American Porn Could Learn A Thing Or Two From The Japanese Industry
Japanese production companies are getting consumers to pay for their content in a way that U.S. houses have not.
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By Rachel Sugar
The American porn industry could learn a thing or two from its Japanese competition, says the Daily Dot, pointing out that while 2013 was a rocky year for US erotica, business was — and continues to be — booming across the Pacific. According to the Japanese Times, Japan produces at least twice the number of adult films per year as the United States — and they do it with half the national population. When it comes to quantity, the Japanese have it.
And maybe also when it comes to quality, The Japan Times argues. As Japanese adult star Mumin explains it, Japanese filmmakers tend to favor a more amateur-like look. Unlike slicker and more produced American-made stuff, Japanese porn “tend[s] to go with more day-to-day storylines featuring regular guys,” he says. “There are few, if any, steroid-fueled actors in Japan’s AV (adult video) industry. Our dramas are far more realistic.”
It’s that realism, combined, the Daily Dot suggests, with the fact that Japanese movies “tend to portray a wider range of kinks and fetishes than mainstream U.S. adult films do” — tentacle porn, elder porn, the list goes on — that might be responsible, at least in part, for the industry’s success. Clearly something’s working, because one way or another, Japanese production companies are getting consumers to pay for their content in a way that U.S. houses have not: the average American consumer spent $47 on porn in 2011. The average Japanese consumer? $157. And that’s taking into account the fact that the Japanese industry is subject to strict censorship laws, requiring producers to pixelate male and female genitals (Unless, of course, it’s actually the censorship that makes it better, forcing directors to be more creative and not rely on close-up penetration shots.)
Whether it’s the regular guys or the tentacles or the forced creativity, though, Japanese producers are managing to beat the free stuff on the web — a feat that, so far, many American producers haven’t been able to match.
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