Pornography By Region - Asia - East Asia - Japan

Japan

As in Europe, photographs of nudes are not uncommon in the mainstream media. In the 1970s and 1980s, the strongest prohibition was against showing pubic hair or adult genitalia. Imported magazines would have the pubic hair scratched out, and even the most explicit videos could not portray it. Starting around 1991, photobook publishers began challenging this ban to the point where pubic hair is now fairly well accepted. Close-ups of genitalia remain proscribed. In 1999, the government enacted a law banning photos and videos of naked children, which were a fairly common sight in mainstream media before that time. Manga and anime remain largely unregulated, although large publishers tend to self-censor or specify that characters are at least 18 years of age.

The 1960s, in Japanese pornography, was the era of the independent Pink film. In the years since the end of World War II, eroticism had been gradually making its way into Japanese cinema. The first kiss to be seen in Japanese film—discreetly half-hidden by an umbrella—caused a national sensation in 1946. Nevertheless, until the early 1960s, graphic depictions of nudity and sex in Japanese film could only be seen in single-reel "stag films", made illegally by underground film producers such as those depicted in Imamura's film The Pornographers (1966). Nudity and sex would officially enter the Japanese cinema with the independent, low-budget softcore pornographic films which would come to dominate domestically produced films in the 1960s and 1970s. These films were called eroductions during the early 1960s, but are now more commonly referred to as pink films. The first true pink film, and the first Japanese movie with nude scenes, was Satoru Kobayashi's controversial and popular independent production, Flesh Market (Nikutai no Ichiba, 1962), starring Tamaki Katori. Katori would go on to star in over 600 pink films throughout the 1960s, earning the nickname the "Pink Princess". In 1964 Tetsuji Takechi made the first big-budget, mainstream pink film, Daydream. Takechi would remake Daydream as Japan's first theatrical hardcore film in 1981, starring Kyoko Aizome.

Future "Nikkatsu Queens" Kazuko Shirakawa and Naomi Tani both made their debuts in 1967. Both actresses would appear in many pink films in the 1960s before beginning their work with Nikkatsu in the 1970s, for which they best known today. By the end of the 1960s, Naomi Tani was already known as the "Queen of Pink."

The 1970s decade was the era of big-studio softcore pornography in Japan. Facing bankruptcy, Japan's major studios took over the pink film market. In 1971 Toei entered the sexploitation market with its "Pinky Violence" series, and Nikkatsu, Japan's oldest major film studio, started its Roman Porno line of pink films. As the popular star of Toei's sukeban (delinquent girl boss) series, Reiko Ike became one of the "icons of Pinky Violence." With its high production values, professional acting talent and talented directors like Tatsumi Kumashiro, Noboru Tanaka, Masaru Konuma and Kōyū Ohara, Nikkatsu produced nothing but these often critically acclaimed and award-winning softcore pornographic films for the next 17 years. This introduction of pornography into mainstream Japanese movie theaters has been credited with saving Nikkatsu from collapse at that time. Nikkatsu created a "Queen" ranking for its leading Roman Porno actresses. Kazuko Shirakawa, Junko Miyashita, and Naomi Tani were the leading Nikkatsu queens of the 1970s.

The 1980s were a period of transition in adult entertainment in Japan. With the widespread private ownership of VCRs, theatrical pornographic films had a new competitor for adult audiences in the form of the Adult Video (AV). By 1982 the AVs had already attained an approximately equal share of the adult entertainment market with theatrical erotic films. Early AV performers were often struggling actresses who could not find work in the theatrical Roman Porno films and girls from the soaplands. By the late 1980s, prominent AV actresses like Hitomi Kobayashi and Kaoru Kuroki were becoming multi-media stars, and creating a mainstream image for AVs and pornographic actresses. Though traditionally not partial to large breasts, in the mid-1980s busty models suddenly become popular in Japan. In 1989, the "Big Bust Boom" (巨乳ブーム - "Kyonyu Buumu") was set "on fire" with the AV debut of Kimiko Matsuzaka, leading to a "Big Bust" genre in Japanese adult entertainment.

Japan is the largest producer of pornography in Asia. The Japanese pornography industry features more natural looking women, usually wearing little makeup. In Japan, fetish pornography has a panoply of variations, ranging from well-known bukkake to tamakeri. The Gay market caters to mostly Twink audiences with sites like Japan Twinks being very popular.