^More yakuza would just make it more corrupt, sure it would be more quiet but doesn't mean better it's a very exploitative industry as it is already, more yakuza involvement would make it 100 times worse, we'd just hear way less about it
Well in the "good old days", yakuza were less corrupt than the police and the government, LOL!
They are criminal in nature but they were smart enough to run a sustainable m.o. They know how to operate in a way that police and politicians (and the public citizenry, ultimately) won't do whatever necessary to destroy the yakuza.
But indeed, that might be a bygone era. So the unfortunate conclusion might be: there's no viable path out of this. You can't expect the (legal or political) establishment to sort out the industry internal problem (how t0 reduce exploitation/abuse to a sustainable level) if the main objective is to help the industry stabilize or even become stronger than now. JAV might be on a slow (very very slow, hopefully) downward spiral towards oblivion.
Last I heard, the Yakuzas are engaged in their own civil war and having recruitment issues. The cops, noting those 2 major issues, are exploiting them with crackdowns. So don't expect any intervention from the 839 for the time being.
Of course, everything are just rules and guidelines which are left to interpretations such as the ill define 5 year rule. Do note that the entire industry had been treading the gray area for far too long and the operators are already experienced in twisting facts for their benefits. There will definatly be loopholes to be exploited until the next big scandal.
Speaking of the 5 year rule. It is beneficial in a sense that there will be less of any last minute regrets by the talents as there are still instances of them now such as KAWD-847 which is out in the wild but delisted from official listing.
But how many talents are remembered after 5 years ? And how many of their footages will be reused ? It's not like porn are classics like Gone With The Wind and Casablaca.
Indeed you might be right. Today's yakuza might be far weaker and also less "ethical" than the "good old days".
The 5 year thing is an absolute red herring. It is an non-issue except for one silly demands from one single vengeful ex-idol. I'm not dismissing her complaints, she might indeed have been exploited in her career, but trying to have her old vids removed from Amazon/DMM is plain silly on her part. After 5 years, unless you are planning to become politician or high society (hahaha very funny) the only one searching and discovering some 5+ year old AV is still available on DMM is herself.
If she hadn't make a big deal out of it, I bet sales number for those old vids of her is a big fat zero.
For one thing how does 5 year rule deals with compilation/box set? Let's say a girl debut in 2010, retires in 2016, at her retirement she might wish to regain her anonymity/privacy. So she ask for her 2010 and 2011 vids to be removed from DMM. DMM + studio say ok, that's your right. In 2017, studio publish a 8-DVD box set of her whole career, so of course her debut vid(s) will be in it. But 5 year rule won't prevent old vids or old footage to be re-published. So her early vids is being sold and profited again. The first chance she can try to wipe clean is 2021, she could ask all vids from 2010-2016 to be removed (delisted, as jwlim says) but what about that 2017 box set? Is there anything in these rules that entitle her to prevent the 2017 post-retirement box set to be published in the first place? Seems she has to wait until 2022 to delist the box set.
(I only recently noticed a post-retirement boxset, I forgot who, not Ai Uehara, but someone slightly lower in status... could be Ayumi Shinoda?? I remember thinking oh... that's not very nice of the studio, she might not want any more exposure (so to speak) anyway I was at the same time skeptical how much profit could the studio got from a boxset of an idol who's fading out of the fandom consciousness)
So
fine... the industry has to pretend to respond to
THE ISSUE, so construct a pretend-rule that provide the standard plausible deniability. The chance that a future-ex-idol will actually eventually invoke such rule to exercise her "right" is near enough ZERO. Anyway the vast majority of AV don't have any shelf life after 24 months. So 5 years seems safe enough for industry profitability. For the tiny tiny minority of vids that still sell after 5 years (what? 3 copies a year?) I bet that the rule/process will leave enough holes for the industry to squeeze that last final drips of profits. Anyway if a vid has shelf life over 5 years, pretty much can predict the performer is a long career top idol in the same ranks as Ai Uehara and Yuma Asami and Sora Aoi, those girls are very very unlikely to turn vengeful against the industry.
Of course I could be wrong... one morning Ai Uehara might wake up to find she's 25 years old, have 8000 yens in her bank account, mortgage payment due in 7 days, is unemployable and unmarryable. And suddenly being a
tool for conservative politicians against AV industry might seem attractive for quick cash and fame.
