JAPANESE ADULT VIDEO
  

1. What is AV?
2. AV Production
3. AV Censorship
4. Behind the censorship
5. Why is Japanese adult video censored?
6. Why is Girl's profile always included blood group?
7. AV girls in American or European porn's production
8. Japan nude models
9. AV actresses recruitment
10.Japanese's Words and Phrases

1. What is AV?
"AV" is short for Adult Video. It's also often referred to JAV or Japanese Adult Video. The adult video industry in Japan is huge, releasing hundreds of new titles every month. It also covers many genres some of which you don't see much of in the West. These include amateur, bondage, rape, schoolgirl, facial cum shots (bukkake), scatology (pee & poop), and even older women videos, called "madam."
2. AV Production
Companies that produce and sell adult video in Japan can be classified into three groups: Mainstream, Independent and Underground.

Mainstream AV are the mostly widely available in Japan both in retail and rental stores. They are also the first to feature the most popular female stars, the girls you see in the magazines.

Kuki is by far the largest conglomerate of AV producers in Japan. Over time, they have built up affiliations with 8 production houses. Kuki, Atlas 21, Cosmos, Alice Japan, MAX-A, Big Morkal, Sexia and Gorilla. Although they do have some amateur series and the occasional bondage or rape-themed release, most of their bread and butter is presenting the freshest starlets in their first video releases.

HRC (Human Relation and Confidence) is a smaller AV production group consisting of the Cher, Rouge and Zoom labels. They still get the cute girls but they only release a fraction of titles as compared to Kuki.

Kasakura is a fairly prolific AV production firm whose videos range from pretty girl to amateur, madam, rape and bondage.

HMP (Houya Media Produce) is yet another group of AV makers in the Mainstream category. If you come across videos labels with names like Samm, Tiffany, Miss Christine, For You, Q, Jamm, Cream, 10, Video Bank or Sex 9, it came from HMP. Again, a little amateur thrown into the mix but predominantly straight sex, AV actress titles.

Cinemagic produces bondage and S&M. Occasionally you will see an actress in one of these videos who you recognize from a more milder video genre (e.g. Sanae Asoh, Nao Hirosue and Maria Yumeno), but this is the exception rather than the rule.

Marx Brothers is a fairly new mainstream AV firm. They have three labels: Princess, Super Burroughs and Boda. Princess is all AV Idol while the other two run the gamut from amateur to costume play to big boob videos.

Independent video companies differ from the mainstream groups in that they don't subject their videos to the censorship standards of the Eirin, a non-governmental organization made up of 23 movie studios. This has two consequences. Independent videos generally contain less censorship but since the Eirin also controls the video rental market, the indie titles are not widely available for rental by consumers but only through retail sales. In addition, many indie studios shoot for the fringe market genres so you're more likely to find your more adventuresome fetish subjects within this group.

Soft On Demand is definitely the leader among independent AV filmmakers. They often get former mainstream video starlets into their videos (Bunko Kanazawa, Ryo Hitomi, Mao Misaki) and also have an exclusive contract with a starlet of their own: Kurumi Morishita. SOD videos cover a very wide range of kinky stuff like rape, bondage, sperm and even taboo subjects like lesbian and anal sex.

Momotaro wins the battle for having the least censorship of any large independent AV producer because they use a special digital mosaic mask. Also, they mercifully tend to avoid producing videos that revolve around plots and complex story structure. Momotaro has a cadre of AV stars that seem to pop up every once in a while (like Ruri Ikenouchi and Nana Housho) but they tend to go with new talent most of the time. They have long running series focusing on fudols, kogals and amateurs, but the most popular by far is the Bejean series.

Moodyz (formerly Mr. President) works very hard on getting well known AV stars in their videos. A lot of their titles revolve around costume play, but they also delve into amateur, light rape and bondage themes.

Waap videos are predominantly AV idol videos. They produce the excellent Dream Shower series which is part bukkake and part gang bang.

Audaz features AV idols along with amateur titles in its catalog. Their Face series is one of their most well known.

Wanz Factory is one of the newest indie companies and mostly produces videos starring AV idols. They also feature big boob compilations.

NOTE: There are too many independent AV firms to be listed here.

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3. AV Censorship
All legally available AV is censored (pixelized mosaic mask) in Japan. There is, of course another category of AV production: the Underground. Given that the distribution of such uncensored material is illegal you won't find them in any of the regular video stores in Japan. However, since the Japanese police are typically lax in enforcing laws pertaining to illicit sex, you can find some in and outside of Japan with some effort. However, the general consensus seems to be that these uncensored (or "ura") videos are inferior to the legal stuff both in terms of the girls and the production value. Most of the women in these videos are veterans of the sex trade and therefore not up to the level of a bankable AV actresses.

However, there is yet another category of uncensored AV, best describe as being smuggled out of the production cycle before mosaic censorship could be applied. These are a handful of these gems starring some very popular AV stars like Ai Ijima, Hitomi Yuki, Rui Sakuragi and Hitomi Shiraishi.
4. Behind the censorship
Most AV girls fake having intercourse (titles that are release before 2003). The mosaic censorship allows for enough ambiguity from the viewer's perspective that it doesn't matter whether the sex is real. A note of interest – titles that are release after 2003 are presented with the "real thing" using smaller pixel mosaic or thin mosaic (digital moasic) except those from KUKI and SOD which still utilitize large pixel mosaic.

Petting - Yes
Cunnilingus - Yes but not always
Fingering - Sometimes
Fellatio - Yes but often with a condom
Intercourse - Usually not
Anal - Almost always not
Cum shot - Sometimes

You'd be surprised how easy it is to fake a jizz explosion. On the other hand, almost all amateur videos are real. Also, most indie AV directors insist on real sex.

2005 NOTE: Most video release after end 2003 is wtih real action - all sexual acts. Also, new production houses such as "S1" and "REAL" utilitize "GIRI GIRI MOSAIC" - thin small pixel mosaic.

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5. Why is Japanese adult video censored?
This is probably the most perplexing question about AV and the most frustrating since it's hard to pin down exactly what the roots of censorship of erotic materials in Japan are. There are many parts of the world which exercise much greater control on the display of adult media (India, the Middle East and Mainland China).

Japan's present day stance against the display of nudity (particularly genitalia) seems to be in stark contrast to it's artistic tradition. Whereas India had its Kama Sutra, Japan has it erotic shunga or woodblock prints which graphically displayed intercourse with the participants contorted into virtually spine-bending positions. Indeed both the ancient Japanese literary and dramatic arts were no strangers to exploring the sexual realms both in traditional and perverse forms.

One might expect that a country so steeped in religious tradition as Japan to have a moral issue with sexual promiscuity. However, the Buddhist and Shinto faiths lack the exhortations against lust and adultery that are so common in Christianity. In fact, fertility and sex are more apt to be thought of as natural and even celebrated rather than denounced as is so often the case in the puritanical West. Take for example the annual Jibeta festival which is a Shinto celebration of fertility in which statues and carved wooden representations (some of them huge) of both the male and female genitals play a prominent and public role.

It's also interesting to note that the sight of women's breasts are not considered to be a big deal as in the United States. The Japanese response is much like that of Europeans. Bare-chested women are a common sight on television as well as general audience newspapers and magazines. Even comic books and animation produced for a teenage or younger audience is apt to have the occasional depiction of a half-naked woman.

Despite all this, the image of male and female sexual organs are restricted in modern day Japan. Note that I used the phrase "modern day" because it was the process of modernization of the Japanese culture which brought about the issue of censorship. You see, back at the tail end of the Tokugawa era in the mid-1800s, Japan was suddenly forced out of isolation by the influx of trade with American and European nations.

From the perspective of a Western visitor, Japanese culture must have seemed not only primitive but also barbaric. Public baths and brothels were commonplace, as were the aforementioned erotic art and fertility imagery in religious shrines. Japan's political leaders must have felt a great deal of shame over this because around 1900 they began banning materials "injurious to public morals." In 1907 there came Article 175 of the Criminal Code which basically made those restrictions into law. In 1918 came a law that specifically dealt with censorship of the genital region in public media. The language of the law is actually quite vague stating, "... the pubic area need not be hidden but there should be no anatomical details to draw the viewer's attention."

In the aftermath of World War II, occupation forces drew up a new constitution for Japan and it included an article which would seem to negate previous attempts at banning free speech. Article 21 reads in part, "No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated." Unfortunately, with the end of the occupation in 1952 came the re-enforcement of those old obscenity laws and they have been in use ever since.

There is evidence that a reinterpretation of these laws by liberal government officials has meant a less stringent enforcement of censorship regulations in the past decade. Unfortunately, until the Japanese government chooses to officially retract those 80 year old anti-obscenity laws or the legal system deems the restrictions unconstitutional, it's unlikely that we're going to be enjoying legally produced and sanctioned Japanese adult video without mosaic censorship.

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6. Why is the girl's profile always include blood group?
Most people have likened the Japanese interest in blood types to the American obsession with astrology. The argument for this is that a person's blood should have more direct influence on him/her than the alignment of the stars and planets. Unfortunately, having only four different blood types to work with makes for some very broad statements about these groups.Type A - Calm, serious, hardworking, finicky, not emotional.

Type B - Curious, aloof, excitable, cheerful, unpredictable.
Type O - Charismatic, decisive, generous, authoritarian.
Type AB - Delicate, cautious, strict, sentimental.

This superstition is completely Japanese in origin having been set off by Furukawa Takeji's article "The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type" published in 1927. Despite the fact that his credentials and research were dubious at best and the work of supporters and skeptics over three-quarters of a century, Takeji's conclusions still form the basis of modern Japan's belief in blood as a determining factor towards character.
7. AV girls in American or European porn's production
A few ... e.g. AV star Mai Hoshino filmed a More Dirty Debutantes 188 with Ed Powers which was released in the Spring of 2001. It's just one scene at the end of the video in which she participates in a menage-a-trois with Powers and another girl.
8. Japan nude models
Most of the nude models who appear in men's magazines and photobooks are AV stars as well but there have been notable exceptions such as Mai Hagiwara, Mari Ayase and Kaori Nakatani.
9. AV actresses recruitment
AV actresses are recruited by studio representatives or AV talent agencies. Some are sex industry workers (employees of soaplands, bath houses, or self-employed fuzoku girls) but just as many are literally scouted out on the streets, where young girls hang out like Shibuya, Roppongi and Harajiku with their signs and clipboards. In America one would be arrested for solicitation for doing this, but in Japan it's common place. JAV generally gets so many actresses and better looking, though probably less "professional" than their American porno counterparts. Walk-ins and cattle calls with girls who are eager to get into the business are not as common as in the U.S.

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10. Japanese's Words and Phrases

Bishoujo - pretty girl
A term that describes any pretty girl, the word has come to refer to the adult anime simulation games that are so popular in Japan. Bishoujo games are also called "hentai" games.

AV - adult video
Different countries use abbreviations for different things. In Japan for example, a P.A. is a "parking area" or a little place you pull off the freeway to buy food, drinks and gasoline. AV is Japanese parliance for "adult video" (not audio/visual), and an AV girl or AV idol is an adult video star.

Gaijin - foreigner
A word that literally means "outsider," gaijin is kind of a rude word when used in some situations, as it sounds short and might offend some listeners. A more politically correct word is "gai-koku jin" or "outside country person." There is a tendency for gaijin to refer to themselves by this word, but sometimes take offense if Japanese say "Hey, gaijin." In this way, it's not unlike American blacks and their use of the "n" word as a way of forming groups.

Bukkake - facial shower of semen
Ejaculating on a woman, principally on her face. "Kakeru" means "to deposit onto" in Japanese.

Zamen - semen
The German pronounciation for the word "semen" which the Japanese imported back when Germany was their friend and America was their enemy.

Hair nude - nude photo with pubic hair showing
A long time ago, in the wild, wooly days of Japanese adult magazines and photobooks, it was illegal to show pubic hair without some kind of element hiding it - a mosaic, or a silk scarf, the girl's hand, anything. Then, in 1994, a magazine called Tenmei started boldly publishing nude model photography with full pubic hair visible - "hair nude" - insisting that such photography was art and the government had no business censoring photography. When no action was taken against them, all magazines and (still) photography publishers started doing the same thing. The law has never been changed, although it has been "de facto" repealed.

Shojo - girl
Meaning simply "girl," this word has come to describe any kind of anime or manga comic for girls. Weekly manga magazines like Ribbon are "shojo comics." Often, shojo themes are cross-bred with other themes.

Kawaii - cute
This term means "cute." Usually said "Kawaii!!!" in a very high pitched voice by cute anime girls.

Cosplay - costume play
Basically, dressing up in your favorite costumes, usually as characters from anime. As a category of adult product, seeing a pretty girl dressed up as Chun Li while getting banged by Ryu.

Jankenpon - rock, paper, scissors
This is what you say when you do rock, paper, scissors in Japan.

Urabon - underground book
Ostensibly, an illegal book containing uncensored sex photos. "Ura" means "underside" or "the other side" (the dark side of the moon = tsuki no ura) and in this case, underground. Pornography companies in Japan latch on to this, though, and use the term liberally. There are also "ura video" (uncensored, underground video) sold in Japan, but they're almost always censored!

Kogal - Japanese version of "valley girls"
Really difficult to describe. Ko = "child" and Gal = "gal." Also called just "gals," kogals are a kind of Japanese girl who wear outrageous styles, paint their faces with weird make-up, and tan their bodies in tanning salons. There have been many shifts in kogal culture since they emerged around 1995, growing out of the old Amuler boom (when all the girls wanted to dress up like Amuro Namie. Various types have included including younger versions of kogals (mago-gals, where "mago" means "grandchild"), yamanba ("mountain hags," girls who tan themselves til they're black), and one-gal ("oh-nee gal," gals who act grown up, like stylish actress/model Noriko Fujiwara). Kogals are sexually very loose, which is exciting to see, thus Japan's pornography industry has latched onto that with magazines, videos and more. Since girls who have sex can get pregnant, there are also "mama-gals" in Japan now, silly young women in their early 20's who wear outrageous fashions yet push baby carriages.

Loose socks - big, bulky socks
These big, loose socks (if you're talking to a Japanese person, you need to pronounce them as "lose socks") are the trademark of kogals. Virtually no high school girl goes around without loose socks on. To keep them stuck to your leg, apply "socks glue."

Omanko - pussy
The only "really" bad word in Japanese, omanko (or just "manko" -- the "o" on the front of words in Japanese is a polite prefix that could be translated as "honorable" if you wanted the translation to sound stupid) just means pussy. Don't speak it to the Japanese, it's very rude.

Gokkun - gulp
This is the sound of swallowing to the Japanese. Thus, as a pornographic term, it implies a woman sucking off a guy and swallowing.

Seiyuu - voice actress
There is a cult that worships voice actresses in Japan, and they are very famous, so much so that there's a special issue of Animage just for following voice actors published each month.

Race Queen - pretty girl in a bikini advertising (something)
Those lovely girls who wear those skimpy, fun to look at uniforms. They're basically cheerleaders for the racing scene.

Oshiri - ass
A girl's rear end. A taboo word to use.

Pai-zuri - titty fucking
The fetish of humping boobs. From pai (breasts) and suri (to stroke). The Japanese word for a man coplating with a woman's breasts. "Pai" comes from "oppai" (a normal word for breasts). Zuri means "stroke".

Tamakeri - ball-kicking
An interesting fetish that's come up in recent years, tamakeri is "ball-kicking" and is the fetish of a pretty girl kicking men in the balls, usually quite hard. The "slap' sound effect that's raised when a good karate kick lands home is what most of the fans say they like.

Tekoki - hand job
Another fetish to come up in recent years, tekoki is the act of a woman giving a man a "hand job".

Meganekko - glasses girl
A word that means a girl (ko) wearing glasses (megane).

Otaku - fan of anime, manga, anything
A word which really means "you" or "your family," this is a term that has come to mean anyone who gets carried away in his love of anime, manga, sci-fi films, J-POP idols, or any other topic. There are all kinds of otakus in the world, perfume otaku, goth otakus, shoe otakus. It's fun to get obsessive over pop culture! Note that fans of anime use the term all over the world, but in Japan it's not really a positive concept. Just as you wouldn't always feel right about a "Trekkie" who wore Spock ears while shopping, celebration of one's self as an otaku is better done quietly and with others who share your passion.

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