Japanese pornography industry witnessed a rapid growth in sales after the advent of the World Wide Web, but it is currently facing threat due to a paucity of male artistes.
The news about shortage of men in the adult movie sector started doing the rounds after popular porn star Shimiken (real name - Ken Shimizu) wrote about it on Twitter.
"In this industry there are only 70 male porn stars to 10,000 women. The number of male porn stars in Japan is less than that of Bengal tigers. With 4,000 new films every month, the number of male actors simply isn't enough. This industry is like a hole in the wall that needs to get bigger!" he tweeted.
Citing the reason for the decreasing number of male artistes in adult video, Shimiken said, "Men say the pool is just too small to risk entering. Anyone who tries it will be immediately recognisable and could rule out ever having a normal life," according to Details magazine.
However, director Tohjiro believes that shortage of actors is mainly due to a rapid increase in herbivore men. "I've been in this business for 27 years and you can see the increase in herbivore males. Men aren't hungry anymore. These days, men don't get excited by anything. The same applies to sex and attitude towards women and relationships. They just click on the internet for it," he said, according to Pune Mirror.
In a similar vein, actress Yuko Shiraki stated, "Mentally, men have become weaker. They're less macho, less proactive about sex."
Meanwhile, adult movie producer Fujio Ishigaki claimed that the number of male artistes has not changed. "But the industry is now in an upswing, and we cannot keep up with demand and maintain an appropriate number of actors," he said, adding, "I found out that many guys are leaving the industry since they cannot keep up with the hard schedule — this is in spite of getting laid everyday," stated The Tokyo Reporter.
But Shimiken revealed that he enjoys his work and will never get bored with it. "It's my dream job — I've been doing this for 17 years. Usually I sleep with two or three girls a day, so I have sex for about two hours every day. It beats working in an office. I'll do this until I'm 100," he said.
