Tricked into porn: Japanese actresses lead fightback against exploitation in adult film industry

Young, pretty and hoping for stardom, Saki Kozai thought she had found her ticket to fame after an apparent model scout spotted her on a Tokyo street and offered her a job. Then just 24 years old, starstruck and excited, she quickly signed a deal with the agency he introduced her to, believing that she would soon star in promotion videos.

In fact, it was not a modelling agency, and on her first day Kozai discovered the job required her to have sex on camera.

“I couldn’t take off my clothes. All I could do was cry,” she said, adding that she saw no way out of her dire situation. “There were about 20 people around me, waiting. No woman could say ‘no’ when they’re surrounded like that.”

Kozai, now 30, is among a growing number women who are stepping out of the shadows to say they were forced to work in Japan’s multibillion-dollar porn industry. Adult films are widely available in Japan, which has a relatively liberal attitude toward pornography. But the industry’s dark side is rarely discussed, nor are the rights of those who work in it.

Accusations that women were made to perform in sometimes brutal sex scenes, on film against their will, prompted the industry to issue an unprecedented apology and promise change. The surprise mea culpa followed the June arrest of three Tokyo talent agents accused of forcing a woman to appear in more than 100 pornographic videos. Like Kozai, the unnamed woman also thought she would be modelling.

Critics say porn recruiters trick young women – including minors – with promises of showbiz stardom. In other cases, girls have been lured by a lavish lifestyle before they are put to work in sex films to pay off the “debt”. Agencies keep them stuck with threats, intimidation and fraudulent contracts.