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AV actress turned Nikkei reporter goes back to school

'Goodbye To Selling My Body'
‘Goodbye To Selling My Body’

It was two years ago that publishing company Seidosha released “The Psychology of the AV Actress,” a book by a female author going by the name “Susumi Suzuki,” who tells of her experiences as a veteran of over 70 films in the adult video (AV) industry.

Suzuki remained a relative unknown until last year, when weekly tabloid Shukan Bunsun revealed that she was employed as a reporter at the Nikkei Shimbun newspaper for a five year-period starting in 2009.

In an interview with Sankei Shimbun (May 4), the former actress and reporter says that she is now back in school, having last month enrolled at Tokyo University at the age of 31.

“By nature, a woman’s life is complex,” says the former actress inside a cafe in Tokyo’s Kabukicho red-light district. “Even if one is to become rich, to attain an educational background, it does not necessarily mean that (she) will become happy. It is a matter of trial and error.”

After graduating from Keio University, where she studied environmental informatics, Suzuki moved to the University of Tokyo for graduate school.

She made her porn debut in 2004, while still enrolled at Keio, under the name Ruri Sato. Over her subsequent three-year AV career, she garnered great popularity due to her huge, G-cup chest while starring in a number of genres, including lolicon and SM, for labels like Dream Ticket and Moodyz.

Suzuki retired from the industry in 2007. She joined the Nikkei two years later at its headquarters in Tokyo as a journalist. She wound up covering the Tokyo Metropolitan Government beat.

Even in retirement from the AV industry, Suzuki still maintains a high degree of eroticism, ensuring that sufficient cleavage is visible during her conversation with the Sankei. However, she is done peddling flesh.

She compares the changes in her life to transactions at a burusera shop, where young girls sell their used underwear — meaning, she learned how there is sordid side to society, one that treats people as a commodity. (In her case, her salary as an AV actress topped out at two million yen per month.)

Suzuki wanted to show that she was capable of more. “I took the day-time job (at the Nikkei) to prove that I can also work in such a capacity,” she says.

In 2013, the paper transferred her to a copy-editing department. According to Shukan Bunshun, rumors about Suzuki’s former profession supposedly began reaching upper management. However, she denies that her resignation had anything to do with her work in an AV.

In addition to being an AV actress, Suzuki also worked in the mizushobai (night) trade while at Keio University. Her second book was based on this experience. Last year, publisher Gentosha released “Goodbye To Selling My Body,” in which she delves into the meaning of happiness for a former sex worker.

At Tokyo University this time around, Suzuki is taking a different approach: She is studying women who spend large sums of money at host clubs.

“Rather than have regret, one must instead take a chance,” she says. (A.T.)

Source: “Gyaru > AV joyu > shinbun kisha > sakka…futatabi Todai daigakuin de kenkyu ni hairu 31-sai no ‘mesen,'” Sankei Shimbun (May 4)