Gold fingers or golden opportunity? Porn stars, sex education, and masculinity in contemporary Japan

ABSTRACT

In this article I examine two very different types of male porn stars and the education texts in which they appear – the Higi Denju [Lessons in Secret Techniques] DVD and book series by veteran porn performer Kato Taka, and female-friendly porn production company Silk Labo’s ‘how to’ films featuring Suzuki Ittetsu. Both huge stars in the porn industry, at first glance the two performers exemplify diametrically opposing images of masculinity. Through critical analysis of the work of Kato and Suzuki, this article contemplates the sexual identities on offer to men in Japan today and considers what these mean for notions of masculinity. I argue that despite appearing very different, ultimately the films and books – which I term pedagogical porn – featuring Kato and Suzuki serve to reinscribe hegemonic understandings of masculinity, with Kato pushing forward a conservative view and Suzuki offering a ‘new age’ perspective on an old theme.

KEYWORDS:

• Porn
• Japan
• porn stars
• masculinity
• pedagogical porn
• sexual scripts

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Katrien Jacobs and Thomas Baudinette for their feedback and advice. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their time and expertise which allowed this article to reach its full potential. Finally, the author is grateful to Kato Taka for his generosity in providing an image for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Important to note is the fact that the salaryman life path was always limited to a particular segment of men, and that it was never representative of the majority of Japanese men even during Japan’s period of high economic growth from the 1960s to the 1980s (see Roberson and Suzuki 2003; Cook 2020). Instead, it remained a symbol, off limits to many, of masculine success.

2 The discourse of a ‘shining, sparkling life’ [kagayaku] is a reference to the neoliberal strategies currently employed by the Japanese state with the goal of increasing both women’s participation in the workforce and the birth rate. Prime Minister Abe Shinzō has championed the utilization of women under his government’s gender policy not out of concern for gender equality or women’s human rights, but as a way to help the nation and its flagging economy, using vague and unthreatening words like ‘shine’ and ‘sparkle’ (see Kano 2018).

3 For further discussion of the work of Suzuki Ittetsu and porn production company Silk Labo, see Hambleton (2016).