“My Job Was Putting Mosaics in Your Porn, Any Questions?”

An interview with a former employee of a Japanese censorship body responsible for ensuring all Japanese AV has a healthy layer of mosaic over anything so harmful as the human genitals yields a great deal of insight into the industry’s complex censorship practices, to which there is much more than at first meets the eye…

Much background can be gleaned from the interview, but a brief overview of the situation regarding Japanese AV might help place his remarks in an appropriate context.

Japanese law basically bans distributing material explicitly depicting human genitalia in sexual situations, deeming them “obscene” publications “wantonly stimulating sexual desire, damaging the sense of sexual shame of an ordinary person, or contrary to good sexual morals,” although the interpretation of just what is “obscene” has changed drastically over time.

Once illegal, pubic hair is now acceptable, though close-ups on genitalia are not. In some cases police have apparently pursued art or even educational material featuring nudes for violating the ban on depicting human genitalia.

Photographic depictions of unusual sexual activity ranging from bestiality to incest are perfectly legal, as “obscenity” only includes pictures of actual genitals and includes no criteria as to what acts are shown.

Notoriously, Japanese pornographers attempting to skirt this imbecilic law resorted to a variety of mosaic and blur effects to remove the genitals from their products, magically rendering them non-obscene whatever the content. Most other censorship (for example of words or other sexual activities) is considered voluntary “self-restraint” on the part of publishers.

Punishments are harsh, potentially involving large fines and years in prison.

The law itself makes no reference to mosaics, but it there now exists a proven legal interpretation that mosaics make things non-obscene, and in order to give the process some legitimacy a series of government recognised “ethical” foundations have been founded by pornographers to regulate this censorship.

These take the form of organisations which AV producers “voluntarily” join, and who will then inspect and approve any videos submitted to them for a fee in order to ensure no accidental or deliberate circumventions occur.

Skirting this system are “indies,” independent porn publishers who are not members of the inspection organisations and who often experiment with “ultra-thin” mosaics and other techniques of pushing the boundaries of censorship.

In complete defiance of the system and the law are “ura-video,” generally uncensored amateur productions sold clandestinely at significant risk of arrest.

In all cases the Internet and Japanese and international pornographers operating overseas have made most restrictions functionally obsolete.

The anonymous 2ch denizen below, as interviewed by 2ch, relates that he is a former employee of such an organisation:

I worked for an adult video inspection foundation, any questions?

I’ll answer anything I can.

What percent are really “nakadashi”? [literally “coming inside,” a genre of porn concerned with the unnatural practice of depositing semen in a woman’s vagina rather than on her face accompanied by much overwrought groaning. Naturally under a heavy mosaic whether this ever really occurs is a matter of some doubt.]

I couldn’t give a good figure. The ones we inspected were all already censored and doctored up so it’s impossible to tell. From what the makers say not many are really doing it though. Sorry I can’t give a better answer.

So you were inspecting them? Tell us what you dropped.

I never dropped one.

The makers know what the standards are and would come to us in advance of making it if they had doubts.

There are times I had them cut or censor stuff. For example, when a actress was being interviewed walking along the street with a school in the background a little bit.

For the action, there were of course lots of times we warned people about the mosaic, but there were a lot of times it was other stuff.

You damn liar – the only people who work in those places are retired policemen.

I don’t know where it originates but I heard that tale too at work. But I’m no cop.

Did you onanise whilst watching them? Were you actually paid money?

For the ones I really liked I sometimes snuck off to the toilet… but after a while I was pyschologically numbed and no longer responded. The wages were a monthly salary paid by bank transfer.

Did you test to see whether people could “use” the material properly?

We didn’t consider that. If we did we’d be looking at the works “hedonically” rather than “ethically.”

Whether anyone could get off on it was a matter left to the makers to decide.

Of course, watching them you would think “this has no chance” from time to time.

How on earth did you get that job? You a regular company employee, a staff member of the foundation or what?

I saw an ad online and applied. At first I thought “is there really a job like this and are they really recruiting online?”

It’s not a company, but a government authorised foundation [a quango in other words]. That’s why I put “foundation” and not “company” in the thread title.

It’s supposed to impartial as it’s not run for a profit like a company. But in reality it rather less than impartial and is bound up with all kinds of interests.

Do they receive a lot of “amakudari” police officers?

[“amakudari,” literally “descent from heaven,” is a long standing Japanese tradition of retiring civil servants being offered top posts, often virtual sinecures, in the industries they once oversaw. Of course, there is no possibility of the prospect of such a lucrative position being offered influencing the behaviour of civil servants whilst in office.]

I saw online that one foundation had apparently done that. I have no personal experience of it though. There weren’t any cops when I was doing it, but it wasn’t a very big outfit…

Any interesting dodgy stories?

Not really.

I had one time when I was on the phone with the maker (a woman) and she was shouting out the titles of the films to her coworkers with her like it was nothing.

Me: “Amateurs Coming Inside” has passed OK.

Her: “AMATEURS COMING INSIDE HAS PASSED!”

Me: “Chikan Paradise had two scenes which were no good.”

Her: “CHIKAN PARADISE IS OUT!”

Our office was normally pretty quiet. Filming is all at the maker’s end so I have no stories about that. Sorry.

How many did you do in a day? What are the criteria?

We’d do 2 hour films twice a day. A 4 hour piece would be once a day, and sometimes we’d do 3 a day if busy.

There’s basically a manual for the criteria.

But the manual is nothing but “if this is in the film is absolutely not allowed.” For example, drugs, copyrighted characters or religious issues. Other stuff we’d talk over with the makers.

For example we had a film with a bunch of guys gang-violating a woman whilst taking pics with a mobile. The mobile was on screen and we reported it as a violation as, although a normal person might not notice, the maker of the phone might well object.

How much did you get?

Basic salary was ¥180,000 monthly ($2,000). With overtime it was 180,000-220,000. By the way, I’m in my twenties.

[This is a middling salary by Japanese standards, though perhaps high for a young man with no particular education or skills other than porn watching.]

You could live alright on that in an OK city area. Any extras or benefits?

Yes, it’s alright isn’t it? I don’t regret quitting but I do regret losing the wages a bit.

Two bonuses a year and an annual raise. Also overtime and commuter expense payments, a variety of insurance. No different from a salary man, though with no severance package.

But the raise and bonus amounts made me worry about my future. You don’t learn any skills, you’re just watching videos, and there’s no way you can really ask for money on account of having improved your skills.

Do the porn makers pay a fee?

Yes, we’d bill them for each inspection.

Did you do gay porn?

Not at my place. Each maker has a particular foundation for their stuff so I expect there’s one for gay porn.

But I think extreme stuff like gay porn and scat is mostly voluntary restraint.

What are you doing now?

Part time work with nothing to do with AV. Aside from the money I don’t regret it.

Why’d you quit?

Basically:

I was worried about my future.

I had doubts about the neutrality of the foundation.

Aside from the skill issue, I was always thinking “why am I doing this?” when I was doing it… not good for you psychologically. Especially with the raise situation.

As to the other issue, the initial capital for the foundation is provided by the members, i.e. the companies making the porn and submitting it to us. So there were times when things got a little unclear if we were told to do stuff by the members, even if we were said to be neutral. I really found that objectionable.

Maybe the others are different, I don’t know.

Some guys got busted for this stuff, didn’t they?

2 years ago, yes.

There were shady types there even when I was there. All jobs have their minuses but in this case I really wouldn’t want to recommend this industry to anybody.

Can you recommend any porn stars or titles?

I can’t mention titles, but Kirara Kurogawa and Mihono Tsukimoto are recommended.

There’s a film called BANQUISH 46 which has uncensored paipan for a few seconds – is that OK?

I’ve not seen it, but if true it’s a major issue and grounds for instant recall. Maybe the foundation doing that inspection was a bit green…

What’s the worst thing you’ve seen?

In one title I can’t name there was a drama scene with a PS2 where you could clearly see them playing a certain famous RPG and hear the music – how that got past their editors I don’t know.

What’s the office like? Do you still find AV exciting?

It’s laid out with small partitions but you can see what’s on other people’s screens if you turn around. Headphones were used.

When I was doing it I couldn’t get off on AV easily. Everyone was like that, and for those with the mental fortitude to survive it, there’s much better work around I think.

Everyone’s just sat there guiltily watching that stuff? It sounds an awfully gloomy place…

Not so much guiltily as unfulfilledly. It’s hard to be satisfied just watching the same stuff all day over and over with no job prospects or skills to improve. It wasn’t glomy but there was no real energy there.

Also, just passing the inspection doesn’t actually make the title legal – the cops can still take action if there’s stuff they have issues with so what you’re doing is basically meaningless.

I stopped associating with the guys from my time there too.

I’m sorry to be so negative, but if you really want to try it then good for you, but I think there’s probably better stuff out there for anyone like that.

Why are the men in Japanese porn nothing but ugly freaks. They’re always fat bald little creeps, isn’t a hot guy and girl a better combo?

A lot of people say this.

At the extreme you have guys absolutely everyone finds disgusting but most are average. Probably keeping them short is better for matching them to the female performers, maybe.

Japanese political theatre at its finest – a group of “impartial” government approved foundations are founded and funded by otherwise completely unregulated porn companies for the supposed purpose of promoting censorship and preserving public morals whilst propping up farcical obscenity laws, all so politicians, police and porn peddlers can all claim the industry is held to the highest ethical standards.