Japan's Booming Sex Niche: Elder Porn

Tuesday, Jun. 17, 2008
Japan's Booming Sex Niche: Elder Porn
By Michiko Toyama

Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that's because he's kept his part-time job — as a porn star.

Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name. He prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years. And in his double life, Tokuda arguably embodies the contemporary state of Japan's sexuality: in surveys conducted by organizations ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the condom-maker Durex, Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. A WHO report released in March found that 1 in 4 married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all. Those figures were attributed to the stresses of Japanese working life. Yet at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with "elder porn" one of its fastest-growing genres.

Tokuda is rare among Japanese porn stars in that his name has become a brand. The Shigeo Tokuda series he has just completed portray him as a tactful elderly gentleman who instructs women of different ages in the erotic arts, and he boasts a body of work far more impressive than most actors in their prime.

Tokuda's exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an "old man" series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry. "The adult-video industry is very competitive," says Glory Quest p.r. representative Kayoko Iimura. "If we only make standard fare, we cannot beat other studios. There were already adult videos with Lolitas or themes of incest, so we wanted to make something new. A relationship between wife and an old father-in-law has enough twist to create an atmosphere of mystery and captivate viewers' hearts."

Director Gaichi Kono says the eroticism of elders is captivating to younger viewers. "I think that, as a subject, there is this something that only an older generation has and the young people do not possess. It is because they lived that much more. We should respect them and learn from them," says Kono passionately.

But Tokuda stresses the appeal of his work to an audience of his peers: "Elderly people don't identify with school dramas," he says. "It's easier for them to relate to older-men-and-daughters-in-law series, so they tend to watch adult videos with older people in them." The veteran porn star plans to keep working until he's 80 — or older, as long as the industry will cast him. Given the bullish market for his work, he's unlikely to go without work.

"People of my age generally have shame, so they are very hesitant to show their private parts," Tokuda says. "But I am proud of myself doing something they cannot." Still, he says, laughing, "That doesn't mean that I can tell them about my old-age pensioner job."

Japan's adult-video industry is believed to be worth as much as $1 billion a year, according to industry insiders, with the largest video-store chain Tsutaya releasing about 1,000 new titles monthly, while the mega adult mail-order site DMM releases about 2,000 titles each month. Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward "mature women" has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are "mature women" films.

Ryuichi Kadowaki, director of Ruby Inc., which specializes in mature-women titles, says that when the company started offering the genre a few years ago, the term referred to actresses in their late 20s, and that last year it was expanded to those in their 70s. The company believes the advantage of mature titles is their enduring appeal. "Adult videos with young actresses sell well only in the first three months after the release," Kadowaki explains. "On the other hand, mature-women films enjoy a steady, long-term popularity, which after 10 years or so might lead to a best seller." And then there are the cost savings. A popular young actress can earn up to $100,000 per film, while a mature actress is paid only $2,000.

The market for elder porn has doubled over the past decade, according to Kadowaki. "In view of [Japan's] aging society," he adds, "I think that in the future, we will see a steady increase in demand."

View original link: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815509,00.html

Sex at 70 better than ever before: Swedish study

Today's 70-year-olds are having good sex, and they're having it more often than 70-year-olds at any time in the last 30 years, according to a Swedish study.

July 9, 2008
CBC News

Women in this age group are particularly satisfied with their sex lives, with more reporting having orgasms and fewer reporting not having had an orgasm at the age of 70.

In a study published online Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden studied attitudes to sex among four representative population samples of 70-year-olds in Sweden.

"Our study ... shows that most elderly people consider sexual activity and associated feelings a natural part of later life," the authors conclude.

They interviewed groups of septuagenarians in 1971-72, 1976-77, 1992-93, and 2000-01. In total, more than 1,500 people age 70 were interviewed about different aspects of their sex lives including sexual dysfunctions, marital satisfaction and sexual activity.

The authors found that over the 30-year period, the number of 70-year-olds of both sexes reporting sexual intercourse increased: married men from 52 per cent to 68 per cent, married women from 38 per cent to 56 per cent, unmarried men from 30 per cent to 54 per cent, and unmarried women from 0.8 per cent to 12 per cent.

The study also showed that while the proportion of women reporting low satisfaction with their sex lives decreased, the proportion of men reporting low satisfaction increased. The authors suggest this might be because it is now more acceptable for men to admit "failure" in sexual matters.

Overall, the majority of men and women in relationships who were surveyed in 2000-01 said they were happy with their sex lives. Fifty-two per cent of those women, and 57 per cent of the men, reported having very happy sexual relationships, up from 35 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men polled in 1971-72.

The findings point to the important role sex plays in the lives of older people and is a welcome contribution to the limited literature about sexual behaviour in this age group, Peggy Kleinplatz, a professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, writes in an accompanying editorial.

"Much of the literature on sexuality in elderly people focuses on sexual problems, leaving clinicians with the impression that older adults have either dismal or non-existent sex lives," she writes.

Kleinplatz said she hopes the research will highlight the need for doctors to be trained to ask all patients, regardless of age, about their sexual concerns.

Original link: http://technology.sympatico.msn.cbc.ca/news/contentposting?newsitemid=sex&feedname=cbc-tech-science-v3&show=false&number=10&showbyline=true&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=true&pagenumber=1

Growing Older with HIV Virus Presents Special Risks as it Accelerates Effects of Aging

By Thea Lapham, Kalamazoo Gazzette
July 8, 2008

When the first HIV drug, AZT, appeared on the market in 1987, there was little concern about the side effects. The disease's mortality rate was so high that patients weren't expected to live long enough for the black lining in the new drug's silver cloud to matter.

Today, however, people diagnosed with HIV -- the human immunodeficiency virus, which can lead to AIDS -- are living long, productive lives because of antiretroviral medications.

But with the graying of the HIV population come new challenges for patients and doctors alike.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 27 percent of all Americans living with AIDS are over age 50.

Health officials in Kalamazoo County estimate that of the approximately 340 people in the county who are HIV-positive but do not have AIDS, about 50 are over the age of 50, said David Feaster, director of client services for Community AIDS Resource and Education Services (CARES), based in Kalamazoo and with another office in Benton Harbor. Officials estimate that an additional 125 people of all ages in the county have AIDS, he said.

Cancer risks, faster aging

While data are sparse on the impact of HIV on aging -- and vice versa -- studies suggest that HIV-infected men and women have an accelerated risk of heart disease and certain kinds of cancers.

The first cases of AIDS were associated with cancers such as a rare skin lesion known as Kaposi's sarcoma. But while AIDS-related malignancies seem to be declining in this country, other types of cancer -- lung, rectal and gastrointestinal malignancies -- seem to be disproportionately affecting the HIV population, said Dr. Robert Kalayjian, a longtime infectious-disease specialist at Cleveland's MetroHealth Medical Center. Doctors don't know why.

Long-term exposure to HIV treatment also is a concern, and little is known about how well older Americans tolerate or respond to the arsenal of AIDS drugs now available.

Complicating this mix is the fact that new HIV diagnoses are also rising among older Americans. ``We're clearly seeing an increase in this demographic,'' Feaster said. ``There's this myth that just because you're not a teenager anymore, you can't get HIV. But that certainly isn't true. The statistics speak for themselves.''

Feaster noted that many of the symptoms related to HIV are similar to those that accompany the aging process.

``Aging weakens the immune system, triggers memory loss and leads to fatigue,'' Feaster said. ``So can being HIV-positive. Doctors need to be aware of this and not miss a diagnosis because the patient is `too old' to get HIV, or `too straight.'''

Kalayjian, too, likens AIDS to a fast-paced version of what everyone goes through as they age. The armor that protects humans against disease starts wearing thin, he said, causing vulnerability to attack from multiple fronts.

Kalayjian said HIV, which can go undetected for 10 years in some people, progresses more rapidly in older patients regardless of when they contracted the virus. His own research has found that even when older patients adhered to the daily grind of HIV treatment, they still recorded poorer outcomes than their less-compliant but younger counterparts.

Drug side effects

Kalamazoo's Feaster, 47, a graduate of New Jersey's Rutgers University who has been active in HIV and AIDS education since the early 1980s, noted that four new classes of HIV drugs have been developed over the last decade.

``Side effects are reported in only 20 percent of patients,'' he said. ``Most people will get an initial bout of headache and diarrhea, with symptoms typically disappearing in a few weeks.''

But older patients, many of whom already have high cholesterol and cardiac problems, face additional side effects. ``HIV drugs have the potential to raise cholesterol,'' Feaster said. ``They can also displace body fat, removing it from the arms and legs and loading the body cavity. This, in turn, can be dangerous for the heart.''

Feaster said that despite a lot of unknowns, ``doctors remain optimistic that any of the drug-related side effects can be effectively managed.''

Forgetting meds

What can be harder to manage is the risk of people, especially older patients, forgetting to take their HIV medications, he said.

``The drugs make the bloodstream a hostile environment to live in,'' Feaster said, ``so the virus migrates to the lymph nodes, where it typically doesn't replicate. We've now learned that smaller, multiple doses work best. If you skip a day, there's no more medicine left in your bloodstream, giving the virus full rein to multiply. Once it's unleashed again, the virus can mutate and become resistant to the drug you are taking.''

But that's just part of the problem. ``If the person transmits the disease to anyone else, they might be transmitting this resistant strain,'' Feaster said. ``That's why it's so important for people with HIV to take their medications regularly. This goes for everyone, regardless of their age.''


Newhouse News Service reporter Regina McEnery contributed to this report.

HIV Up among People Over 50

By Jung Eun Lee, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 29,2008

Dr. Veronika Steenpass recalls the time two years ago when an 81-year-old woman arrived at Grady Hospital complaining of unexplained weight loss.

The woman had lost 20 pounds in six months. A thorough round of lab tests was ordered. When the results of the tests came back, Dr. Steenpass had to tell a woman old enough to be her grandmother that she was HIV-positive.

In the last 10 years, the number of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in Georgia in people over 50 has nearly doubled, according to data from the state Department of Human Resources (DHR) Division of Public Health. In 1998, there were 189 new cases of HIV/AIDS in that age group and by 2007, the number was 341, which was 15 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in Georgia.

"What accounts for these numbers is a mixture of patients infected previously who are presenting late in the course of the disease as well as patients with high-risk activities who are getting infected later in life," said Dr. David Rimland, chief of infectious diseases at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and a professor of medicine at Emory.

At the Atlanta VA Medical Center HIV Clinic, which serves a predominantly male population, Rimland said in the last few years patients over 50 have accounted for about two-thirds of new HIV/AIDS cases.

Similarly, in the first three months of this year, 38 patients at Grady Hospital were newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Fifteen of these patients, nearly 40 percent, were over 50.

"In this age group, they get very little information about HIV and how to protect themselves," said Steenpass, who is finishing her residency at Emory.

That might be changing. AID Atlanta, a nonprofit that offers HIV/AIDS services, is getting more calls for educational programs for seniors at high-rises, nursing homes and church settings, said Neena Smith-Bankhead, director of education and volunteer services.

The CDC currently recommends HIV screening in individuals up to age 64. However, a study published in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine found that screening may be cost-effective up to age 75.

"Age alone should not be a contraindication for HIV screening," said the study's author, Dr. Gillian Sanders, associate professor of medicine at Duke University. She said increased screening in older adults could reduce the stigma of getting tested and reduce transmissions by allowing affected individuals to modify their behaviors.

Some patients who know they are HIV-positive may continue to participate in high-risk activities, Rimland said. "You'd like to think that everyone who is HIV-positive would be careful with their actions, but unfortunately that's not true." He stressed the importance of safe-sex practices in any age group.

When it comes to HIV screening, seniors are the least likely of all age groups to get tested.

"They may not realize that unless they ask specifically for the HIV test, they won't get the test done nor will they know their HIV status," said Teresa Kochinsky-Bell, health program representative for the Fulton County Health Department's Communicable Disease Prevention Branch. "Just because the doctor draws your blood doesn't mean they're testing you for HIV."

The state of Georgia requires patients to sign a formal written consent form before they can have HIV testing, with the exception of pregnant women.
The CDC HIV testing guidelines, however, recommend "opt-out" HIV screening, which means health care providers don't need separate consent to test for HIV. The patient still has a right to decline.

"A lot of times, HIV and other STDs (sexually transmitted disease) just aren't discussed between older patients and their doctors," Steenpass said. "It may be from a stereotype that older people are not sexually active."

Like many stereotypes, this one is not true. Almost three-quarters of 57- to 64-year-olds reported that they were sexually active, according to a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. As people aged, sexual activity did decline, though even up to age 85, a quarter of individuals in the study reported being sexually active.

Media advertising of erectile dysfunction treatments such as Viagra and Cialis has brought the subject of sex and older people into mainstream conversation.

"When you're already talking to your 75-year-old patient about erectile dysfunction, wouldn't that be a great time to talk about their sexual behavior and assess their risk for STDs," said Dr. Ted Johnson, a geriatrician at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at Emory.

Johnson's average patient is 80; few studies characterize sexual behavior in this patient population.

"There is still no good national campaign out there to alert older people they're at the same risk for contracting HIV if they don't understand transmission and prevention," said Jane Fowler, 73, a retired journalist and founder of the advocacy organization HIV Wisdom for Older Women, based in Kansas.

Fowler, like many in her age group, was already in a committed relationship when the first cases of HIV/AIDS were reported. After the end of a 24-year marriage, Fowler began a relationship with a friend she had known and trusted her entire adult life, and from whom, she later found, she contracted HIV.

"The fact is that none of us know the sexual history of anyone but ourselves," Fowler said. "Older people think this is just a disease of young people, but that's not the case."

Several studies of women performed at Grady Hospital found that older women knew less about HIV/AIDS than their younger counterparts and had little interest in knowing their HIV status.

"Because older women are postmenopausal, they know they can't get pregnant, but they also think they can't get anything," said Lisa Bernstein, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University, who authored the studies. "We as health care providers are not educating this population, so their perceived risk is very low compared to the reality."

Barbara Revell, 53, of Cobb County, however, said many people over 50 do know a lot about HIV/AIDS and do take precautions if they decide to engage in sex.

"I saw people I knew die from HIV at the start of the epidemic, and that's the best education a person could get on the need to protect themselves," she said.

Revell has been on the dating scene in Atlanta for nine years and heads a social club for singles over 40. She said she has been tested in the past and sees it as something that should be as routine as having a mammogram.

Last year's DHR state data from newly diagnosed patients over 50 showed that twice as many men as women were infected.

The majority of these people, of either sex, could not identify any behavioral risk factor in themselves or their partners, meaning they did not know how they got the virus.

New Condom, HIV Tests for NYC Elderly

The Associated Press

July 25, 2007




While volunteers passed out cups of Jell-O to the white-haired lunch crowd at a senior center, another group was distributing something that didn’t quite fit amid the card games and daily gossip: condoms.

“You’re giving out condoms,” 82-year-old Rose Crescenzo said with a wistful smile, “but who’s going to give us a guy?”

But this was no joke.

The condom giveaway is part of an effort by New York City’s Department of Aging to educate older people about the risks of contracting the virus that causes AIDS. After the condom giveaway, free HIV testing was offered.

AIDS education of the elderly has become an important issue as antiretroviral drugs that can keep patients living into their golden years changes the face of AIDS. Experts warn that ignorance about HIV among seniors can lead to new infections.

And those infections are happening. A physician from Howard University Hospital in Washington recently diagnosed unsuspected HIV in an 82-year-old.

So HIV educators are taking their message of prevention to senior centers and other locales where older people meet. They also hope to create a welcoming environment for people who already have the virus.

Sex doesn’t end at 32

New York City has the most HIV cases of any U.S. city — nearly 100,000 — and is considered a leader in the area of AIDS education for seniors, with the City Council having budgeted $1 million toward HIV education for older people.

But smaller-scale campaigns are also under way elsewhere.
Nancy Orel, a professor of gerontology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, is organizing a workshop for seniors that will include free condoms and HIV tests.

“Unfortunately, most individuals have the perception that sex ends at, what, 32?” Orel said. “And many older adults report that when they go to see their physicians, the physicians don’t ask if they’re sexually active.”

The program at the Peter Cardella Senior Center would have been unthinkable back when AIDS was known as a disease that strikes its victims young and kills them in their prime. But the aging of America’s AIDS population has changed that.

“Often older people do not concern themselves with HIV and AIDS because they assume that they are not at risk, and that can be a tragic mistake,” said Edwin Mendez-Santiago, New York City’s commissioner of aging.

Frank Garcia, 72, happily pocketed his supply of official New York City condoms, which are packaged with a subway logo.

“I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “We used to go to the drugstore and wait for an hour or two before we got up the nerve to ask for them. Your parents didn’t talk about it. Everything was street-taught.”

‘The silent epidemic’

A study last year by the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America projected that within the next decade, the majority of HIV-infected New Yorkers will be over 50.

Dan Tietz, executive director of the AIDS research group, said HIV education is needed at senior centers, where the average age is more like 70, because “we know that people are still having sex well past 65.”

Dorcas Baker, who directs an AIDS education center in Baltimore, said health officials there began HIV prevention programs at senior centers in 2005.

“We call it the silent epidemic because no one thinks seniors are sexual or that they’re using drugs,” she said.

Some seniors tell AIDS educators the disease doesn’t affect them because they are not having sex.

“We challenge them by saying, ‘You’re a grandmother, you’re a mother, you’re a sister, you’re a neighbor,”’ Baker said. “They can also help to raise awareness even if they’re not active themselves.”

People aged 50 to 64 accounted for 14 percent of new HIV diagnoses in 2005, while those over 65 comprised only about 2 percent of HIV diagnoses, according to Dr. Bernard Branson, associate director for laboratory diagnostics in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the Peter Cardella Center in Queens, 66-year-old AIDS educator Edward Shaw recounted his own 1988 diagnosis and warned: “If you’re still having sex, you need to know about HIV/AIDS.”

Many of the seniors ignored him as they chatted with friends and settled in for pork chops and green beans.

“I think it should be done in areas where it’s really needed,” said Julia Karcher, 82. “These ladies are all by themselves for years and years and years.”

But Marie Tarantino, who gave her age as “39-plus,” said lonely seniors might take unwise risks.

“They might pick somebody up on the street,” she said. “They just think that at a certain age they can’t get pregnant. They don’t think they could get a sexually transmitted disease.”

And Crescenzo, who lost her husband of 62 years last October, did take the condoms.

“If I get a date,” she said, “I’m going to use one of these.”