TOKYO — British newspaper The Guardian has profiled 65-year-old Japanese adult performer Emi Toda, noted for her work as a leading talent in the Japanese adult video (JAV) “silver porn” genre.
Toda, who has starred in several popular titles in Japan’s equivalent of the GILF category, began performing in her late 50s, The Guardian’s Justin McCurry reveals in the piece.
At the time, Toda was “recently divorced and getting by on wages from part-time jobs at supermarkets and an undertaker when she decided it was time for a change.”
McCurry hypothesizes that the popularity of Toda and the “silver porn” market “reflects Japan’s status as a super-ageing society.”
Japan’s “demographic time bomb,” McCurry explains, “means the senior porn genre has a large and growing potential fanbase. The proportion of Japanese aged 80 or over reached one in 10 for the first time last year, the government said in September ahead of the annual Respect-for-the-Aged Day. An estimated 36.2 million people are aged 65 or older, accounting for a record 29.1% of the total population. By contrast, the number of 18-year-olds is at a record low of 1.06 million, according to figures released last month.”
Japan’s “senior” pornography market, he added, “is one of the few areas of entertainment in which older women are the center of attention.”
“In ordinary Japanese society, it’s almost like women disappear when they reach 50, but this was different,” Toda reflects in their interview. “I liked that, and thought, ‘why not?’”
Toda told The Guardian that she supposes her family taboo titles are particularly successful because “seeing an old woman having sex with a much younger man in those circumstances has a certain impact, because it’s not something you would expect to happen in real life.”
Although everyone enjoys sex, she added, “older people are embarrassed to talk about it. There’s a belief that when women reach a certain age they lose interest in sex, but that’s not the case. I think I have helped challenge that misconception.”
To read “‘It’s not an Oedipus complex’: why Japan’s ‘silver porn’ market is booming,” visit TheGuardian.com.