It's a long one, so if you're in a reading mood...
I researched the rise of the "Ethics" companies that monitor Japanese AV. I agree with some things, like keeping the depiction of the age of an actress in a sailor suit ambivalent just to say that, while it is okay to like the way an adult performer looks in a particular uniform, it is not okay to pursue sex with minors! It's why they currently block out one of the letters in the phrase "JK" ("joshi kosei", meaning female high school student but carrying the implication that she's available for rental), or the the second "ko" in the word, "kokosei" (just plain old high school student) on covers now.
Ethics companies have been around since the 70s but their influence rises and falls. They rose again when the "exposure" videos were getting out of control around the early 2000s! Women getting bukkake'd in Shibuya; giving handjobs on actual trains and buses; and masturbating or fucking in the back of a real convenience store! Surprised we never heard about anyone getting arrested! I loved Riku Minato but if I walked into my local deli on the way home from the gym and she's shiofuki'ing all over the sports drinks, much as I'd love that sweet nectar of hers all over my face in another context, I'll be walking a block or two to another store for my purchase. Time and place, guys. Time and place! I think there should be some standards.
There are even tiers for what is allowed to be shown. So, showing unpixelated genitals is always forbidden. The A-list AV companies like SOD and Deep's can show the anus and pubic hair as long as the video has a story. Those one-off videos that are usually just one scene don't have to have any story so they can produce on the cheap but they gotta pixelate more of the private areas. Despite this I have seen a ton of uncensored one-off videos, mostly starring unknown actresses but sometimes A-list performers, like Maya Kawamura, Sora Shinna, Ichika Kamihata and AIKA. Maybe they pixelate those in Japan but knowing foreigners like us will be trolling the streaming sites, sell the same videos, uncensored, for overseas distribution.
Right now the titles have gotten a bit more mainstream because the Ethics companies are flexing their muscle. The chikan videos are mostly done on sets or a real bus or train that was rented for the shoot and filled with extras. There isn't quite as much incest JAV and we don't get bukkake or humiliation series now like the "Dream Woman" or "Dream Gakuen" series from the late 90s/early 2000s. We're not seeing series like "World with Extremely Low Hurdle to Sex" and "World where r*** is Legal". Certain words, like "shouta" or "gakusei" will have one of their katakana scratched out or replaced with a circle on the box art. Even the dialogue isn't always direct. Everyone knows the woman playing the tutor is supposed to be in her twenties and the male being tutored is supposed to be in high school but since that is statutory r***, yes even in Japan, they will pretend they're not depicting that by being coy about it in the script. I've heard the argument that such kinky themes are necessary for a nation so stressed out by work and so repressed that they've gotta engage in hardcore fantasies because people don't even talk honestly about sex to their spouses or partners but even in this fantasy worlk, I think maybe it's good to pull back sometimes. These things go in cycles. When the heat dies down, some director will think of something even more kinky than SOD's "Pop Up Chimpo" series, with dicks popping out of walls, blackboards, desks and barstools. Can you imagine what that will be? Jeez!
I would like to see movies from Rocket, SOD, Madonna, etc, with subtitles, uncensored and sold in the west but I don't think it would be worth it. Most of the JAV "types" won't appeal to most western men. They just don't have that Saigon whorehouse look. No judgement! I partake on occasion (Who doesn't love Korean American porn star Lucy Lee?!) but for me one or two scenes and it's right back to JAV. For us, it doesn't get any better!
I'll leave it there.
-Sakana