‘Involuntary consent’ powering Japan’s adult video industry explored in new book

LAWRENCE — The adult video industry in Japan generates an estimated $5 billion a year. However, the young women who achieve “stardom” through performing onscreen aren’t always willing participants.

“Japan is famously – or notoriously – known for its people not being able to say no,” said Akiko Takeyama, a professor of women, gender & sexuality studies at the University of Kansas. “That was an intriguing aspect for me regarding how ‘consent’ works if people cannot say no.”

Takeyama’s latest book titled “Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in Japan’s Adult Video Industry” investigates the paradox of consent in modern liberal democratic societies. Taking consent as her starting point, she illustrates the nuances of contract making and the legal structures (or lack thereof) that govern the nation’s sex entertainment industries. It’s published by Stanford University Press.

She calls this topic “an intersection of gender, class and sexuality.”

Japan’s adult video industry has elicited public scrutiny and criticism in recent years due to a series of arrests involving former talent agency executives. This led to investigations over the issue of “forced performance” in the industry.

Takeyama said, “Women coming from suburban Tokyo or elsewhere are approached by these men and asked, ‘Are you interested in becoming a model or television personality?’ Usually, the guy is really good at appealing to whatever you’re interested in. You just register your name so that you can choose the job modeling if you want. And obviously they say if you don’t want it, you don’t have to take it. But then they hold the contract over you, and it becomes an ‘empty threat.’”

Many of these women had no intention of becoming an adult video performer, Takeyama said.

“But they signed a contract. They can’t really withdraw. Or they’ve already performed once and their products are circulated,” she said.

The professor ran into roadblocks while researching this topic. Because of the negative media publicity, the last thing those in the industry wanted was more scrutiny.

“It wasn’t a friendly environment to do this research,” said Takeyama, who is also director of KU’s Center for East Asian Studies.

“But I was persistent. I told them I needed to get multiple perspectives. The more persistent I was, the more some people started to see they are the ones being silenced. Society doesn’t listen. They are the scapegoat of this social issue and a sexist society.”

Yet her book also investigates the male perspective. What she found was that — in many ways — men were also trapped in a cycle of which they had no control.

“Both the adult video actresses and their fans who keep this industry going are victims of a contract society,” she said.

“These fans came of age during Japan’s employment ‘Ice Age.’ They are now in their 30s and 40s, but they are still like temporary workers and must renew contracts every year. Because of this economic challenge, and also social class, they’re not really attractive to women. They don’t have any partners to date. They don’t have money to go to more interactive places like hostess clubs. But they can afford to purchase an adult video, which costs about $25, and also allows them to attend live appearance events and shake hands and have personalized interaction with their favorite adult video actresses.”

Takeyama recently explored this concept in a chapter concerning “Self-Ownership, Consent and Contractual Abuses in Japan’s Adult Video Industry” found in the book “Feminist and Queer Theory” (Oxford University Press, 2020). When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she noticed similarities between the options faced by female essential services workers and women in the adult industry.

“To me, the issue is larger than the sex industry. It’s more about the national economy, in which 40% of the labor force is a temporary worker or non-regular worker,” she said. “These women were normally not willing to take a job as an adult performer, but there were no other choices because regular work is extremely rare.”

A native of Hamamatsu, Japan, Takeyama first came to KU in 2007. She is also the author of the 2016 book “Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club” (Stanford University Press). She considers herself a cultural anthropologist in gender studies.

“‘Consent’ itself is more or less a modern concept. Just like ‘identity,’ the word didn’t really exist before the 1980s. The ‘self’ of Japan is more relational — like I’m a daughter, a wife or a teacher at an institution. That is the kind of identification marker rather than 'I am Akiko Takeyama no matter what,'” she said.

“So if you have no identity, how can you determine consent?”

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