SDF girl drops the rifle and joins the ranks of the adult industry
By Ryann Connell
May 7, 2006
Editor's note: stock photos only, no photos of Airi
Tojo were available at press time |
"Originally, I wanted to help people, and that's why I joined the Self-Defense
Force. But when I got there, I learned the job was tough, it literally stank,
it was boring and the pay sucked. I enjoyed the car maintenance and classes on
disassembling artillery, but the pay was only about 3 million yen a year. The
most enjoyable part of living on base was the food and the sex. Perhaps it was
those two things that inspired me to drop out of the force and move into the
world of adult video," Airi Tojo tells Spa!.
Though Tojo, a pseudonym, moved in worlds where firing weapons was the staple
of the industry, albeit in entirely different ways, she is just one of the many
Japanese women to have recently turned their backs on what most would regard as
stable, respectable careers to enter the world of adult movies.
Among the ranks of active blue movie actresses are former celebrities, one-time
grid girls from motor racing events, ex-reporters, and almost Olympic athletes.
Then there are types like Yu Honoka.
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"I used to do the traffic broadcasts for (staid, government-owned broadcaster)
NHK. I only got on air for a few minutes at a time, but I was pretty popular. I
even got a fan letter saying how much the writer was pleased by my 'clean and
pure appearance.' I suppose they'd be a bit disappointed to learn that I was
appearing in dirty movies," Honoka tells Spa!
Honoka says her stint as NHK's traffic girl in the Tohoku Region was filled
with stress, saying that she worked only with older women who constantly
heckled her over her work performance, filling her with tension. She says the
choice to move into blue movies was an easy one.
"I've always enjoyed making love and all the stress made me enjoy it even more.
But, I was paying over 100,000 yen a month in hotel bills, so I seriously
considering moving into a love hotel at one stage," she says.
Kemuta Otsubo, a writer on Japan's adult movie industry, says the most common
former careers for adult actresses include those who've appeared as guests on
TV variety programs and former TV announcers, especially if there's an
association with squeaky-clean NHK, which gives the actress a "forbidden fruit"
appeal.
A past career as an athlete can also lead to a lucrative stint in the erotic
cinema world.
"What a lot of places will do is issue a movie with huge characters saying
something like starring an 'Athens Olympian' or "Former Japan National Team
Player" and then, in tiny characters underneath, have something like
'candidate' or 'chance,'" Otsubo says. "Former athletes are always welcomed
into the adult movie business with open arms. It's really tough work and
schedules can be grueling and demanding. Those who've learned how to push their
bodies to the limit are the types who seem to fit in best."
Otsubo goes on to add that women who've been involved with famous celebrities
also find a niche market in stick flicks.
"Kasumi Yuka skyrocketed to stardom in the early '90s after she appeared in a
movie titled 'I was Beat Takeshi's Wife for a Night,'" Otsubo tells Spa!
"Otherwise, former department store workers, ex-airline flight attendants and
one-time daycare center nurses remain as popular as they've always been."
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