Japan stops shooting porn after new law passed

[hoochimama]

Spotted this on a few JAV discussion boards:

I have seen no mention of this issue in English speaking circles, so I thought I would bring this to everyones attention here. The Japanese Diet (Japanese Congress/Parliament) Recently enacted a new law that regulates the AV industry. Here is a summary of what the law entails written up by someone else who took the time to get some of the major points.


1. The target of this bill is not only actresses, but also all the people who appear, regardless of age and gender
2. The film company needs to provide a performance contract before filming. The film company is responsible for explaining the content of the filming to the performers in detail, and also needs to protect the filming safety of the performers
3. After signing the contract, filming and related follow-up work can only be performed after the specified time: - The filming can be carried out only after 1 month of the signing of the filming contract. This month can be understood as a cooling-off period - The finished works, including the announcement of the work information, pre-sale, and official sales, can only be officially started 4 months after the shooting - Before the product is launched, the participating performers need to confirm the content of the film
4. If the above rules are violated, the performers have the right to unconditionally terminate the contract
5. All AV performance contracts can be unconditionally terminated one year after the AV work is announced, including removing the title from sale. In the first two years of the legislation coming into force, this period will be two years.
6. Actors who appear in AV do not need to bear any compensation costs arising from the termination of the contract

This law puts a lot more regulatory burden on JAV companies. Mainstream JAV already has this thing organization IPPA from what I understand is what they use to self regulate. Thats the IPPA symbol you see in the top right corner in a lot of JAV these days. It means the movie was made properly and is a stamp of "approval". The problem with this law is that it puts criminal penalties, like fines and even Jail time. So the making of JAV has become a bit more risky, especially since everybody including male actors can cancel a movie.

Now I don't speak Japanese, So I don't know how everything is shaking out but it sounds really bad for JAV. If anyone has any more information or actual happenings in the JAV industry relating to this it would be nice for you to share.

This law was enacted just this last week, so there is a lot of unknowns happening. According to this Actress, all JAV shooting planned for July has been cancelled.

https://twitter.com/_non_nozomin_/status/1538367332728598528
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That's on top of the already existing JAV rule where performers can have all their works delisted/removed 5 years after publication (see Ai Uehara).

New law enacted to help people pressured into porn
https://japantoday.com/category/crime/new-japan-law-aims-to-help-people-pressured-into-porn

Japan passes law to protect people forced into porn industry
https://www.wionews.com/world/japan-...ndustry-488303

https://scanlover.com/d/15793-japanese-laws-regulating-av

 

[Pornfan99]

People in the industry will likely just relocate - to either South Korea or Taiwan. That is what a lot of porn studios did, when LA passed mandatory condoms on adult film sets. They relocated to Las Vegas, and Miami.

 

[tvstrip]

Spotted this on a few JAV discussion boards:
This law was enacted just this last week, so there is a lot of unknowns happening. According to this Actress, all JAV shooting planned for July has been cancelled.

https://twitter.com/_non_nozomin_/status/1538367332728598528

Just to clarify, the above actress is saying that her shoots were all cancelled, not the entire industry.
It's interesting to note that she's saying how ironic it is that a law supposed to protect actresses is actually hurting them due to the work cancellations.

IPPA should have been more than sufficient (it's a heck of a lot more protective than the laws in other countries), so this seems like overkill.
I haven't read the law in detail, but if we are taking the explanation at face value, I don't think this was thought through. For one, if the actress can unilaterally pull a title out of circulation in as little as a year, that's going to affect the money she gets paid for it. Studios are likely going to reduce contract payments, and possibly only pay the going amount if the actress signs a waiver from the new laws. Good lawyers will be able to draft waivers which can circumvent the laws, so long as they can prove the actress understood the implications.

Moreover, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what is going to happen to the works which do get pulled. Like anything that goes out of print, it only means that the second-hand and pirated market are going to benefit. Unless the work has something exceptionally immoral that the specific title becomes illegal, you can't restrict second-hand sales since the consumer never entered into a contract with the actress. And the pirated market doesn't give a crap about the law, so that's moot.

 

[hoochimama]

Just to clarify, the above actress is saying that her shoots were all cancelled, not the entire industry.

Most have barely had time to react. They're still not sure legally what they can and cannot do as the law is such a mess.

Another studio reaction:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1537019586364809219

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1537020843699712002

Expectations of the AV world in the future
① 1 The number of works in which multiple people appear will decrease (cannot be sold if one performer withdraws)
2 The number of pick-up works will disappear (it will be OK if you meet one month after picking up)
3 The number of new actresses will decrease , More jobs for veteran actresses (take more peace of mind than those at risk of quitting)
4 People who use AV companies and productions as ducks will appear
5 I can't use it because I'm scared of amateur juice actors 6 I want to make money but I can't make it right away

The twitter hashtag used to discuss it: https://twitter.com/hashtag/AV出演被害防止法?src=hashtag_click

branbran726 did a fuller translation of the new law but it exceeds the freeones post character limit.

People in the industry will likely just relocate - to either South Korea or Taiwan. That is what a lot of porn studios did, when LA passed mandatory condoms on adult film sets. They relocated to Las Vegas, and Miami.

South Korea is even less tolerant of porn. It is not only illegal to shoot/perform/sell porn in SK, it is even illegal for SK citizens to perform in porn abroad.
Taiwan is somewhat tolerant - it's where the chinese branded smut allegedly comes from. But shooting abroad is not sustainable for the bulk of the industry long term. Japanese studios having to relocate to a different country with different laws, different culture, different language, different threats would hardly be comparable to some american studios moving from one USA state to another.

 

[jonno2004]

Very interesting

 

[D-rock]

If the new law is to protect the performers if they someday in the future don't want the material out there anymore that's mostly impossible this day in age. Once the Internet came about truly erasing a widely released video from existence is impossible short of a worldwide apocalypse. That's just reality.

If I was less of a skeptic I would say some of it might be about giving the performers more bargaining power in their contracts, but I highly doubt that.

 

[tvstrip]

Here's a question: How does the law define "porn"?
For example, there are lots of Japanese fetish videos where the actress doesn't have sex, or even get nude. Is that covered by the law?
On the other hand, there are lots of Japanese "artsy" films where there is lots of nudity (e.g. "pinky" films). Is that covered by the law?

 

[FreeOnes_Adam]

https://www.xbiz.com/news/267139/ja...rmers-to-void-their-own-contracts-becomes-law

 

[Lolbenis]

Archive, archive, archive. That's it, don't ever trust online or even studios to keep stuff. If you like something, back it up. You never know when it'll go down

 

[tvstrip]

https://www.xbiz.com/news/267139/ja...rmers-to-void-their-own-contracts-becomes-law

The new law also mandates that "a month must pass between the signing of a contract and the filming of the video,

It was referenced in an earlier post, but this would kill the "nampa" genre, which is where they pickup amateur girls off the street.

"Hey, do you want to hookup & be in a porno? Yes? Ok, let me get back to you in a month and we'll talk...."

 

[PinkyHole]

Who's watching censored porn anyway?

 

[hoochimama]

It was referenced in an earlier post, but this would kill the "nampa" genre, which is where they pickup amateur girls off the street.

"Hey, do you want to hookup & be in a porno? Yes? Ok, let me get back to you in a month and we'll talk...."

I think that was supposed to be tongue in cheek since nampa is obviously fake.

 

[FreeOnes_Adam]

Who's watching censored porn anyway?

Not all of it is, and a lot of us are

 

[D-rock]

Not all of it is, and a lot of us are

It's probably easier to get turned on by pixelation when that person is already turned on by 8-bit graphics.

Not that I'm pointing fingers at anybody here.

 

[hoochimama]

Biggest japanese pornsite already went down:

Notice of R18.com Closure

After 9 years of helping people discover and share great contents,
R18.com will stop selling content from October 24, 2022. From this date, users will have access to their already purchased content only.

A few months later, from January 31, 2023 the site will be completely closed and accessing purchased content will not be possible.
Note that it is possible that the points refund application and website may close before the due date due to unexpected reasons.

If you have unused purchased points and would like to get a refund,
please use the points refund form for requesting the purchased points refund.

Points refund form:https://www.r18.com/my/refund/

For any questions, please refer to the FAQ as follows.
FAQ: https://www.r18.com/info/faq/
Contact: https://www.r18.com/my/contact/

We are proud of the community that rallied around R18.com and we know many of you will be sad to see it go.
All the best from the R18.com team, and may you always find what you are looking for.

we'll miss it dearly…

 

[tvstrip]

Biggest japanese pornsite already went down:

This is huge. R18 is/was definitely one of the go-to sites for JAV.

I don't see any news articles attributing the closure to the new law - is there anything like that?

 

[hoochimama]

This is huge. R18 is/was definitely one of the go-to sites for JAV.

I don't see any news articles attributing the closure to the new law - is there anything like that?

I haven't yet looked at articles discussing it.

Officially you may find that R18 had been struggling with the censors for a while.

Unofficially it's all pushed by the same anti-porn lobby. I'm not sure commercial/legit sites are the best places for open criticism & discussion of the censors these sites have to stay in business with.

 

[hoochimama]

https://www.zenra.net/blog/whats-going-on-with-r18-how-did-we-get-here

 

[tvstrip]

https://www.zenra.net/blog/whats-going-on-with-r18-how-did-we-get-here

Pornhub is Canadian??

 

[FreeOnes_Adam]

Pornhub is Canadian??

Yup, there are assholes, even in Canada, it turns out.