Japan badly needs male porn stars because of gender imbalance in adult film industry

By Vittorio Hernandez 

Pornographic movie actor Shigeo Tokuda poses during the shooting of his latest film in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, April 13, 2009. Tokuda is Japan's oldest pornographic movie star and is shooting his latest film in which he portrays a master of sex.

Like China, Japan has a gender imbalance in which one gender outnumbers the other drastically. But nowhere is the imbalance felt than in the country’s adult movie industry where there are only 70 male porn stars and 10,000 female porn performers.

There are two indicators of how bad the shortage of male porn actors in Japan is. First, the title of world’s oldest porn actor, according to Guinness Book of Records, is held by Shigeo Tokuda who turned 82 this 2016. The octogenarian still disrobes, but because of the downturn of the porn industry in Japan, he now makes only an average of 10 adult movies a year compared to 60 when he shifted to porn acting in 2004, according to Tokyo Reporter.

Second, Shimiken, the busiest male porn actor in Japan tweeted a “cry for help” in August 2014. He wrote, “In this industry … the number of male porn stars in Japan is less than that of Bengal tigers … With 4,000 new films every month, the number of male actors simply isn’t enough. This industry is like a hole in the wall that needs to get bigger!” quotes FHM.

Because of excess capacity among Japanese female porn stars, one actress, Rola Misaka, was fortunate enough to be hired by an anonymous Chinese businessman in May 2015. The 22-year-old would work as the businessman’s personal assistant and be paid a whopping US$8 million (A$10.67 million) annual salary.

Outside the world of porn, the gender imbalance in Japan is actually in favour of males at birth – 1.06 males for every female – but changes at age group 25 to 54 when it reverses to 0.98 male for every male. It worsens to 0.76 males for every female for elderly Japanese or those over 65 years old. But as of 2014, overall ratio is 0.95 males for every female.

Because of the male shortage, Shimiken had sex with 7,500 women over his 19 years as a porn actor. The deficit means he has to film 21 sex movies a week, but age is catching up on Shimiken. While for Tokuda a monogamous relationship is still the ideal, adultery is necessary for the elderly for health reasons also.