ABSTRACT

Japan has one of the largest pornography industries in the world, yet pornography has only recently become a central subject of academic enquiry. This chapter will introduce pornography in Japan, explain its history and the forms it has taken from the past to today, outline some of the debates surrounding pornography, introduce contemporary scholarship on the issue, discuss some of the issues scholars in the field face, and consider future directions for research. This chapter takes pornography to mean any material that depicts erotic behaviour and is intended to cause sexual excitement. Accordingly, the porn referenced here includes film, manga, anime, and games found in Japan today, aimed at both heterosexual and LGBT audiences. Diverse pornography requires diverse approaches to its study, including expanding inquiry beyond European and American scholarly networks, hearing from those within the industry, and moving beyond the “harm” versus “emancipation” dichotomy. Porn studies is a growing academic field and provides a rich mode of inquiry into gender, desire, and consumption in Japan today.