Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in Japan’s Adult Video Industry

The popularity of pornography is predicated on the idea those participating have given their consent. That is what allows the porn industry to dominate the media economy today, generating staggering sums of money. Looking at behind-the-scenes negotiations and abuses in Japan's massive adult video industry, Akiko Takeyama challenges this pervasive notion with the idea of involuntary consent. This phenomenon, she argues, is ubiquitous, not only in the porn industry, but in our everyday lives, and yet modern society, built on beliefs of autonomy, free choice, and equality, renders it all but invisible.



Japan's AV industry alone generates a conservatively estimated $5 billion a year. In recent years, it has drawn public attention, and criticism, as a result of a series of arrests and trials of former talent agency owners and executives. This led to a report calling for a systematic investigation of the industry over the issue of forced performance. This report had ripple effects far beyond Japan, as the US Department of State subsequently also cited forced performance as a rights violation. Using this moment as an entry point, Takeyama argues that contract-making writ large is based on fundamentally dualistic terms, implying consent and pleasure on the one hand, and coercion and pain on the other. Because sex workers are employed on a contract basis, they fall outside of the purview of standard labor and employment laws. As a result, they are frequently forced to comply with what production companies (most of whom center male fantasies) demand.



In this ethnography of Japan's porn industry, Akiko Takeyama investigates the paradox of involuntary consent in modern liberal democratic societies. Taking consent as her starting point, Takeyama illustrates the nuances of Japan's pornographic and sex work industries and the legal structures, or lack thereof, that govern them.