A 2022 piece of Japanese legislation responding to long-standing concerns about coercion and contracting in the adult-video industry. The law substantially restructured the industry’s contracting, scheduling, and withdrawal arrangements, and is the principal recent legal-framework development in Japanese adult-media regulation.

Overview

The AV Law (AV 新法, AV Shinpou) is the common name for the Act on Prevention of Damages from Appearing in Adult Videos and Provision of Relief to Performers (Law No. 78 of 2022). The law’s full title — Act for the Prevention of Damages and Provision of Relief for Performers Appearing in Sexual-Conduct Video Productions, and for Special Rules on Appearance Contracts and Other Matters, to Promote the Formation of a Society in Which Individual Dignity Regarding Sex is Respected — articulates the law’s principal objectives: prevention of coercion, provision of relief to performers, and structural reform of the industry’s contracting practices.

The Diet passed the law on 15 June 2022, the Cabinet promulgated it on 22 June 2022 (Official Gazette), and it came into effect on 23 June 2022 — applying to adult-video productions made for commercial distribution. The principal substantive provisions impose a written-contract requirement, two waiting periods (one between contract and shooting, one between shooting and release), and an unconditional withdrawal right exercisable after release.

The 2022 enactment represents the first time the Japanese adult-video industry has been subject to dedicated legislation. Previous regulation operated through the wider Penal Code Article 175 obscenity framework and the various civil-law and industry-self-regulation mechanisms. The 2022 law adds a performer-protection regulatory layer that operates parallel to the existing frameworks.

Background

Coercion concerns

The political pressure for the legislation developed from sustained advocacy through the late 2010s, particularly by performer-support organisations such as PAPS (Porno Higai to Seibouryoku wo Kangaeru Kai, Group Considering Pornography Harm and Sexual Violence). PAPS and similar organisations documented systematic patterns of inadequate contract disclosure, coerced participation, and difficulty in withdrawing from completed but unreleased productions. The 2017 publication of Coercion to Appear in AV (PAPS) gave the issue substantial public visibility.

The 2017 individual case-based litigation and reporting, supported by PAPS, contributed substantially to the public-attention build-up. The cases included substantial press attention, the substantive issues having involved problematic contract terms, coercion during production, and the difficulty of post-production withdrawal.

Civil age reform context

The 2022 reform of the Japanese Civil Code reduced the age of majority from 20 to 18 years (effective 1 April 2022, three months before the AV Law). The change had the effect of withdrawing the minor’s contract revocation protection (the rule that contracts entered into by minors could be rescinded by the minor or their guardian) from persons aged 18 and 19. The concern that 18–19-year-olds would be entering AV contracts without the previously-available minor-contract protection accelerated the political timetable for the AV Law.

Legislative process

The legislative process was unusually rapid. A cross-party legislators’ association proposed the bill in May 2022, and the National Diet debate compressed substantially. The bill passed both chambers on 15 June 2022, was promulgated on 22 June 2022, and came into force on 23 June 2022. The accelerated timetable reflected the political-pressure context of the Civil Code reform and the build-up of advocacy concern through the late 2010s.

The legislative process involved substantive discussion among advocacy organisations, industry bodies, human-rights organisations, and legal scholars. The final statute incorporated several modifications from the initial proposal, with the principal modifications affecting the waiting-period durations and the transitional-provision arrangements.

Principal provisions

Written contract requirement

The Act requires that AV appearance contracts be in writing. The mandatory contract content includes: the conditions of the appearance, the scope of the shooting, the planned release information, the compensation arrangement, and the withdrawal-right details. The producer (the shooting operator or distributor) bears the obligation to provide the written contract. Non-compliance has penalty consequences.

Waiting periods

The Act establishes two waiting periods between principal stages of the production process. The first waiting period — between contract execution and the start of shooting — is one month. The second waiting period — between shooting completion and the work’s release — is four months. The waiting periods are non-waivable.

The waiting periods serve as deliberative space: between contract and shooting, the performer has time to reconsider; between shooting and release, the performer has time to assess the produced work and to exercise the withdrawal right before public distribution.

Withdrawal right

The Act establishes an unconditional withdrawal right exercisable by the performer at any of three stages: before shooting, between shooting and release, and after release. The post-release withdrawal right is the most consequential of the three.

The post-release withdrawal right is exercisable for one year following release, with a transitional-provision extension to two years for works released within the two-year period following the Act’s enactment (until 22 June 2024). Withdrawal does not require justification; the performer may exercise it for any reason. Upon withdrawal, the producer must cease distribution of the work and undertake reasonable efforts to recover already-distributed copies.

Prohibitions on improper conduct

The Act prohibits improper recruitment practices, contract executions lacking required disclosures, and shooting conduct that deviates from contracted scope. Criminal and civil consequences apply to violations.

Industry impact

Restructuring of contracting practices

The Act required substantial restructuring of the industry’s working practices. New-performer contracting procedures had to incorporate the written-contract and waiting-period requirements. Shooting schedules extended to accommodate the one-month pre-shooting wait. Standardised contracting documents and procedures developed industry-wide.

In the period immediately following enactment (mid-2022 through 2023), industry-wide new-work production volume declined substantially as the working practices were restructured. The decline was reported by industry sources and tracked in trade-press analysis, with the principal reasons being the new contracting overhead and the schedule extension from the waiting periods.

Withdrawal exercises

The post-release withdrawal right has been exercised in a substantial number of cases since enactment, with consequent recovery of distributed copies. The exercise rate has varied and the question of whether the rate reflects the law’s intended performer-protection effect or unintended consequences is a continuing topic of policy discussion. The producer-side economic consequences of the recovery obligation have generated ongoing implementation challenges.

Performer-protection infrastructure

Parallel to the AV Law, the Cabinet Office’s Bureau of Gender Equality has established a dedicated reporting and support portal, with hotlines and specialist advisors. The performer-support infrastructure has expanded substantially, with connection between the wider sexual-violence-support framework and the AV-specific reporting channels.

Evaluation and continuing debate

Evaluation of the AV Law is divided along several axes.

Performer-advocacy positions

The performer-advocacy organisations have largely treated the legislation as an important step. PAPS and similar bodies have emphasised the law’s substantive performer-protection provisions while noting that further legislation may be needed to address additional contracting concerns, the wider question of industry structure, and the persistent off-record practices that fall outside the formal contracting framework.

Industry-body positions

Industry-body responses have been more mixed. Compliance restructuring has been substantial, with the principal trade bodies supporting the wider human-rights objectives while noting implementation challenges. The specific provisions that have generated industry concern include the waiting-period durations, the transitional withdrawal-right extension, and the practical mechanism for distribution-recovery after withdrawal.

Legal-scholarship positions

Legal-scholarship discussion has addressed the relationship of the Act to broader principles. The interaction with contract-freedom principles, with the broader expression-freedom framework, and with the principle of proportionality in regulation are continuing topics. The implementation period has been short enough that empirical assessment of the law’s effect is not yet conclusive.

International comparison

International comparison points include the US 18 U.S.C. § 2257 record-keeping framework (which establishes federal age-and-identity record-keeping for adult-content production), the French 2021 legislation on adult-industry performer protection, the EU member-state developments on the parallel concerns, and the wider international policy discussion on performer protection in the adult-industry context.

The Japanese AV Law’s particular features — the waiting-period requirements, the withdrawal right, the integration with the wider Japanese family-law and Civil Code reform — differ in working approach from the principal international comparable frameworks. The comparative-law study of the Japanese approach and its outcomes is a continuing topic of scholarly attention.

See also

• AV history
• Waisetsu
• Anti-Prostitution Law (1956)
• Onlyfans