Shimiken has been dubbed Japan's "King of Adult Video Actors." To date, he's appeared in over 7,000 adult movies during his sixteen-year career. Sounds like he's overworked! Know why? There aren't enough male performers in Japan, he says.
Note: This article contains content some readers might find objectionable.
"There are only 70 or so male adult video actors," Shimiken recently tweeted. "That's less than the number of Bengal tigers." Among those, the number of regularly working performers is much, much less. "Plus," the actor continues, "there are ten thousand adult video actresses, and with four thousand releases every month, the number of male actors simply isn't enough."
That number seems pretty damn high, and I'm not entirely convinced it's entirely accurate; however, in 2012, Livedoor News reported that each year apparently 6,000 porn actresses debut in Japan. But still, those figures shouldn't be taken at face value, as they could be misleading, possibly covering a wide variety of content. However, it seems like in Japan—as probably anywhere pornography is made—there is a dearth of male stars and a lot of porn, with perfomers appearing in numerous releases. That's why, via Twitter, Shimiken encouraged men to enter the profession.
Shimiken's tweet has been retweeted nearly three thousand times, and on 2ch, Japan's largest webforum, net users chimed in. However, the vast majority of commenters seem reluctant about helping to fill that hole in Japanese pornography. Below, you can see some, certainly not all, comments regarding this topic.
"The salary is probably just your commuting expense to the shoot."
"Instead of muscular actors like Shimiken, I like flabby old dudes."
"Man, this line of work seems like it would totally hurt your weenie."
"That's amazing that they can perform surrounded by a camera crew."
"In the adult video world, the actresses are the queens, and the male performers are simply underlings."
"I think this might be harder on the male actors. Gotta respect them for that."
"I couldn't do this if my co-star had bad breath."
"This Shimiken guy seems alright."
Last fall, The Daily Beast ran an interesting article on how the porn industry in the West works and how it pays. Hint: Not so great. In that regard, Japan seems to be no different.
AV男優は70人程度 [@avshimiken]
AV男優は70人程度しかおらず、ベンガルトラよりも少ない。AV女優の数は1万人、男優不足の状態。 [2ch]
Top photo: Shimiken
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