Call to mind an image of a male porn star–Popeye forearms, a lavish mustache and, well, other standard accoutrements. 79-year-old Shigeo Tokuda has none of these–or not the first two anyway–but he has become a major star in the Japanese porn industry anyway. After working as a travel agent for many years, Tokuda (not his real name but a nom de guerre) was “discovered” in 1996 at the age of 59 while trying to finagle a discount on his favorite porn titles. In the years since he has acted in over 350 films in the burgeoning sub-genre of “elder-porn.” Sexy escapades in nursing homes and strict instruction of young-and-eager female pupils provide the dramatic backbone of most of his films, like “Grandpa’s Wet Dream” and “Maniac Training of Lolitas.”
Now years after his unlikely debut, the husband and grandfather averages about one film a week, come rain or shine. Even a stroke in 2005 didn’t slow him down for long. And a good thing too, for the 5’3″ Tokuda–he needs to keep up. “Elder-porn” is a growth-industry in Japan–a nation whose population is the oldest of any country in the world and which ranks second only to the US in annual levels of porn consumption. In fact, it’s estimated that in the famously buttoned-up island nation, “elder-porn” accounts for about 1/5 of the country’s porn movie market. Says Tokuda of his second vocation, which like a Japanese anemone has bloomed quite late but fully: “It’s not that I’m proud, but it feels nice to be useful.”
