The Hidden Factory That Drove a Material Revolution in a Former Toy-Making Town

Nonfiction writer Mizuho Takagi, who explores the roots of the sex industry and related items, presents “Reportage: The Birth of the Sex Industry.” The second part of “Love Dolls & Onaholes” focuses on the history of the onahole. The ones who sparked a “revolution” were the small “sub-subcontractor” factories of downtown Tokyo.

Part 1: Love Doll: Was the Antarctic No. 1 made using technology developed by the Army Medical College? The Secret History of the “Dutch Wife”

A factory of children’s toys made adult toys

As written in the first part, the Japanese roots of the love doll trace back to the Edo-period Azumagata ningyō. And just as the Azumagata was fitted into those dolls, even in modern times, the presence of the onahole is indispensable for love dolls.

The onahole—well-known as an adult product modeled after the vaginal opening and canal—is a key component. According to Mr. Okamoto, president of Orient Industry, surprisingly, his company doesn’t manufacture onaholes in-house.

“For us, as well as for major adult goods distributors, production is outsourced to town factories in China or Japan.”

So what kind of factories actually produce them? To find out, the author visited Frontier Japan, a company that manufactures and sells onaholes.

About a 15-minute drive from JR Yashio Station (Saitama Prefecture stands a solid two-story building—quite the opposite of what one might imagine from the word “town factory.” This is the firm’s logistics hub, while its own factory is located about 20 minutes away by car, in Sōka, Saitama.

Company president Keiichi Mitsuhashi (57) also guided the author around the factory. The first impression: two factory buildings where a dozen or so people work. Mitsuhashi explained:

“There are about a dozen town factories that manufacture adult goods, concentrated in areas like Tateishi and Kanamachi in Tokyo, or Yashio, Misato, and Sōka in Saitama.”

There’s a reason adult goods manufacturers clustered around Katsushika Ward. In 1927, when Japan’s first subway opened, toy company Tomiyama Toy Works (later Takara-Tomy) was founded in Nishi-Sugamo, Tokyo, and later moved its headquarters to Tateishi, Katsushika. The company went on to score major hits in vinyl toys—Dakko-chan in 1960, and Licca-chan in 1967. A decade later, another local toy maker, Sekiguchi of Shin-Koiwa (also in Katsushika), released Monchhichi, which became a social phenomenon. This success attracted a network of subcontractors to the area, bringing prosperity.

“But after the economic bubble burst, orders decreased drastically. That’s when many factories turned to adult goods, which at the time were on the rise.”

The profit margin difference between “children’s toys” and “adult toys” was about 1.5 times. As a last resort, adult goods became the new lifeline for town factories seeking change.

ABC was the original adult toy store

Curious about the history, I researched the roots. In Kojiki (compiled in 712 during the Nara period), Japan’s oldest book, it is recorded that before the “Azumagata,” animal genitals and anuses were used.

The “Azumagata” itself appears in the Edo period, as described in the novel depicting sexual affairs Kōshoku Tabimakura (1695). The Azumagata was sold at “Yotsumeya” in Edo. Yotsumeya was, in today’s terms, an adult goods shop, descending from pharmacies in Ryōgoku that specialized in aphrodisiacs and sexual implements.

To digress a little, let’s also touch on the history of adult goods shops here.

At Yotsumeya, likely the originator, in addition to the Azumagata they are said to have handled dildos (harigata, modeled after the male organ), condoms made from animal skins, and aphrodisiacs. It was said to have prospered greatly, but when the Meiji era began and Western culture such as puritanism flowed in, Yotsumeya in Ryōgoku was prosecuted, and with the changing times, it declined.

In the Shōwa period, however, new adult goods shops appeared with signs explicitly reading adult toy shop. Quoting from the testimony of Ken Kimura, president of Tōken Shōji, an adult toy shop established in 1962, as recorded in Genshoku Otona no Gangu Kenkyū (Tokyo Sanseisha, published 1993):

“The person who invented the word ‘adult toy’ was a man named Aoki. In Ginza, behind what is now the Nikko Hotel, he opened a shop called ‘ABC.’ It was like today’s Ōsama no Idea (a select shop for novelty goods), but with a pinkish twist. That was the beginning of the adult toy shop. Before that, there was something called ‘Akamon’ in Yokohama, Yokkaichi (Mie), Osaka, and even one in Ginza, but those were half underground, and there were maybe only four or five in all of Japan.”

They are said to have sold things such as Higo-zuiki (the dried stalk of taro, used since the Edo period as a potency booster), wallets woven with the 48 sexual positions in Nishijin brocade, teacups painted with ukiyo-e, and novelty pens that revealed nude women when turned upside down. It is understood that the beginning of adult toy shops was this “ABC.”

In 1965, when vibrators became electric and sold explosively, there was a period when adult toy shops proliferated. However, regulations such as the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (now the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act) and the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act reduced their momentum.

In the 1990s, the disposable type became a hit

Onaholes have walked their history in step with vibrators. As noted earlier, it became clear after the collapse of the economic bubble when many small factories turned to producing adult goods. Vibrators, for their part, continued to evolve, becoming cordless and more advanced.

Until around 2000, onaholes were mainly made from soft vinyl (PVC). In the 1990s, the disposable type appeared, consisting of a sponge (urethane) soaked with lotion inside a cup-shaped container. The beginning was products modeled after Cup Noodles, such as OX and Best Friend. Nobuo Harada (pseudonym, age 70), who released Best Friend to the world, recalls:

“I opened the video box ‘Royal’ in Umeda, Osaka, in 1990, the year the International Garden and Greenery Exposition was held. Selling Best Friend at Royal, inspired by Cup Noodles, happened two years later.”

The Cup Noodle-style cups were manufactured by a small factory in Tochigi. The cost per unit was 200 yen. Investing his own money, Harada ordered 3,000 units, and selling them for 500 yen each, they flew off the shelves.

Since there were no similar products at the time, Harada insists that “Best Friend was the original Cup Noodle-style onahole,” though some argue that OX had already been created by then.

A dramatic rvolution in the material revolution

In any case, although it gained popularity for its low cost and convenience, it could not yet be called a dramatic evolution.

In 2002, a revolution occurred that dramatically improved the performance of onaholes. The key factor was the use of the material “elastomer,” which softens when heated and returns to a rubber-like state when cooled. This replaced soft vinyl, which was said to contain toxic plasticizers, achieving safe and pleasantly soft products.

It all began with Mr. Mitsuhashi of Frontier Japan. At the time, he was 26 years old and working as a “sub-subcontractor” for small factories around Katsushika that produced onaholes.

“A friend of mine, a prime contractor who had experience with international toy exhibitions, told me that in Taiwan, toys and goods like Monchhichi were being made with a new material called elastomer. With no solid plan, I went over there. Traveling back and forth many times between Japan and Taiwan, relying only on a phone book, I managed to track down the factories with the help of local trading companies.”

Feeling that “there was no future in subcontracting,” he felt the need to develop original products and invested 14 million yen of his own savings. At first, he was brushed off, but after persistent negotiations, six months later he finally secured an order.

Sure enough, the new onahole made with elastomer was far more popular than conventional products, with purchase orders flooding in nonstop. It was a happy problem.

“We shipped 20 boxes—800 units—every day, and that continued for a year and a half.”

Along with elastomer as the raw material, technological advances enabled onaholes to be manufactured consistently from molds. Today, Frontier Japan is the leading company in the domestic onahole market.

“China is ahead when it comes to vibrators and battery-box type products, but Japan is not behind at all in onaholes.” (Mitsuhashi)

Electric onaholes with automatic piston movement, and VR onaholes synchronized with video—the hardware advancements in recent years have been astonishing. Yet even after nearly 30 years, onaholes are still made with elastomer. Why is that?

“Silicone rubber, which is often used in sex dolls, is costly, and what’s more, when it comes into contact with body heat, it hardens.”

Paradoxically, it seems the reason is simply that no new material better suited for onaholes than elastomer has been found. Elastomer was the material that brought about a revolution in 2002 and dramatically advanced onaholes. Perhaps the industry is now reaching the time when it awaits the next revolution.