BREAKING: Minami Aizawa retires after being dropped by her bankrupt agency!

Taiwan is a hotbed now for the adult industry since AV actresses made an appearance in the Taiwan Adult Expo earlier this summer. Subsequent to the event, the country now finds itself in the center of another AV affair. Frankly, it’s hard to fathom that AV fans could be taken aback by a news coming in straight up from the Taiwan airport. In a surprising turn of events AV darling Minami Aizawa has registered her statement with the press that she intends to quit AV. Indeed, it is a sad day for JAV fans all around the world.

In a Twitter thread, the actress cited that she had intended to quit the industry back in 2019 after having won the Fanza Best Actress Award that year but chose to halt retirement plans due to the pandemic. Further in the statement she was noted referencing of a certain 'Aizawa' who had been a mentor of sorts to the actress and had played a significant influence in getting her to debut in the AV industry. Though, we don't have much juice on this Aizawa guy, Minami claims in her statement that it was his sudden demise by leukemia three years ago that had devastated the actress. It was almost like she had hit rock bottom and was struggling to cope up with the loss of her dear one and continue working but chose to incoherently pursue AV further to repay the favor of her fans who had supported her like a rock. With the pandemic now just a mere thought, Minami decided that this is the right time for her to phase into a different career altogether.

Another angle that has been validated by an online AV publication cites that the actress had have enough with her agency 44 management. In the article, the author claims that the agency is wrecked with only 6,000 yen left in their account, it’s safe to assume that they will declare bankruptcy in no time. With several talents jumping the ship due to no offers, most of them are unpaid and are unable to contact the agents. One could say Aizawa's management team is a literal shit-show at the moment. Things are not good for the big names either, with Eimi Fukada opting for Faleno, Aizawa's works have literally dried up with little to no appearance in the recent months compelling the actress to move out of office. The article also picked up that she changed her contact address recently hinting at a move, possibly an office transfer but with the recent retirement announcement, that claim is now vilified.

Unlike Yua Mikami who had a strong international presence and has a fashion startup to fall back to post retirement, Minami on the other hand, is limited in her reach with a pan Asian audience aware of the star, that follows her work. However, there's this fact that she was born out of Japan (in Hong Kong) and spent majority of her childhood years in the United States there's barely any evidence to support that she is equally famous in the West in contrast to her native country, Japan. On top of that, there's hardly any evident gig that she has picked up besides AV which could be very well supported by the fact that in her recent interview to the Taiwanese media, she expressed her desire to work in Taiwanese dramas supposedly in the future post retirement (refer to the Youtube video in the article), "In the future, apart from "maybe" in August I will come to Taiwan again to participate in a large-scale event, and I also plan to perform Hong Kong or Taiwanese dramas, but I am not sure..." Although quite shocking for her fans but it's pretty evident from her statement that she doesn't want to shoot a farewell JAV after having fulfilled her mentors dream and entertaining her fans for all these years, Minami wants to take a step back and distance herself from the AV business for the time being.

Perhaps, I'm not aware whether she participated in the Taiwan Adult Expo this year, It's still kind of wacky to think that she chose to announce her retirement at the Taiwan airport surrounded by foreign media out of all the possible places she could have announced it in. I'm pretty sure the kind of fame she commands, Minami could have done it with a press conference in her native country or for that matter, a Youtube live from the comfort of her home, but again why Taiwan out of the blue? To answer that let's make it clear that the actress had earlier posted on her Twitter & Instagram that she was going to hold an event in the neighboring country, more like a tour that she had earlier concluded in the country, last November, I'm pretty sure at that point nobody had an idea on what was in the works. In a statement given to Taiwanese media, she noted her intention behind the move was that no AV actress has ever made a retirement announcement in Taiwan, and she also felt it: "The Japan I live in is biased against the AV industry, and this feeling is even more obvious when I go overseas, although I don't want to deny the adult industry where I live, but in Japan there is a feeling that everything is over, and overseas and Taiwan fans have always given me gentle support, so although I cried I can still announce this with a smile on my face."

In a career spanning over half a decade, Minami has acted in over 150 JAVs in her career, lifting the FANZA Best Actress award in two consecutive years. Coincidentally, her last movie was with another industry veteran Yua Mikami who retired earlier this year. At ZENRA, we hope she continues to entertain us through different mediums post her retirement and we wish her all the luck for her future endeavours!