Virtual Entrepreneur

Elder Porn: Japan’s Booming Sex Niche

TIME:
Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 73-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack 3 years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that’s because he’s kept his part-time job - as a porn star.

Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name - he prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years. And in his double-life, Tokuda arguably embodies the contemporary state of Japan’s sexuality: In surveys conducted by organizations ranging from the World Health Organization to the condom-maker Durex, Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. The WHO reported in March this year found that 1 in 4 married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all. These figures were attributed to the stresses of Japanese working life. Yet, at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with ‘elder porn’ one of its fastest growing genres.

Tokuda is rare among Japanese porn stars in that his name has become a brand. The Shigeo Tokuda series he’s just completed portray him as a tactful elderly gentleman who instructs women of different ages in the erotic arts, and he boasts a body of work far more impressive than most actors in their prime. Carry on reading.