New Mother Reportedly Earned 800 Million Yen During Pregnancy Through Hidden Side Work, Raising Questions About Privacy and Marital Disclosure
“From 500,000 yen per month” — her main source of income is compensated dating
During her pregnancy, she says she earned about 8 million yen over 10 months.
The person speaking calmly is Eriko (36, pseudonym), a new mother.
She has been married for seven years to a husband who is seven years older, and they had been dating for 10 years before marriage. Her husband was overjoyed at the long-awaited pregnancy, but Eriko could not fully share that happiness.
“I work as an office employee, but I had actually been doing compensated dating (papakatsu) even before I got pregnant. That regular allowance was my main source of income. So I was happy to get pregnant, but at the same time I kept thinking, ‘What am I going to do about papakatsu.’”
She explains that she had been meeting her “regular” client every week, receiving about 500,000 yen per month through “dinner followed by hotel” arrangements.
“Sometimes we could only meet twice a month because we were both busy, but even then the allowance didn’t decrease. On Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, I would get a ‘bonus’ of around 100,000 to 200,000 yen on top.”
Eriko continued her compensated dating during pregnancy while hiding the fact that she was pregnant, but as her belly gradually grew, during the stable period of pregnancy, the client allegedly touched her stomach in a hotel room and said, “Eriko, you’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
“I thought, ‘So it’s come to this.’ I tried to cover it up by saying, ‘No, I’m not.’ But there was no way that would work. The best would have been to say, ‘It’s your child,’ but he’s a ‘sterile man’ who gets erections but doesn’t produce sperm, so that excuse wouldn’t work. Cornered, I ended up crying and saying, ‘I got pregnant once with someone else because I really wanted a child.’”
Becoming pregnant did not end her relationship with her client, but it did not improve it either.
“He seemed more interested in my nipples, which had darkened, than my swollen belly and gradually he stopped sleeping with me. If we don’t have sex, the allowance is basically zero. He might give me a few tens of thousands of yen on a whim. I want to get back with him soon after giving birth, so as a last resort I kept going to meals with him a lot and introduced him to friends who were also looking for a client.”
She says that introducing new girls to him led to receiving pocket money depending on the “rank” of the women.
“He’s the type who wants to keep a lot of girls around, so introducing them didn’t risk me being cut off, but I was desperate to show that I had value beyond just sex.”
By acting as a broker for other compensated dating girls, and providing dinner or non-sexual services, she managed to secure about 200,000 to 300,000 yen per month.
“When I was on maternity leave paperwork and vaguely thinking about how worrying it would be if my income dropped, I suddenly remembered a single mother friend who had been making a lot of money right after giving birth through a breast-milk-focused adult service.”
So she began asking around her friends: “Is there any job that only pregnant women can do that pays well?”
Pregnant women in the special stage of doujin porn
While searching for work that could only be done during pregnancy, Eriko learned about the existence of “pregnant-themed AV” and immediately reached out saying, “I want to do it!”
“It wasn’t mainstream AV from a production company where actresses are affiliated. It was more like indie AV, or doujin AV. Kind of like independent films. The pay was about 100,000 to 150,000 yen per video. The shooting time was short—about half a day—so it was more efficient than working in the sex industry. The male performers were also kind because they knew the partner was pregnant, and everyone underwent STI testing, so it felt safe.”
She appeared in as many as 20 videos during her pregnancy. With that alone, she earned over 3 million yen, and Eriko smiled, saying, “The content was basically just normal AV.”
“The fact that the actress is pregnant is the main selling point, but the acts themselves are really normal. There was masturbation and group scenes, but they made sure to use positions like missionary that were considerate of the belly. Even though I was pregnant, I could still orgasm normally (laughs). I was sexually frustrated because my husband wasn’t touching me during pregnancy, so I thought it was killing two birds with one stone—I got money and satisfaction.”
Her husband does not know about her AV work.
“He runs his own business, but honestly I don’t really know what he does. If I even touch his work documents, he gets really annoyed. Maybe because he doesn’t want to be questioned himself, he doesn’t question me either. But he might vaguely suspect something—he once said something like, ‘Pregnant women have demand even in the sex industry,’ so (laughs).”
“I don’t think my husband has any savings. I always have this vague anxiety about money. I don’t plan to get divorced, but I feel like I need enough money to live alone with my child at any time.”
“Five days before the shoot, during filming of the AV, I suddenly felt a bit of pain, and then I noticed I was bleeding. The production staff and the male performers were extremely considerate and quickly changed the content. After the shoot, I had heavy bleeding even on the train home and ended up being rushed to the hospital… I never imagined I would give birth after an ‘okiyome-bou’ with someone I didn’t even know.”
She spent some time in the NICU, but the baby had no abnormalities and is now resting at home.
“In the future, while I still have breast milk, I want to appear in a lot of breastfeeding-themed AV. Also, since my ‘patron’ still doesn’t sleep with me and my allowance is low, I might look for another patron who is okay with a breastfeeding housewife.”
Looking affectionately at her newborn daughter, she also said:
“When my daughter grows up, I want to tell her, ‘When you were in my belly, Mommy did AV work—we went through it together.’ My daughter’s first joint project with me is AV. If she grows up and says she wants to do AV with me, that would be totally fine. I want her to become a strong woman who can earn money without relying on men.”
After the interview, she immediately headed to meet a new patron. “I’m presenting myself as a single mother to gain sympathy! I hope it turns into a good connection,” she said, walking lightly toward Ginza.
Photography and text by： Sari Yoshizawa