The New Career Path of JAV Actresses: Branding, Entrepreneurship, and Post-AV Success

The modern JAV actress is nothing like the AV Idols of the past. Back in the day, the Japanese adult actresses were performers only. Their career was limited to showing up on the set and performing. Everything else was handled by the production company. Surely, there would be some interviews now and then to help their fans familiarize themselves with the actresses. But there wasn’t such a thing as a personal brand. The more popular performers would have fan clubs. But the fan club efforts were independent of both the actress and the studio that represented her. 

Nowadays, the Japanese adult performer is more nuanced and complex. I could go as far as saying that they’ve adopted the career path of the American pornstars, who are multi-faceted, doing way more than just porn in the public eye. Now they have a strong and strategic personal branding campaign, they release non-adult content for their fans, and they even embark on post-AV careers, using their popularity to reinvent themselves. Inspired by our friends from JAVsiri, we decided to analyze the condition of the modern AV idol and figure out the career path of such a profession.

How Does The Modern AV Idol Get Into The Adult Business

Becoming a pornstar in Japan was a matter of courage and luck back in the day. Ladies needed courage to go to a studio and shoot a couple of scenes. But not all who applied ended up idols. That’s why you needed luck, connection, and the willingness to do whatever the director told you.

In the current era, anyone can become an idol if they put their minds to it. Thanks to the reach that social media has, even independent models can build up an audience. There are plenty of AV Idols who started out as adult chat models and independent creators on platforms like OnlyFans or FC2ppv. With a pool of fans already built, when they first perform in a professional, premium Japanese porn movie, the success is guaranteed.

From AV Idol To Entrepreneur

In today’s day and age, image capital is almost as important as actual capital when it comes to starting a business. And there are a few other women out there with as much image capital as AV Idols. Even amateur AV models can gain image capital greater than some mainstream actresses or public figures. What’s more important is that the AV Idols have the attention of men. And that’s great when it comes to marketing beauty products, because they don’t compete in the segment of female customers with all the other regular influencers.

What the AV Idols understood is that men do purchase feminine beauty products for their girlfriends and wives. And that’s where the AV Idol can find a niche. Many adult stars from Japan have advertised beauty products. And some even founded their own brands and companies.

The success story of Yua Mikami comes to mind. After finding success as an adult star in Japan, Yua used her image capital to launch MISTREASS, a clothing brand focused on stylish and elegant apparel, which works perfectly as a gift for your girlfriend or wife. At the same time, she is the brand ambassador for many feminine products, such as Majette, a contact-lens brand, which is now big in Japan, as ladies love wearing colored contact lenses for their men in the bedroom just as much as they love wearing lingerie.

Other AV idols are leaving the adult industry, but they remain in media and content production. Such is the case of Kaho Shibuya, who retired from porn in 2018 and became a full-time cosplay influencer. She even got a role as a voice actor in the anime series Adam’s Sweet Agony.

What Does The Future Hold For AV Idols

At the moment, even though Japanese adult performers gained a lot of agency over their image and learned how to use it for business ventures and post-porn careers, there is still a stigma over the fact that they had sex in front of the camera. Traditional media, such as TV channels, radio stations, and mainstream film companies, are still reluctant to give them a chance. But that’s also the case in the West. However, I’m sure that it will all change when Gen Zs become executive producers and directors. Until then, our mission will be to support all off-camera endeavors of our favorite AV Idols.