BREAKING: 4 JAV Actors Contracted Coronavirus

With Japan currently going through the second wave of coronavirus pandemic and cases in Tokyo spiking by triple digits daily according to Japan Times. It might be strange that there was no formal announcement by the JAV industry that any of their employees had contracted the virus. With the industry being known to be a tight secretive one that avoided being scrutinized, could that really be the case?  An investigative article published by Flash denied such a notion.

An insider tipped off a journalist at the end of July with the following comments:- 

"Here in the AV industry, we have cases of people being infected with the novel coronavirus too. Among them, a few of those are famous lead actors. There was an outdoor barbecue event earlier this month involving a bunch of them which I think might contribute to an outbreak and I'm concern about them bringing it back to work."

With that tip in mind, the reporter contacted one actor that had been name-dropped through telephone.

"Hello. I heard that there were 4 actors who have been infected. Do you have any comments as an insider yourself?"

"No. I'm not infected with corona. I've done the test and it came back negative. This could be just fake news." 

With an apology, the actor then cuts the line.

However, similar rumours keep coming in, and so FLASH approach the AV Human Rights Ethics Organization, a recently established watchdog group, to clarify everything and expose the truth.

"Regarding your query about a possible novel coronavirus outbreak, yes, the organization had received reports that 4 actors had been tested positive for it through the middle of July to early August. Those actors involved are not affiliated with our organization, however. And it must be made clear that investigation suggest that each of them contracted the virus individually and not amongst themselves. So there was no cluster formed."

With the fact confirmed and close contact between talents unavoidable during production, so what preventive measures were taken.

The Organization elaborate more on what was done:-

"When the actor is tested positive, we informed the various studios and agencies that he had been with for the past two weeks. Every personnel and talents there will be tested through PCR. Production of new materials was ceased. Eventually, we received the test results and everyone's clean. For those actors who are infected, we refer them to what the guidelines stated. They either remain quarantined at home until recovery or admit themselves into a hospital for treatment."

After that, the Organization promised that more measures will be implemented to combat the spread of the virus on top of what is already a tried and tested method of slowing and stopping productions to minimize the risk of being infected by an external source. The head of the Organization, Mikio Kawai added:- 

"As of current, I think why the industry is mostly immune is due to two reasons. First, the industry is always on the lookout for sexually transmitted diseases so it's no different when it comes to the coronavirus. Second, whenever a production is halted, the talents are not required to pay any compensation, so there is no pressure to perform on any of them."

Even so, it seems that not everybody in the industry is exactly aware of what's happening. Such as when Flash interviewed the head of a studio earlier this August, this is what he commented. 

"No, I'm not aware of anyone that had been contracted. Or perhaps they are not releasing names."