Japan wants to legislate to ban AV?
In June, this rumored rumor aroused some discussion in some domestic communities. It was based on a proposal made by a member of the Japanese Constitutional Democratic Party Tsumegamo at a meeting: "There are murder scenes in movies and TV, but they will never be real when they are filmed." However, the sexual behavior is sometimes filmed on-site, which will inevitably bring various dangers such as pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, depression and PTSD, and does not respect the human rights of actors.”
Source: @新浪财经
However, The so-called "proposal to ban AV" is actually just a supplementary discussion on another topic, which has not been passed and implemented. At present, what has really become an established fact is the "Act on the Prevention and Relief of AV Appearance Victims" promulgated by the Japanese Senate on June 15.
The bill pointed out that "AV victimization" refers to the whole process of being recorded and selling sex against the person's will, and the victim will continue to suffer from the related images being widely disseminated around the world. Thus, the Act introduces mechanisms for the protection of victims at several levels.
For example, at the signing stage of the contract, the producer has to explain the contract obligations in detail, and the filming can only be started after one month of providing the contract. In the past, AV actresses often received the script one day in advance, and they didn’t know who they would be asked to do with; stage, you can also refuse to have sex on the same day; in the dissemination stage, you need to set aside 4 months for the actors to confirm the content of the video before it is officially released; what is particularly interesting is that the bill stipulates that the cast and crew can be released after the sale and broadcast. Unconditionally terminate the contract within one year, request to stop the sale of the film, and do not need to pay liquidated damages.
Previously, the AV industry had only a "five-year clause" for "stopping dissemination", that is, if there is no new work for five years, you can ask to remove previous works from the shelves. Sora Aoi, who is married and has children, used this clause to protect his own rights in 2020. However, the "five-year clause" is only an industry norm initiated by a third-party organization in nature and does not have legal effect.
There is no doubt that the "AV Relief Law" has a lot of groundbreaking significance in the protection of the human rights of AV actresses. What is different from the inherent impression of many viewers is that "acting in AV" is not all based on voluntary and crazy money. The industry has been in chaos for a long time.
The former Japanese AV industry had a peak annual sales of 500 billion yen, accounting for GDP1% of the entire national GDP.
"AV Relief" from beginning to end
"AV Appearance Victim Prevention and Relief Act" is actually a "patch" of another new law.
On April 1, the amendment to Japan's "Civil Code" came into effect. One of the new "Civil Code" is to lower the age of adulthood from 20 years old to the internationally accepted 18 years old. The tradition of "20-year-old adults" in Japan can be traced back to the Meiji Restoration period, and it has lasted for 146 years. Compared with other modern countries, it is indeed out of date.
Japan has always had strict protection measures for "minors". It has specially issued the "Child Prostitution Prohibition Law". Even so, sex trafficking involving minors is not uncommon in Japanese society.
In 2017, BBC filmed a documentary titled "Japanese Underage Sex Trading", showing the experience of those "compensated dating girls". 32.2%, the senior three up to 44.7%. A girl interviewed by the documentary meets 15-18 middle-aged men every week and earns more than 600,000 yen a week.
Because of the huge market demand, "female high school students" is also a popular topic in AV. Of course, due to legal restrictions, all adult AV actresses will star, and the producers usually mark the actors as "over 20 years old".
The new "Civil Law" has lowered the age of adulthood, and it has brought a series of new rights to female students aged 18-20, such as being able to get married, applying for a long-term passport , and being able to independently sign documents that previously required the consent of a guardian contractual agreement - itsIncluding the AV performance contract. This means that in Japan's special social environment, there may be a ridiculous situation where "female high school students can legally appear in AV". member Fumika Shiomura simply said: "Victims will start on April 1st." Or, female high school students' AV will become a popular phenomenon, and such a shameful thing in Japan cannot be tolerated."
The worry of all walks of life in Japan stems from the fact that the AV contract itself is in a gray area. Being accosted by "star scouts" on the street, "abducted" into the industry in the name of "model" and other professions, and being unable to get out after filming AV due to liquidated damages, it happened from time to time in the past. People worry that "new adults" who have not been involved in the world will become the hunting targets of unscrupulous filmmakers.
Former AV actress Walnut Scent has always been an active voice against "tricking and filming". After the "Civil Law" loopholes sparked discussions in Japan, she expressed her doubts on her social media: "Society expects minors to treat themselves The decision to make a pornographic film is responsible, but to what extent can minors meet this expectation?”
Walnut Fragrance was approached by a “star scout” when she was in college, and the other party asked her if she was interested in a “glamorous model”, “He has a A decent business card that speaks respectfully and feels trustworthy.” She saw it as her chance to become a star, and then went to a “show audition” where she didn’t know she needed to be nude. A dozen men older than her, including her agent and the president of the production company, surrounded her and kept persuading her to accept the filming contract. "I felt a lot of pressure to agree, so I agreed."
In the next few months, the producer threatened her with an acting contract and asked her to shoot AVs many times. As a result, Hu Taoxiang dropped out of college, and it was difficult to engage in other industries when she got out. Another AV actress Xiang Nishisaki had a similar experience. She signed a contract when she was 24 years old. It was not until the first day of work that she realized that she was not signed by a modeling agency. "I can't take off my clothes. I can only cry." But she In the end, he had no choice but to surrender.
However, some people in Japan’s civil and political circles hold different opinions. They think that “since the age of adulthood has been lowered and women aged 18-20 voluntarily set foot in the custom industry, they should be responsible for their actions.” . The bill has protective regulations in every link of filming, preventing young women from being forced to film without their knowledge, and at the same time protecting the human rights of active AV actresses.
However, the bill has triggered a new round of dissatisfaction. Some Japanese women's groups believe that the bill clearly defines AV and AV actors as "sexual behavior video products" and "perpetrators of sexual behavior". Japan's "Prostitution Prevention Law", which has been implemented since 1957, prohibits any form of sex trade, and on the surface, AV is nothing more than a "performance". "No-chip" circulation in Japan belongs to "export to domestic sales". Companies such as Tokyo Hot, Maki Horikita, and SKYANGEL are all registered in the United States, so the copyright statement of "FBI" appears in the opening title.
specially introduced a "relief bill" for AVs of the "performance" nature, which is equivalent to removing the mosaic of AVs and admitting that AV actors are performing real sexual acts. So some people proposed that a total ban on AV shooting could "fundamentally prevent harm", and this was the "Proposal to Ban AV" in the parliament.
In this regard, some active AV actresses sarcastically tweeted: "If AV is banned, I can only start blind dates. I will go back to the countryside to grow vegetables and raise dogs." Another AV actress protested: "Compared to worrying about AV , you should worry about felonization of sex crimes first.” The member of Shiomura who led the establishment of the “AV Relief Act” also believed that a comprehensive ban is unrealistic, and shouted on Twitter “Don’t confuse the two things”.
Ito Kazuko, the secretary-general of the international human rights NGO "Human Rights Now", wrote in the initiative after the passage of the "AV Relief Act": "It was not possible to reach an agreement on this part, so it was not included in this bill. These issues It still needs to be discussed repeatedly, with a view to revising it within two years."
The game surrounding the "human rights of AV actresses"
This is not the first time that the human rights of AV actresses have received widespread attention.
In 2004, the "Bachi Incident" occurred in the Japanese AV industry, which caused huge social repercussions. filmmaker "BachiDuring the filming of "Visual Planning", the actress was given psychedelic drugs and then forcibly abused. The foreign body was inserted and the actor's internal organs ruptured. The actress recovered after four months and filed a "forced obscenity" lawsuit against the film studio.
Due to The memory of the actress is blurred, and those who participated in the filming were initially released due to insufficient evidence. However, under the persuasion of the police, the actresses contracted by the film studio revealed the inside story one after another, and the case finally ended with the representative of the film crew being sentenced to 18 years in prison. It is a film studio specializing in the production of "Crazy Hunting" and "Insulting" series. According to its staff Yangzhi Igawa's later description in "Dusty Adult Films", Baqi will not inform the actresses of the form of their roles in advance, but will directly tell them Called to the scene to shoot with real knives and real guns, the actors all reacted instinctively, which gave the audience a huge visual impact, and the company made profits from such anti-human and anti-social content. Although this is the most serious criminal incident in the Japanese AV industry case, but the follow-up impact mainly occurred on the shooting content, and the output of Japanese AV and the number of actors have not been reduced. The opaque "entry" mechanism of
is the most controversial area that touches the root of the problem. In 2011, the "311 Earthquake" occurred in Japan Afterwards, the magazine "Weekly Reality" claimed that a group of "star scouts" went deep into the disaster area, saw the weakness of the victims' urgent need for money, lured young and beautiful girls with high rewards to shoot AV, and disregarded morality in the face of interests.
March 2016, Japan's first human rights organization "Human Rights Now" released a report on "Japan's forced filming of adult movies (AV)", making the issue of forced filming a focus of attention in Japan and the international community. The statistics of the report show There were 72 cases of women victims who consulted the "Pornographic Persecution and Sexual Violence Association" within 3 years, 21 cases of "being lured in the name of being a model", 20 cases of "wanting to stop selling AVs that continued to be filmed", 20 cases of "being seduced by There are 13 cases of forced AV shooting. The
report also published the specific experiences of 10 actresses. One of the 20-year-old girls cried and complained that she had signed a contract with a graphic modeling agency. The high liquidated damages for building a house one by one, having sex with multiple people without contraceptive measures, and having to drink more than 12 liters of water.
also expressed that they were persuaded to shoot AV Regretted, wanted to stop but still made many films, and attempted suicide because he couldn’t bear the spread of AV. After the release of
, some people in the industry raised doubts. After retiring, former AV actress Miko Kawana, who turned into a novelist, advocated for human rights organizations The purpose is to "destroy the Japanese AV industry", the case only happened between three companies (SOD, CA and MOODYZ), the number is not worth mentioning compared to the 18,000 works released by them in three years, "although it is to protect women's human rights , it is better to say that they want to deprive AV actresses of their rights. Based on her own experience, she believes that AV actresses are not a shady profession, and the report is actually "encouraging occupational discrimination".
Some AV actresses who were still working at the time were also critical. I don't know what it means at all." Saki Hatsumi retorted: "The Japanese AV industry is 'very clean' now. I filmed with my own will, and I also made many friends. "He Xiami even said that "I have never seen anyone who was forced to shoot an AV".
But after the chaos in the AV world was revealed, The Japanese Cabinet Office made sexual assaults on young women for the first time at the end of 2016 Survey. The survey was conducted in the form of an online questionnaire, involving a total of 20,000 women aged 15-29, and more than 5,200 respondents said that they had been contacted by "star scouts" or actively sought job opportunities similar to "models". Less than 200 respondents admitted to signing relevant contracts, and 27% of women found that they were "deceived" after signing.
Then in 2017, Suga Yoshihide , who was then Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, announced that he would make a big contribution to the AV industry. Strengthen supervision, aiming to eliminate the situation of accosting passers-by on the street and forcing pornography to be filmed. Two months later, in April 2017, the "Japan Production Association", "AV Actress Alliance Performer Network", and "Intellectual Property Promotion Association" three The organization jointly established the "Expert Committee on AV Industry Reform Promotion".
This committee is now the "AV Human Rights Ethics Organization", and is responsible for variousActress human rights protection work. For example, after an AV actress retires, she may suffer social discrimination in many aspects such as studies, marriage, and employment. The agency opened a special application window in February 2018 to accept applications from AV actresses to stop selling their works, which is the aforementioned "Five-Year Clause". In the past two years, more than 1,600 works have been removed from shelves using this clause.
In the long game between the government, producers, industry organizations, and actors, the human rights of AV actresses are gradually being more protected, and this process is obviously not over yet.
Traditional AV, sunset industry
The well-known documentary writer Junhiko Nakamura wrote a case in "The Disappearance of AV Actresses" published in 2017. Although Miyuki Nakazawa (pseudonym) is in the top 15% of the industry, she can only Living in an old wooden apartment with a monthly rent of 40,000 yen (about 2,000 yuan) and no bathroom, the water and electricity will be cut off at the most embarrassing time, and even the phone bill cannot be paid.
"I had a D cup when I was in elementary school. I always dreamed of being an idol since I was a child. Maybe I changed my ambition to become an AV actress when I was in middle school. No matter how poor I am, I will never take money from a man." Miyuki Nakazawa once thought so After entering the industry, she found that "the life of an AV actress would be so poor." The average monthly income of non-top Japanese actresses represented by her is only 150,000 to 200,000 yen, which is similar to that of a part-time nurse in Japan, and belongs to the low-income group.
According to the "Hourly Salary List of Female Customs Practitioners (2006 Edition)", the hourly salary of AV actresses can reach up to 31,000 yen when they appear in a single work, and 's salary for a single work can reach 800,000-150 Ten thousand yen, the income situation of AV actresses is obviously not what it used to be. And Junhiko Nakamura pointed out in the "Records of AV Actresses" published in 2012 that the long-term downturn in the industry has led producers to pursue the quality of works or various extreme content, which has led to AV actresses' salaries without much change. The work is even harder. An anonymous specific case is: the hourly salary of a certain actress is only 2,000 yen after deducting the administrative fee.
During the "bubble economy era" of the last century, Japan's population structure underwent major changes. According to statistics from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, from 1975 to 1995, the proportion of single women among young people aged 25 to 29 increased from 20% When it reached 48%, the proportion of single men rose from 48.3% to 68%. A number of new services for single men and women have sprung up, such as compensated dating, love hotels, telephone clubs, etc., and pornographic images are one of them.
Yano Economic Research Institute's "2017 Otaku Market Research" shows that the market size of AV and adult games is declining year by year, and "pornography powerhouse" Japan seems to be entering the era of "sexual frigidity". Among them, the market share of and of AV fell by 2.38% to 49.2 billion yen, which is only a quarter of the idol market. "Pure idols" who can provide a variety of emotional values seem to be better than "pure idols" who can only bring short-term pleasure. "Sexy Actress" is more popular. The change of
communication media has also shaken the foundation of the AV industry. In the 1980s, the price of Japan's video recorder plummeted, videos entered ordinary households, and video rental shops bloomed everywhere, which largely promoted the vigorous development of the AV industry. After the iconic character Ai Iijima debuted in 1992, the sales volume of each of her more than 30 works can reach more than 10,000 boxes.
From videotapes to DVDs, CDs in the early 21st century witnessed the most prosperous period of Japanese AV. AV has become an unattractive "cultural business card" in Japan. There has been a situation where the "FBI statement" is exported and sold. But when the Internet becomes popular, this scarcity advantage no longer exists. As
AV is an underground consumer product, piracy is almost unstoppable. However, adult websites such as P Station and OnlyFans have skipped the link of "AV production manufacturers", and some personal bloggers can even directly provide content to the audience. It is not surprising that people's demand for AV has weakened. A few years ago, the saying "VR saves AV" was popular, but due to the slow development of VR technology itself, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the experience of VR equipment, and it didn't take long for it to become "AV saves VR".
Counting from "A Jian of the Laundry Shop", which opened the underground market in 1982, Japan's AV has developed for 40 years. A special but mature industry cannot disappear quickly, and the actors in it also need to get more human rights concerns.
Traditional AV is already a sunset industry, but this time, neither the performers nor the audience miss it.