People all over the world have physical needs, and sometimes, the easiest means of taking care of those needs is by watching adult entertainment. Japan is no exception to that, although when it comes to entertainment for Japanese women, things are a little different. Brace yourselves: we are about to dive into the culture of porn for women in Japan.
What does JAV stand for?
JAV simply stands for Japanese adult videos. It is part of Japan’s wider pornography industry. This industry includes online content, books, magazines and various types of clubs. Currently, there are over 50,000 hits for “Japanese” alone on Pornhub. Additionally, there are numerous subtypes within that category.
Mosaic Japan
One of the most well-known aspects of JAV is the use of a mosaic filter to cover private parts. Until the mid-1990s, it was illegal to show pubic hair in lawfully produced porn of any type. After that, the law was reinterpreted to require blurring of all private parts during sexual contact — including oral, anal or vaginal intercourse.
The vast majority of AV produced in Japan are for male consumption. However, there’s been a growing trend towards movies for women in recent years.
As well they should. According to past surveys in Anan, 94% of Japanese women aged 18-40 “take time for themselves” from two to three times a week, and “sometimes more if their partner isn’t doing the job” (M, Japanese woman).
What Options Do Women Have?
Sex sells — though how it’s used varies widely in Japan. On the one hand, men can easily walk into any convenience store or bookstore and find magazines with scantily clad real and anime women gazing back at them while finding the same materials for women can take some work.
The main impetus behind the women’s AV industry stemmed from Anan magazine, which releases an annual sexual health guide. These guides are packed with survey results on sex, love and romance, guides to improving techniques for male and female partners, and a free DVD of clips of recent, popular videos for women.
Of course, these editions fly off the shelves for another reason: their covers feature one of the currently trending Japanese talents in rather risque poses. Often, these photoshoots include a female partner; a 2019 edition even featured a Western female partner.
Other than Anan, anime and manga often heavily feature romance, sometimes including more racy scenes. However, these are subject to the same censorship laws as videos. Male celebrities occasionally strip down to very little for photo books or calendars. These items are usually sold first as fan club exclusives and later in bookstores. According to a friend working in a major book chain, though, they aren’t as popular as they once were.
So, Is There Female-Friendly Porn in Japan?
When it comes to watchable media, aside from what’s commonly available on sites like Pornhub, there are many companies producing female-friendly AV videos. The most well-known, and arguably the matriarch of this genre, is Silk Labo (NSFW). It’s a website produced by Soft on Demand, an adult video group also known for promoting STD awareness in Japan.
The project staff for all videos on Silk Labo—except for the male lead(s)—are female, according to their website, and their main focus is on sex from and for a woman’s perspective. They have several channels to choose from:
- Silk: their original series which are like “slice of life” stories
- Cocoon: softer/less sexual stories
- Undress: more passionate/intense stories
- Body Talk: more instructional aspects in their stories
- Girl’s CH: an external site tie-up to the rest of the Soft on Demand brand. It features more so-called mainstream-style pornography
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44 Comments
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Jay
What? That's like asking if there’s a 'healthier' brand of poison - no matter how you package it, it's still toxic.
Doesn't matter whether it's geared toward men or women, porn is a CESSPOOL of exploitation, moral decay, and societal rot, no matter how it tries to rebrand itself as "progressive" or "empowering." No and no.
Why even publish this? Looks like an attempt to look for ways to normalize an exploitative industry that profits from broken lives, destroys families, and fuels nihilistic emptiness.
So here's a question: why would anyone think reducing intimacy to a soulless transaction is "friendly" to anyone, male or female?
Zaphod
Females on average are way less interested in that stuff than males. Biological differences are real. Without males, the industry would not exist.
Hervé L'Eisa
All porn is a toxic poison.
Mr Kipling
I heard from a friend that the internet is full of this stuff. Is it true?
Spidey
My friend told me so.
S
Zaphod
Mr Kipling
35% of internet traffic, according to a webroot article. Pretty sad.
GuruMick
Gee...one poster decried drinking yesterday, now he is railing against porn.
Mary Whitehouse }UK 70,s moral campaigner } would be proud.
Japanese women are usually very attractive but I,d say not "sexy " in the way , say, a Latina can be.
They dress like school girls or librarians ,this is not attractive to me.
Comments ?
Mocheake
I agree about Japanese women being attractive but many act childish. That is Japan in a nutshell: Thirty years old and still going to Disneyland ten times a year to wave to Mickey and Minnie. The cosplay stuff is big here and a lot of men are into that childish, "innocent" type. They are afraid of a woman who is strong and confident. Latinas and Black women from the U.S. would run roughshod over most of these guys.
Jay
Well, thanks for your opinion on global attractiveness rankings. What a true scholar of international culture. For your sake, perhaps carry around a card in your wallet that says something like "if you found me, delete my browser history."
Eat the left
Lol. You burst into these comments with a no-holds-barred opinion, then denigrate others' opinions. Nice.
GuruMick
Jay...I,m not ashamed of my browser history.....mostly....OK a little....chagrined ?
Jimizo
Always be a bit suspicious of those who complain too much or get on the moral high horse.
Like the pastors railing against sin later found in a hotel room with hard drugs and a male prostitute.
I think the knowledge that it’s ’wrong’ may add to the excitement for them.
Porn has been around for centuries but it’s probably not a good thing to have it within easy access of everyone on the net. I can’t see any way to get rid of this.
Jay
Yes, definitely a healthy coping mechanism, turning moral guilt into a turn-on. Maybe people need to start referring to kale as "forbidden lettuce" to spice things up a bit.
In all seriousness, would you argue that porn is not wrong? Is this another New Age thing that loves to wrap everything in a cozy grey blanket of "it's all okay man"?
timeon
As I've heard from a friend, Japanese AV has all the possible subgenres imaginable catering to all and everybody. Including women, of course.
Jimizo
I wouldn’t argue it’s wrong. The issue is the problem with the abuse and exploitation of the workers. How to better deal with that is what needs to be looked at.
There are probably worse examples of moral decay on the net. One example would be sock puppet accounts spamming social media with garbage looking to influence people even stupider than they are. Real dregs.
Worse than porn. Even porn has more honesty and seriousness than that.
GuruMick
Jay, it is wrong } porn } if you say it is.
The forum needs a moral leader !!!!!
girl_in_tokyo
ZaphodToday 08:00 am JST
Feeeeemales ... I always hear this is Quark's voice (Star Trek, DS9).
And women like porn, too. Just different kinds than men.
Quo Primum
If you watch porn, you're contributing to human trafficking, the degradation of women, the breakup of who knows how many marriages and families, and most of all, to the poisoning of your soul.
Porn has absolutely no benefit at all.
Porn should be banned.
And don't give me this "define what 'porn' is" nonsense. Save your pretenses of cerebral, academic sophistry. We all know what porn is. And, again, it should be utterly banned.
It contributes absolutely nothing of substantive value to society, and only harms it and contributes to its destruction.
Ah_so
Probably true statistically.
Sure, but what's that got to do with anything?
It's true that they are the principle buyers, but what's your point?
GuruMick
Lots of sexy mosaics in ancient Roman ruins, the ruins of Buddhist temples in Borobudur , Indonesia , have a cornucopia of entwined coupling as do ruins in India...lets not forget the Karma Sutra.
Fast forward to the art of the French Empire, lots of plump , comely women with come hither looks ,the paintings of prostitutes by Modigliani and later Picasso
All meant to titillate the male senses and break away from conservative puritanicallism.
Porn in different forms not a new thing when you look at it.
Did I just write "look at it "?
I meant, consider it.
factchecker
What a trashy little article this is.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I wonder what the women think of mosaic'd everything.
bass4funk
"Some" women, not all women, and a lot less compared to men overall.
Hawk
Like the guys here railing against the evils of porn here have never watched any. Get real.
TaiwanIsNotChina
And I'm also contributing to the removal of the curse of fundamentalism, so some positives and negatives.
TaiwanIsNotChina
In all seriousness, would you argue that everyone has the same sex life you do?
Jay
I think what we've learned here is that watching porn is an activity with literally zero redeeming qualities. It doesn’t make you smarter, stronger, kinder, healthier, or wealthier - it does the exact opposite of the all these things.
It's like signing up for a subscription to self-destruction: rotting your brain, killing your relationships, and turning you into a dopamine-addicted zombie who might struggle to find real intimacy with a GPS and a map.
Do better.
Hawk
Like the guys here railing against the evils of porn here have never watched any. Get real.
Jay
Why so defensive Hawk?
Of course, many of us have watched it - that's exactly why we know how damaging and soul-sucking it is. The difference is, we saw the trap, got out, and now we're warning others. So do yourself a favor, put that 'gotcha' logic aside and remember that quitting what's destructive is far more important than pretending it's harmless.
Hawk
Not defensive. I'm happy to tell you that I watch porn on occasion, like you. And doing so has not done to me any of the things that you describe. And, it seems, not to you either. Unless, of course, it makes a person highly judgemental and prone to over-generalisation.
Also, don't get me wrong; porn does far more harm than good, for example, exploitation, subjectification, addiction, unrealistic expectations and so on. But sometimes, you know, it's been a while and one just wants to relieve some 'pressure.' Sounds like it might benefit you a bit, to be honest.
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nickybutt
Qui Primum, “Porn should be banned?”
Do you really think that banning porn would make any difference? It might even get more popular. What is banned becomes more appealing. Porn in one form or another has been around for centuries and it isn’t going anywhere!
nickybutt
Quo Primum, “Porn should be banned?”
Do you really think that banning porn would make any difference? It might even get more popular. What is banned becomes more appealing. Porn in one form or another has been around for centuries and it isn’t going anywhere!
Jay
Good for you, I guess? I haven't watched that garbage in years and trust me, stepping away from it was nothing but positive. Maybe it hasn’t "done anything to you" because you might be too close to see it, or may not recognize the side effects just yet.
Either way, I'll stick to being "judgmental" if it means caring about people and calling out something that destroys relationships, self-respect, and actual intimacy.
Zaphod
TaiwanIsNot
How are you "contributing to the removal of the curse of fundamentalism" by watching porn??
Hawk
Absolutely. Someone else's archaic puritan beliefs don't give them the right to tell me how to live my life.
Stepping away from it hasn't exactly made you a stable, reasonable or accepting person, so I'll say 'back at ya.'
Sure. Virgin births, abstinence, repression, phobia, denial of human rights, and guilt. Much better.
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Zaphod
Here is a short, but deeper take on the issue than the usual talking points:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UYH4We6_Rw
Jay
Oh no, not the catty atheist trifecta: "Don’t tell me how to live," "You're unstable," and "Christianity is a joke." You’ve hit every cliche in the edgy-teen handbook, well done. Here’s the thing: stepping away from porn doesn't make you "unstable"; it gives you clarity - something you might find if you logged off the naughty sites for a while. And sorry, most people would rather have faith in something that builds families and communities than cling to nihilistic excuses to dodge accountability (a Virgin birth btw, is still way more believable than your argument that porn is harmless).
But hey, you're more than welcome to keep telling yourself you're "free" while worshiping gyrating pixels on a screen. Seems super fulfilling.
Some dude
calling out something that destroys relationships, self-respect, and actual intimacy.
Going to church?
Some dude
Mary Whitehouse }UK 70,s moral campaigner } would be proud.
"That's you, that is".
Hawk
Sorry. You must get it a lot. The truth does bear repeating though.
One of the many, many things besides religious dogma? Likely. And I didn't say it was harmless; in fact I posted a non-exhaustive list of the harms it can cause. I said it's not always harmful. And it's preferable, I'm sure you'll agree, to some of the other ways people might take to satisfy those urges. Again, listed but deleted.
Hawk
Well, being able to watch what I like makes me more free than being told by some higher power what to do with every aspect of my life. Sure. And you can go on being repressed and ashamed of your human urges.
And at least the people on the screen are real. Talk about telling yourself things.
Tokyo Guy
Another angle: as I understand it, Shinto doesn't have many hangups about the human body. If you've ever been to their fertility festivals, there's a massive wooden phallus on display which people touch to express a wish for children. Don't know what Buddhism says on the matter. But basically Japan doesn't seem to have the same hangups as some places, where they prefer acts of carnality to take place in, say, churches.
Gaijinjland
Nothing wrong with a little porn in moderation, like everything. I guess the problem with porn for some individuals is that you get desensitized and move on to more and more hardcore/ extreme stuff to get your “kicks” and then start to search that stuff out in real life?
Banning porn would probably make society worse. Just look at all the Muslim countries where porn is actually banned.
Khuniri
This article should never have been published, as it treats something that is socially and spiritually destructive as morally neutral or even positive. It's encouraging to read comments that deplore "the industry," but it's all the more dismaying to see the "thumbs-down" they consistently get....Women of all people should be adamantly opposed to prostitution, and this is no different.