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A Japanese porn star has revealed the horrific extent of abuse she suffered

A Japanese porn star has revealed the horrific extent of abuse she suffered
Picture: TORU YAMANAKA/Getty

Last year Pornhub, one of the biggest pornography sites in the world, was visited 111 million times in the UK alone.

In many parts of the world, pornography is illegal, while places like the UK and the US have relaxed attitudes towards the practice.

Japan’s multi-billion dollar porn industry has been cracked open, after 30-year-old porn actor Saki Kozai told AFP how she was tricked into signing an ambiguous contract six years ago with what later turned out to be a porn agency.

A ‘model’ scout discovered her on the streets of Tokyo and she was swiftly offered a job that led her to believe she’d be a star.

However, on her first day, the reality was something altogether different, and she was instructed to have sex on camera.

I couldn't take off my clothes. All I could do was cry.

But it didn't take her long to succumb to the pressure:

There were about 20 people around me, waiting. No woman could say 'no' when they're surrounded like that.

A pandemic of misinformation and abuse has been sweeping across Japan’s porn industry, and three self-styled ‘talent’ scouts were arrested in June after a woman claimed she was raped over 100 times on camera, and threatened with heavy fines if she refused the ‘contractual obligation’.

According to AFP, there are a number of tricks that 'porn recruiters' adopt to force women to continue working for them:

  • Victims are threatened with fines
  • Contracts are deliberately vague to make it difficult to get out of
  • Women told they will never find another job in film
  • Scouts show up at university campuses and even the victims’ homes to demand fines if the women refuse to work

Japanese NGO Lighthouse, which works towards ending human trafficking, has been contacted by more than 60 actors attempting to escape the pornography business.

The charity identifies the ‘coercive’ element of sexual exploitation as the use of force, threats, fraud and control. ​

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