works for a major AV studio gets paid 500,000 yen per month

If you're saying that's good for a porn actress, you're wrong.

They should be paid per video made plus royalty. It should be upwards 2M yen per month if they do about 4 scenes per week.

Japanese AV companies are predatory. 500,000 yen is peanuts compared to what they are pocketing.

One would think that anime & CGI would put real human p-rn stars out if business.

“Fornicator” should never be anyone’s job title. Paid prostitution of one’s body is one of the enduring evils of humanity, but Japan is moving in the moral and pro-society direction.

The law doesn't go far enough. Where is the gender equity? Men should be half of the p-rn stars and be scouted for in the same manner as women.

...because of less regulations and you don't have to pay drawings or computers.

@GBR48 So funny to hear that high school students are mirroring the LDP government and maintaining the '90s vibes.

Let's face it, the majority of girls go into porn to pay for their hosts or host club debts. Most girls are already heavily indebted to host clubs before they even turn 18 now.

Very good news.

JAV needs to be banned, protect japanese women!