Former porn star Akane Hotaru. Photos: Courtesy of Akane Hotaru

By Mao Jiayu

Akane Hotaru, one of the Japanese adult film stars has been trying to remake herself into an AIDS prevention advocate, since her departure from the world of adult videos.

When the 25-year-old came to Shanghai on December 22 to launch an AIDS prevention campaign called Take Action, she arrived with the new title of "AIDS Awareness Ambassador."

Akane, who started acting in adult films when she was 18, sees herself an appropriate, if unusual, advocate, considering that many Chinese have turned to pornography as an educational tool because of the society's unease with sex education.

"I know not only in Japan, but in China as well, people, especially men, treat AV as educational material or even as a sort of sex bible. However, I have to tell people that it's just for entertainment and most of the scenes are staged. I hope people will realize this and society will become more aware of protecting women during sex," Akane told the Global Times.

The state of sex ed

There's a sentence that Leung Mantao, the renowned Hong Kong scholar and television host, wrote in the preface of AV Scene, a book about the state of the Japanese adult film industry: "To be frank, for guys over 30 like us, who could say that he has never watched Japanese AV?"

According to the survey conducted in August by the Social Investigation Center of the newspaper China Youth Daily, nearly 80 percent of 3,021 people polled considered the Internet to be the most effective tool for learning about sex. School ranked last.

Peking University acknowledged the need for better sex education in China in May when it released the findings of one of the most comprehensive sex surveys ever done about Chinese youth. "Following China's fast development, shifting of social values, earlier maturity age and delayed age for first marriage, rates of premarital sex and need for information and services relating to reproductive health are increasing rapidly," according to the university's news release on the survey. "These changes to the Chinese society are bringing forth many problems, such as risky sexual behavior, unplanned pregnancies and the spreading of STDs (including AIDS)."

The research showed that there is a need for more education about sex and AIDS in China. The survey found that approximately 60 percent of Chinese youth think premarital sex is acceptable and 22.4 percent have had premarital sex, yet only 14.4 percent have "adequate knowledge" about HIV/AIDS prevention.

Turning to advocacy

Akane first became interested in AIDS awareness in 2007 after she attended an AIDS prevention event at Waseda University, where she had been invited as a guest. A student at the event pointed out that many men regarded pornography as reference for sex and even imitated the videos in real life, even though it caused women to suffer.

Akane said she had never considered that her job was harmful to women. "AV is just for fun. It's fantasy. I realized that the sex education in Japan was still unsophisticated," she said.

Furthermore, because she was still working in the industry, she couldn't explain that much of the sexual acts shown in her films were simulated. In the year after she attended the event, the number of AIDS cases in Japan was on the rise, she said. Witnessing the situation, Akane worked hard to earn enough money to provide for her future before giving up her career in November 2008 to take up the cause of AIDS prevention.  

Ex-porn star Akane Hotaru at several public appearances this week in Shanghai to promote AIDS prevention.

Soon after, on December 24, the famous Japanese adult movie actress Ai Jima died in her apartment from pneumonia. Ai Jima had earlier admitted on a Japanese talk show that she had AIDS before she left the adult movie business. She spent the rest of her life devoted to AIDS prevention.

"What I'm doing now was inspired by Ai Jima. She's my idol and I hope to carry on her mission, not only in Japan and China, but in other countries in Asia as well," she said.

To influence and educate more people, Akane's first step was to increase her profile. In December, she opened an account on the Chinese version of Twitter on sina.com. As of December 28, she has attracted 27,318 followers. All of her posts in Japanese are translated into Chinese.

Akane is not the only Japanese adult film actress to have come to China. Aoi Sola was the first to sign up for a microblog account (and now has more than 76,000 followers). In May, Akane went to Taiwan for an AIDS prevention event at her own cost. She said she also paid for her trip to Shanghai on her own, though she did dance at several local clubs to help cover her expenses, including the Obama Club on December 24. On December 28, she donated 5,000 condoms to the Chinese Association of Sexually Transmitted Disease Preservation and Control in Shanghai.

Some have questioned whether Akane is using the cause of AIDS prevention to break into the Chinese entertainment industry, which she dismissed. "I'm not interested in acting or singing. I'm not good at either. My only purpose for being here is AIDS prevention education."