Porn brokers preying on young Japanese modelling hopefuls

tokyo — Porn producers in Japan are preying on young modelling hopefuls, with a quarter of women who sign contracts with street touts asked to perform in sex videos, a new government survey has found.

Chilling stories of young women duped into signing modelling contracts only to find themselves on adult movie sets and instructed to perform sometimes brutal sex scenes have created alarm over Japan’s multi-billion dollar adult film business in recent months.

Campaigners have won a rare pledge to reform from the sex industry, which is so ubiquitous that actresses can become household names, appearing on mainstream talk shows and in magazines.

But with a growing number of women speaking out about being forced into porn work, Japan’s government launched its first study into the industry’s recruitment methods in December.

The online survey, seen on Thursday found some 200 young women who signed modelling contracts after being approached on the street, most of them minors.

Of these 53 said they were asked to pose sexually or perform sex acts in front of still, movie or live streaming cameras against their will.

And 17, mostly teenagers, said they had done what was demanded of them, with most citing intimidation by physical or financial threats, as well as coercion using fraudulent contracts. Another 60 women who had spoken to modelling scouts on the street but did not sign contracts, said they had also been forced to pose sexually or perform sex before cameras, predominantly when they were minors. —