Retirement and Legacy
Kuroki retired from public life in 1994. In the January 2002 issue of the magazine Josei Seven, and the January 2004 issue of Shukan Post, stories and pictures on Kuroki's private life were printed. Kuroki claimed that as an ordinary citizen no longer in the public eye, the magazines needed her permission to print these stories. Kuroki sued the publisher, Shogakukan, for 22 million yen for invasion of privacy. In April, 2007, the presiding judge ruled the articles illegal and awarded Kuroki 1.7 million yen (about $14,000). Shogakukan was reportedly considering appealing the decision.
At the height of her popularity, Kuroki's AVs were averaging 17,000 sales a piece, a huge amount by industry standards, exceeding a million dollars. According to Rosemary Iwamura, "Kaoru changed the image of AV girls; she didn't seem to be making videos because of a lack of options but rather as an informed choice." For bringing the AV industry to the attention of mainstream media in Japan, as well as her polite but frank outspokenness on subjects like sex and censorship, Kjell Fornander calls her "the first high-profile AV actress." She permanently changed the way that the AV industry and AV actresses were viewed by the general public in Japan.
Read more about this topic: Kaoru Kuroki
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