“Japanese performers’ pay declining,” says adult actress on overseas gigs

Going overseas to earn money for wedding and fashion

A young female influencer popular on Chinese social media was lured to Cambodia with promises of a high-paying job, only to suddenly disappear. She was later found weakened on the streets.

Reportedly, she had injuries to her legs and no money on her, and was taken under protection before returning to China with the support of the Chinese embassy. Behind this incident lie the dangers of high-paying overseas jobs and easy money schemes promoted via social media, creating new risks.

This time, we asked A, an active adult film actress who says she has worked overseas in 11 countries, about the reality of working abroad.

“My busiest period was from 2019 to 2021. It was harsh, but I made good money,” A said.

The trigger for her overseas work was the world of hosts.

“While working in the sexy entertainment industry, which has its ups and downs, my mental balance started to break down. Around that time, a friend took me to a host club, and I got hooked.”

As a solo adult film actress, she earned about 2 million yen per month, but laughed that it wasn’t enough to enjoy extravagant spending at the host club.

“To do a champagne tower for my host, I suddenly needed 10 million yen. I asked a friend, and they told me, ‘You can earn it with overseas work!’”

Her friend wasn’t obsessed with hosts, but loved Lolita fashion. She had gone abroad to work in order to buy expensive clothing.

“Many people may think that all girls who work overseas are host-obsessed, but there are normal girls like her. Some secretly go abroad to earn money for wedding funds without telling their fiancés (laughs). There are actually more women working overseas casually than the public might think.”

The friend introduced A to a Chinese female agent.

“She was very well-known in that circle, and I think all the women doing overseas work were connected (laughs). My first overseas job was in the U.S. I went with a friend, but entry was very strict due to COVID. We said we were here to inspect for study abroad next year, but they said, ‘You’re not a teenager, study abroad doesn’t make sense,’ and we were held for three hours. Eventually, with a Japanese interpreter on a call, we managed to enter the country.”

Surrounded by 10 police officers

A’s first overseas job was in the United States. She worked at a total of three brothels—two in New York and one in Boston—but she recalls that even from the first workplace, she experienced events that would be unthinkable in Japan.

“I was seeing clients in a hotel room, but the staff there would shoot each other with stun guns and fire guns. Not to kill anyone, it seemed more like they were playing, but I was so shocked I didn’t even have time to feel fear. It was a bizarre sight.”

A says that generally, foreign clients are casual about sex and leave once it’s over, which is easier. But some clients even appeared with bouquets.

“One guy came in a proposal-like mood. I thought, ‘What a weird person.’ Later, he requested another girl, and that girl stole 500,000 yen from his wallet. He got furious and reported it to the FBI, and the shop was raided.”

By the time the raid occurred, A was already working at the second location, so she avoided trouble—but she laughed nervously, saying, “I could have been arrested if I had been there.”

“The second place was operated in an apartment room, and I lived there while working. The manager—an older woman—was mean and didn’t cook at all. Even if I ordered Uber, if a client arrived at that time, I had to serve them first. By the time I went to pick it up at the door, it was gone.

For a week, I was essentially locked in that apartment, serving around 15 clients a day. By the time I finished, I was skeletal. I earned a ridiculous amount, but had no human rights.”

The money she earned after 36 consecutive days of work was over 7 million yen. She packed it all into a carry-on and converted it into Japanese yen back in Nishi-Shinjuku, where she lived at the time.

“That’s unthinkable now. Customs would definitely catch you! Many girls have had their earnings confiscated at the airport. I heard the maximum was around 10 million yen. Losing a huge amount you earned through your body in an instant is brutal.”

A herself has never had her earnings confiscated at the airport, but says, “There were several close calls.”

“When my friend B and I went to the U.S. for work in 2020, B returned to Japan first. Around the time she should have arrived at the airport, I completely lost contact with her. Later, we found out she had been held at the airport for 24 hours and forcibly sent back to the U.S.

So I took extreme care on the day I returned. At the X-ray inspection, nothing was said, and when I scanned my passport, I passed safely.”

To prepare for any trouble, she had a rule to delete all messages and photos exchanged with scouts and agents. She would restore the contacts once, report, “I think I can board,” then delete them again. But just as she was about to get on the plane, A was surrounded by about ten police officers.

“I thought, ‘It’s over,’ and my blood ran cold. Suddenly they called my full real name and said, ‘We caught B.’ They even showed me photos of clients I had served and yelled, ‘You know this man, right? If you don’t tell the truth now, it’s going to be serious!’”

But A didn’t break.

“I just kept saying, ‘Vacation! Friend, Ken, house! Swimming!’ The airport staff got involved, and it became a huge commotion. They searched all the contents of my bag and even mistook my e-cigarette for marijuana.”

The standoff lasted five hours, but because she consistently insisted, “I’m not working overseas, I’m just swimming at my friend Ken’s house,” the police eventually gave up.

“B hasn’t been able to leave the U.S. for ten years, but I faced no punishment. Still, I genuinely felt that going overseas to work under these conditions is exhausting.”

When asked what happened to her earnings, she replied:

“By that point, I already knew my money would probably be confiscated when leaving the country, so I did an ‘underground transfer’ before returning. I sent it once to my agent’s account in China, had it converted to yen, and received it in cash in Japan. They took a 10% fee, but it was better than losing everything.”

A also went to Cambodia for work, but when she saw the news, she said, “I thought it was some kind of joke.”

“In Cambodia, there’s a special zone where you basically have to bribe the government? That’s where I went, so nothing dangerous happened. I don’t know all the details, but the government was watching, and only wealthy Chinese people would come there.

However, they were very strict with the girls. When I arrived at a shop, they immediately made me take off my shoes and said ‘Small!’—I was disqualified. My friend who came with me was disqualified too because she had acne (laughs).

Then they made me wear heels about 20 cm high and sent me to another shop, where about 50 girls were lined up. You couldn’t work unless you were called out, so you could only make 20,000–30,000 yen a day, and I was so bored that I even went to the zoo.

So when I hear that someone is going to Cambodia for work, I think, ‘Why go to a country where you can hardly make any money?’”