Chronology of Adult Videos in Japan - 1990s - 1995

1995

In December 1995, Ganari Takahashi founded the AV company Soft On Demand, which would become the largest independent adult video company in Japan and notable for its creative approach to adult videos.

Until the mid-1990s, AV actress were almost exclusively models in their late teens or early 20s at the time of their debuts. However, at this time, "mature women" models in AVs became increasingly popular. While youthful debuts would still remain the norm, this broadening in tastes would pave the way for the debuts of future "mature" AV stars like Aki Tomosaki in 2000, and Maki Tomoda in 2006, both of whom had reached their 30th birthdays at the time of their debuts.

Ruka Aida was one of the most popular 1995 AV debuts, and became known for refusing to allow her male partners to wear condoms in spite of industry concerns over AIDS. After retiring from AV appearances, she would work as a masseuse at a "soapland" in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district, and then, in 2004, open her own bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district.

In one of the longer and more prolific AV actress careers, Aika Miura averaged one film a month over a seven-year period, She starred in the theatrically released, widescreen film Aika Miura - Streetcar Ecstasy in 2001, and retired in 2002, seven years after her AV debut.

Kei Mizutani's debut in Weather Girl was one of the surprise successes in Japanese cinema of the 1990s. Released to video in 1995, the film quickly developed a cult-following. The video won the Oslo and the Stockholm International Film Festivals in 1996, causing the video producer to take the unprecedented step of pulling the video from the market to release it theatrically in Japan. It went on to box-office success, and topped several critics' Top Ten lists for the year. The Weissers call it, "a brilliant film, worthy of all the praise it received from some traditionally conservative reviewers, constantly flirting with bad taste while managing to stay fresh and innocent", and point out that the film, "dramatically illustrates the enormous cultural differences between Japanese and American sensibilities." Mizutani would go on to a prolific career and international popularity.