Porn for Women Making Headway in Japan

LOS ANGELES—Tokyo news blog Rocket News is touting the latest trend in Japanese porn, which, like everywhere else in the world, has traditionally been made for men. “But things are starting to change in Japan, thanks to a few enterprising ‘adult-oriented’ companies who are targeting females,” reports the site.   It’s not entirely new, writes Preston Phro, who notes that “‘porn for women’ has been attempted before, obviously, but it rarely seems to go quite the right way. Romance novels apparently do well, but women aren’t really catered to as an audience for porn videos.” The way Phro sees it, “The problem seems to be that the porn industry either doesn’t know how to make videos that appeal to women—or they just don’t care. “Love Place,” he adds, “a Japanese adult entertainment company targeting women, aims to change all that!” The solution to reaching Japanese women, it seems, is one similar to reaching women, at least straight women, everywhere. “Using a formula of ‘ikemen (sexy men) x eroticism x love drama,’ the company produces videos that feature love stories designed to appeal to women—with lots of steamy sex scenes as well. Started by ‘ikemen sommeliers’ Naomi Oki and Mika Naito, the company has a large stable of ‘sexy men’ to star in their films. Instead of the, shall we say ‘well-endowed’ gentlemen who are chosen to star in videos targeting men, Love Place and other ‘love cinema’ companies look for young, handsome actors like Kousei Sakurada, who won Love Place’s first ‘Ikemen Grand Prix’ in 2013.” Silk Labo, which has been around since 2009, is another studio producing porn for women with apparent success. DVDs by both it and Love Place are available for sale on Amazon. The outreach is not limited to screens, either. “In addition to sexy videos with B-grade (or possibly Z-grade) acting,” reports Phro, “Japanese women can also attend ‘eromen’ (erotic men) events, where they can see their favorite sexy men in the flesh.” Image: Screengrab of Love Place homepage.