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Meet Japan’s 82-year-old porn star

After making 400 movies for more than 20 years, 82-year-old Shigeo Tokuda knows his way around an adult-movie set and, like more and more of his generation, his career has kept rolling long past even his own expectations

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Eighty-two-year-old porn video actor Shigeo Tokuda visits a Tokyo video shop. Tokuda might look like an average Japanese grandfather but appearances can be deceiving. He is the country's king of elderly porn, a fast-growing niche market in this greying society. Photo: AFP

He has the liver spots, dewlap and grey-fringed bald spot of virtually all men of 82, but Shigeo Tokuda is unique among his Japanese contemporaries.

While they are often content with the occasional round of golf with their cronies, genteel hikes in the mountains or lavishing gifts on their grandchildren, Tokuda is still hard at work. It is a source of great pride that his stamina, know-how and work ethic are still in demand in a country that was built on the labour and sacrifices of the post-war generation.

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He also believes that his present employment is of benefit to many other men in a society that is ageing rapidly.

Tokuda, who uses a stage name for his appearances, is a star of Japan’s insatiable pornographic movie industry.

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His speciality, unsurprisingly, is in the sector aimed squarely at elderly viewers – Japan’s booming “silver economy” – and Tokuda is listed by the Guinness World Records as the oldest working male porn star in the world.

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