TOKYO (TR) – Adult video (AV) performer Alice Nanase has opened up about the harrowing childhood marked by domestic abuse and crushing poverty that ultimately drove her into Japan’s sex trade.
Speaking in an interview published in Nikkan Spa! (Nov. 9), Nanase addressed a fierce debate currently raging on Japanese social media regarding whether women should enter AV industry, and whether the profession constitutes an act of filial impiety that “makes parents weep.”
Down to 20,000 yen
Nanase weighed in on the controversy after recalling her own panic when her younger sister attempted to enter the nightlife industry.
According to Nanase, her decision to debut in adult videos came during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a bitter breakup with a live-in boyfriend whom she had intended to marry, she found herself back in Tokyo, crashing at an acquaintance’s apartment and down to her last 20,000 yen.
Facing eviction and unable to support her family, an acquaintance suggested adult videos. After consulting a fortune teller and being offered favorable financial terms, she signed on.
Behind her financial desperation, however, lay years of severe domestic trauma.
Nanase revealed that her childhood was dominated by an alcoholic father whose drunken rages turned violently physical.
“My mother was sometimes left covered in blood. It was truly horrific,” Nanase said.
Flee their home
The violence forced Nanase and her mother to flee their home in the dead of night. Later, after a transport company operated by her mother’s family went bankrupt, the family was pursued by aggressive debt collectors, forcing them into another late-night flight (yonige).
The resulting poverty was extreme.
“We didn’t even have money to buy a table, so we used a cardboard box,” Nanase said. “Our meals were just bean sprouts stir-fried with tiny scraps of meat, and we ate old, discard-grade rice.”
To survive, Nanase later enrolled in a vocational nursing program to secure fast employment, while working grueling part-time shifts to pay for her own tuition, transit, and phone bills. She frequently fell asleep on trains and even passed out in the bath from exhaustion.
Younger sister
Even after entering the adult entertainment industry, Nanase shouldered the burden of supporting her family, regularly sending remittances to her low-income mother and providing for her younger sister, who suffers from an illness that limits her ability to work.
That protective instinct sparked distress when Nanase discovered her younger sister had recently taken a trial shift (tai-nyu) at a hostess club (kyabakura).
“When I heard that, I panicked,” Nanase said. “I thought, ‘If only I had given her more money and had more breathing room, she wouldn’t have had to do that kind of work.'”
“Digital tattoo forever”
Nanase warned that nightlife hostessing can act as a pipeline into the AV trade, exposing young women to predatory men and leaving behind permanent “digital tattoos.”
“Hostess work can be kept secret, but adult videos leave a digital tattoo forever,” Nanase said. “I hear about people who face serious difficulties when trying to find regular employment or get married later. If someone just drifts into it without resolve, they will definitely regret it.”
Nanase added that while she does not regret her own career choice, she would never have entered the industry if poverty had not left her with no other way out.
