Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
Geriatric porn star at work
As photographers, we’re always looking for quirky and exceptional feature items, so when we got a chance to shoot Japan’s oldest porno star on the job, we knew we couldn’t miss it.
It took six months to open the door to this underground industry before we got to meet 75-year-old Shigeo Tokuda at work this week.
On our way to the movie set, we were excited about finally getting to cover the story, but what we saw during the filming was far from what we had imagined. This was no sleek movie production with sex gods and goddesses. The movie was filmed in a small, old house just outside Tokyo that was too shabby to be called a movie set. The floor was covered with dust and dead cockroaches.
The director – a former porno actor who contracted a permanent slipped disk after exerting himself in more than 1,000 films - said he had paid 20,000 yen ($200) to rent the place for a day. For him, this is a high risk business, as he bears all the expenses. If his movie doesn’t sell, he’s out of pocket.
