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’80s AV actress Nao Saejima dies at 44, star of ‘roman porno’ and ‘pink’ films

Nao Saejima
Nao Saejima
TOKYO (TR) – Former adult video (AV) star Nao Saejima passed away in September after battling a lengthy illness, reports Sankei Sports (Oct. 25). The veteran of over 40 films was 44.

An associate of Saejima on October 22 posted on Twitter that the former actress died on September 29. The tabloid reports that another acquaintance said that Saejima had been stricken with cancer five years ago and had been having trouble walking for the last few months.

Saejima, who was born in Tokyo, started her career in entertainment as a pin-up gravure model. Two years later, she began appearing as a special reporter on hot springs resorts for the evening television program “11 P.M.”

She made her debut in AV in 1987 with the film “No.1 F-Cup: Saejima’s Awakening.” Sankei says that with her slim form and large breasts, she rocketed straight to stardom in a flash. That same year, she appeared in a title within the popular Alice Japan “Flashback” series.

Along with starlets Yui Saito and Midori Hayama, Saejima was an inaugural member of the all-porn pop trio RaCCo-gumi, which released its first single “Lemon Kiss” in 1988.

Also in 1988, she starred in “Nao Saijima: Orgasm Holiday,” an entry in the Nikkatsu “roman porno” soft-core series of films in which the actress looks back fondly upon escapades in Tokyo and Okinawa.

“I met her in 1989,” says writer Shirotora Nagase. “Even without any make-up, her face was bright and cheerful.”

In the 1990s, she spent much of her time in the United States, where she worked as a nude model. Yet during that decade she performed in films within the soft-core genre known as pink eiga, or pink films, such as director Satoru Kobayashi’s 1995 fantasy “Erotic Ghost Story: Female Ghost in Heat,” a lust-filled tale of a doctor being pursued by a female spirit.

Early last decade, Saejima began performing as lead vocalist in a punk band and resumed her career in entertainment. In later years, she became a yoga instructor and writer.

Former AV actress Yuri Komuro, 37, an understudy of Saejima, was deeply saddened by the news. “To remember you makes me happy,” she wrote on her blog. “I will pray for you in the next world.”