Ai Iijima

It's not the fact that she is a former porn star that makes Iijima Ai stand out from the ever-changing gallery of pretty faces on TV. It's the fact that she's been prepared to be very open and frank about what she's been through and the relationships she's had along the way. She's been able to move on and build a career as a "multi-talento" to such an extent that many young TV viewers are not even aware of her colorful past. Iijima (born Ishii Mitsuko in Tokyo) made her AV (adult video) debut in 1992, and no doubt was one of hundreds of young women to do so. She made over 100 movies, with titles like "Thank you for the f**k!" and "Used Panty of Sister in Law", becoming the biggest star in the business and then proceeded to write a book about it. This was enough to have magazines clamouring for an interview. They knew that an "expose" on the inner goings-on of the porn industry would shift a lot of copies. At the time, Japanese TV was going through something of a clean-up, reducing the number of late-night or even evening shows that featured semi-naked women to attract male viewers. But there still some shows that stubbornly hung on to the format and Iijima became a presenter on one, Gilgamesh Night. It was the beginning of her move over to the more respectable side of the entertainment business. She quit the porn business while still on top (so to speak) at the ripe old age of 20. Through perserverance and hard work, Iijima gradually became one of the regular faces and a guest presenter on variety shows and has even appeared on an NHK education program. The best indicator of a TV personality's status is how often their face apears on screen and how many shows they appear on regularly. Iijima has now worked her way up to the rank of a senior "talento", and is a kind of big sister to the hordes of young women who've arrived on the scene after her. In 2001, Iijima caused a media storm with the publication of her memoirs. The provocatively titled Platonic Sex received huge media exposure and went on to be a bestseller, shifting over a million copies. It tells of how she was raped while in her early teens, driven away from home by the pressure from her parents to excel at school, had an abortion, got involved in the euphemistically named "enjo kosai" (dating for money) and finally entered the porn business. The book was adapted into a four-hour TV series and even a mainstream movie. This all served to make Iijima something of a heroine and role model for high school girls all over Japan. At the age of thirty, having established a respectable TV career and with most youngsters unaware of her colourful past, 2002 saw the unauthorized release of a box set of DVD's of Iijima's old movies that sold like gold dust. The porn industry seems to have something of the Wild West about it and copyright is usually regarded more as the right to copy. Iijima's production company filed for an injunction to halt the sale of the dirty DVDs and lawyers for both sides were last seen discussing the matter.