TOKYO – Dressed in a kimono and kneeling silently on a tatami mat floor, 61-year-old Yasue Tomita looks as if she might be about to perform a Japanese tea ceremony – instead she’s debuting as a porn actress.
Fluttering her eyelashes demurely as the cameras prepare to roll, Tomita is proof that in Japan’s greying society you’re never too old to chase your dreams, however racy or unorthodox.
She has also become part of a flourishing niche market in Japan: “silver porn” – stretching the limits of eroticism among the elderly and overturning social norms in a country where people are expected to grow old gracefully.
Love, too, is not confined to the young, say Japan’s growing army of pensioners exploring their desires in more conventional ways, with dating agencies for the elderly reporting increasingly brisk business.
Tomita confessed to being “a bit rusty” but made no apologies for her rambunctious lust for life, or her decision to put aside her knitting and crochet and launch into a career making X-rated movies.
“I like my handicrafts but I wanted to try my hand at this, while my body still works,” she told AFP before filming began.
“I do like sex, and this is my last chance before I get too old. I’m very nervous. I wonder if I should really do it, especially in front of so many people, but everyone should follow their dream.
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