Are you a baseball fan? Have you heard about the recent scandal involving Yomiuri Giants star Hayato Sakamoto?
He was exposed by the tabloid magazine Weekly Bunshun for allegedly using women as casual sex partners, acting like it was no big deal, and using flippant and arrogant language that is far removed from the gentlemanly image expected of the Giants. However, I think he won't be worse off than Managing Director Owada; he won't publicly apologize, won't respond to gossip, and will just keep a low profile until the storm passes…
However, this news has caused a huge stir, and many of Sakamoto's "famous quotes" from his conversations with the women he used as casual sex partners have appeared on Twitter. Trends, summarized briefly below:
・お前今日ケツ穴定な (I'm going to fuck your asshole today, "anal hole confirmed" is a super catchy phrase)
・おえおうさせたい (Give your dad a deep throat, "oe-o" is super popular right now)
・俺に性病うつしたろ.性病検查しろ (I think I've got an STD, you should get checked too)
・今すぐ堕ろせと言いたい。 会いたいなら堕ろせ (I want you to abort (the child) right now, if you want to see me, then abort it)
How about that? Shouldn't a quick-thinking production company find a muscular male actor to wear a baseball uniform and violently assault an actress to prank Sakamoto Hayato? That would definitely bring a knowing smile to many fans who dislike the Giants, right?
Unfortunately, that's not easy.
(Although many actresses opposed it, the new law was still implemented.)
It wasn't that the Giants (a group of adult film producers) had absolute power, but rather that the new AV law's regulations rendered production companies inflexible: new actresses could only start filming one month after signing a contract, and the works could only be released four months after filming. This meant that if a parody of the Night King were urgently planned now, the earliest it could be released would be early next year…
Whether people would still be paying attention to this matter by then was hard to say. This was the most direct impact of the new AV law on the industry. I know some friends are concerned about what will happen after the new law takes effect, so I will give a brief explanation here:
First of all… The current works have not been affected by the new law. After the law was passed at the end of June, production companies and agencies first understood its contents and then immediately stopped production to revise their SOPs to comply with the regulations. The most troublesome part was that everything required a contract, and most agency owners knew nothing about the law. Therefore, they spent a lot of time finding lawyers to draft contracts, communicating with production companies, and then finding actresses to sign contracts. This resulted in most exclusive actresses having no work in August (most of their scheduled August shooting schedules were completed in July)...
Inamori Miyu, who said she hadn't worked for three consecutive months...
What kind of situation did this create? First, many production companies are observing the situation, so they've either reduced production or suspended releases, resulting in a noticeably lower number of releases by the end of the year. Second, because production companies are reducing production and agencies are busy preparing contracts, it's difficult to keep up with second- and third-tier actresses. As a result, you see many actresses lamenting online about their drastically reduced work or even zero income. After a month or two, some actresses with tight budgets can't hold on and have no choice but to retire and find new work.
So, will the AV industry never recover?
I'm not that pessimistic. It's not because the new law will be repealed or adjusted. Stepping outside your comfort zone, you'll realize that the actresses' loud appeals are actually ineffective, and the petitions demanding amendments are unlikely to proceed smoothly. What I do think is that this industry has been operating for so many years, and with so many people to support, it should be able to find a way to cope with the overwhelming new law. There will inevitably be a painful adjustment period, but I believe it will gradually recover over time…
The bigger challenge is whether it will prohibit actual penetration between male and female actors? Currently, the industry isn't entirely certain that it will reach that worst-case scenario. For now, all we can do is live for the moment and see what happens later.
