Kaho Shibuya, former JAV actress, was recently featured on the Trash Taste Podcast, a podcast featuring some anime YouTubers, and with part of the conversation being about her career as a JAV actress I thought it would be a fun one to write a blog post about. Some of this we already know from other interviews, in fact one of the hosts, Joey (better known as The Anime Man), already interviewed Kaho once. The podcast isn't explicitly about JAV but in a two hour podcast with a former JAV actress of course some porn related topics would come up. There were a decent number of interesting talking points, enough to write something about it. 

If you don't know who Kaho is she was a JAV actress active from 2014-2018. She was known primarily for her amazing, natural, J-cup tits. She dabbled in quite a few genres (though no uncensored) and was quite well known for her ability to squirt like no tomorrow.

Kaho's Origins

Kaho decided to go into porn because she loves new experiences and thought it would be an interesting one. She applied to a job known as an adult goods monitor, which is a fancy way of saying she did product testing for sex toys. As Kaho pointed out, those companies are actually JAV management companies and use this as a way to get actresses into the industry. If it sounds a bit sketchy it definitely is, and Kaho even pointed out that things are getting better now. That much we fans already know since there have been a lot more crackdowns in recent years as compared to 2014 when Kaho debuted. In fact, the more recent takedowns studios have been doing is part of an effort from them to provide a more clean image compared to the sketchy image they've had for years. Anyway, while she did that she wanted to see how many offers she could get and when she got some decent offers she was all over it.

Kaho also pointed out that actresses often market themselves as younger when they enter the industry. She explicitly mentioned that they're all of age but that anyone saying they're 18 is really more like 20. She also mentioned it with the context that she didn't really do it herself since she was clearly a bit older at the time (Kaho debuted at the age of 23). She never explicitly mentioned her age and always tries to avoid mentioning it, so there's always the chance Kaho is a little bit older than she claims to be. Her age puts her as 29 right now but she may actually be in her 30s given she says everyone's really a couple years older.

Another thing, as if it isn't already obvious, is that Kaho Shibuya is fluent in English. She started back with watching wrestling and then turned that into a job as a baseball reporter. English has been a huge asset for her as she's been able to attract a lot of attention internationally as a result. She didn't always get the opportunity to do so in the JAV industry but there are a handful of videos where she does use it. Of note there are two interracial videos that are almost entirely in English, so if you're itching to follow along I would encourage you to check them out. There's also the one below where she's a naughty English tutor.

About Her Time In The Industry

Early on in a JAV career the industry tries to sell innocence. It makes a lot of sense because it's so easy to sell that when you're new compared to being a veteran. They'll market them as only have had sex a couple of times, something Kaho laughed about being not true for her. When an actress is further on in their career they can do different roles, so she didn't get to do more dominant things or MILF roles or anything like that until she was past the newcomer phase. That definitely mirrors what you see in videos, especially among debuts for major exclusive studios like S1. They always point them out as a fresh face and say "first time doing X" in the title as part of the main grab for them, something I honestly hate seeing. I try to avoid debut videos or really the first few because I know it's all just going to be some generic garbage. That being said, I know it makes sense because it's easy to sell and the only time you can do it.

She also mentioned that scripts are generally rare, especially for newcomers. They like to push the innocence theme so the less acted it seems the better it is for that. Even when they do get scripts Kaho claims a lot of them just give you a rough idea of what the scene is supposed to be. She said some would just list out positions like fellatio, 69, etc. and then list a scene duration as 45 minutes. I find it interesting that they give so much flexibility to the actor/actress to do things and don't have a lot more direction. Perhaps the director just verbally gives them that direction? I'm actually inclined to believe they don't because I find a lot of videos have the actress missing the mark in terms of how I expect their performance to be.

One interesting thing was about the ability to say vulgar or dirty words early on. Kaho always wanted to do so but because she was new and they were pushing the innocence theme she wasn't allowed to do anything like that. Even more interesting was when Kaho revealed she would read ecchi manga (read: hentai manga) to figure out what kind of dirty words to use. It was pretty funny listening to her say that and she even followed it up with "ecchi is god" which I would totally believe coming from her.

One thing that you get to see listening to Kaho is how funny she can be. She's such a lovable person with how funny, bubbly, and down to earth she is. She talked about how she would make puns and got asked not to because she kept making people laugh. I don't want to butcher it so I'll just link to the podcast with a timestamp so you can hear it from her directly. She also points out that she would watch her own videos for "research purposes" and that it was the only porn she would watch; she otherwise always stuck to 2D porn.

Early on she was put into an idol group. It's actually quite common for actresses to join an idol group and do music videos. It's just an extra thing for them to market the actresses and sell, and we all know they love their idol groups. Kaho, being a freelancer, never found herself having the time to do it, and wound up only being in an idol group for two months. We all kind of know the management groups put them into idool groups but it was interesting to hear her say she became too busy and they just let her leave.

About The Industry

Kaho says that actresses pretend not to be in relationships for the fans as fans don't like actresses being in relationships. I think a lot of fans have strong feelings about an actress being on the market so they prefer them to be single. We know this to be true in many other industries as well especially the K-Pop industry. I guess there's something about them being available that makes watching their videos more enjoyable. I can really only think of one actress that has personally always claimed to be in a relationship and that's Julia. Kaho herself says she was single for the main reason that she doesn't understand how others could cope with it. It has always been a strong debate among people about whether they could date a pornstar. Some people think nothing of it or are happy to date someone so attractive and good at sex, meanwhile others accept that they would get too jealous. Kaho even points out that when actors and actresses dated each other they would often argue a lot. I don't know what others think but Kaho seems like a catch if you ask me.

Another thing she claimed was that she wasn't close to male actors. It seems that female actresses are always really good friends, I know Kaho is friends with Hitomi and Anri Okita, and looking at several other actresses they're always together. In fact, Yui Hatano and Hibiki Otsuki are inseparable and it seems like the majority of friends actresses have are other actresses, at least if social media is any indicator. I find it unsurprising, if you work together or work in a similar industry it seems natural to become friends. Anyway, speaking about the male talent she did mention that the actors were much nicer and sucked up to them because they wanted the actresses to request them. Male talent works with no management and are all freelance (and making less money) so women were free to request them. That was something I hadn't ever realized, though to be fair I never really thought about how guys got selected for videos. Anyway, I'm sure certain themes would require certain male talent (you can't have someone looking 25 playing a grandfather and likewise can't have someone who's 50 playing a student) but it seems like actresses had a lot of say here. I know people have speculated about actresses working frequently with certain actors so it's nice to see some confirmation that there is some truth to that. Don't feel bad for actors though, they're often overworked because there's so few of them in the industry. They might not get to do it with the likes of Kaho Shibuya all the time but they seem to be very busy these days.

Speaking of actors, Kaho was asked about old unattractive actors and why they show up in porn. Kaho gave a really honest answer that the industry needs them. Not everyone is attractive and those people end up being relatable. It's also not even from Kaho that's from the directors. It makes a lot of sense to me, more average looking dudes makes the average guy feel better about themselves and their chances. It's probably also the same about guys in porn that are heavier or have smaller cocks. Hell, it's probably why there's a lot of videos about otakus and virgins; whatever you can do to relate to the people consuming videos. Anyway, back on the topic of unattractive guys, Kaho also mentioned she didn't dislike working with them. I remember a tweet during her days as an actress where she mentioned she loved all cocks of all sizes, and even seeing her old Instagram live stories she mentioned once she had sex with a guy in his 50s (in her private life). They didn't delve too far into the topic but I would think most actresses are open about guys like this. I know a lot of actresses struggle with acceptance and feel as though they are damaged goods, so I would expect that to make them just generally be more open to all sorts of guys.

Another big thing is about fake cum, which she once again pointed out is done using Asabanana, milk, and egg whites. Asabanana is actually a drink in Japan, which literally translates to morning banana. Oh, and if you didn't already know, yes, most of the time cum is fake, especially during creampies. While there are plenty of reasons for fake cum, the main one Kaho pointed out was stamina. Guys simply can't cum all day every day so if a guy doesn't have a real cumshot during a scene they can use him again. This tends to happen a lot in drama videos where they need to keep the same guy for each scene. Given that they're using milk and eggs it's actually standard practice to ask a girl if they have any food allergies; thankfully Kaho does not. When it comes time they just shoot it up in there with a syringe and call it a day. If you've never noticed it before, watch some recent creampie video and look for them cutting away close to the creampie. They often cut within a minute or so of the finale, which they can insert the fake cum at that point, and then just quickly wrap it up afterwards before it leaks all out. I certainly find real creampies more enjoyable but I would rather have fake creampies compared to no creampies. Also makes you feel a little better for the guys if the actress ever makes them eat them out afterward. That also means that guys often don't get to cum in scenes, though I find that has been changing recently. Especially with VR gaining a lot of popularity, it's easy to get the guy to cum and then grab another guy for the next scene, which is something Kaho pointed out they can do in POV videos.

About Her Book

If you don't know Kaho Shibuya has been writing a book for some time. The book is a bit of an autobiography about her time in the JAV industry and also a behind the scenes look at it. It's not quite an expose but she does claim it will have a lot of information about the industry as she came to know it. Again, the book is about her and from her perspective so it's planned to be a bit of a mix of the two. One thing she pointed out is that she's going to include the legal papers showing how much she was paid so we'll finally get some legitimate numbers about how much actresses make. In Kaho's prime she was one of the top 100 actresses in the industry so it'll be great to really see how the industry is doing, even if her papers are a few years old now. I'll also be particularly interested to see how much she made for various things as we often see debuts making more money as well as increased pay for things like real creampies. You would think that popular veterans like Yui Hatano would get paid the most but if you look at sales we often see debut actresses performing the best. Japanese men apparently love seeing shy and embarrassed actresses according to former actress Emiri Okazaki and that's exactly what you get with debuts. In fact, back in 2015 one of the best selling videos was Yua Mikami's debut entitled Princess Peach.

Of particular note Kaho mentioned she hopes her book gets translated to English. I had always assumed it would and that she would translate it, and it got me confused as to why she wasn't going to. I dropped into her Twitch and asked chat, and one of the members was kind enough to let me know it was because of the amount of time it would take. I guess Kaho is quite busy with her normal duties plus Twitch streaming. They also mentioned she didn't want to get any of it wrong but if there's anyone who should translate it, it would be her. Not only can she ensure that she translates it the way the author intended but Kaho is also fluent in English, receiving a perfect score on her Japanese English proficiency test! Either way, if not an official translation maybe someone will take up the mantle and provide some unofficial translations of parts of it.

The book is actually set to release on Amazon in just a few days. Unfortunately it's still only in Japanese so if you're not fluent like most of us, you'll have to wait along side us. Who knows, maybe a fan will translate it or something. I'm at least excited that it is finally coming out. If you're interested in the book or supporting her, you can pre-order it on Amazon.

Kaho Now

These days Kaho has moved past being an adult actress. The most she does now is some sexy cosplay, which given her physique I don't blame her. Aside from cosplaying she's also a writer, makes YouTube videos (she is contracted for it, not her own channel) and streams very regularly on Twitch. She primarily streams playing retro games including Sailor Moon for the SNES and Mister Mosquito for the PS2, though she has played a ton of games on it. She's also even done some cosplay stuff on it. Her streams are also primarily in English so I encourage fans of hers to go check it out. It's not the best Twitch stream you'll ever see but Kaho has a great personality and has a really down to earth and casual stream going.

Kaho has been doing a lot of cosplay, going to lots of conventions abroad. It's really easy for her to get work as an industry insider abroad. While I'm sure her anime knowledge and skills as a cosplayer are big reasons why, I can't help but think her other experiences as an actress, physical assets, and ability to speak English are more prominent. I won't complain too much either way, anything Kaho is great. She did mention that she wants to only go as far as sexy cosplay, nothing nude and definitely no OnlyFans. I think she was definitely alluding to the increasing number of actresses taking up OnlyFans (including some of her friends). Hitomi, Anri Okita, and Maria Nagai all have OnlyFans and are doing well, especially Maria Nagai who has been extremely risky on hers.

Kaho has mentioned a strong desire to want to move past her JAV days. She doesn't regret doing it nor is she ashamed of it. I was really happy to hear that because a lot of actresses in recent years have started delisting videos. The most prominent is Ai Uehara who delisted hundreds of her videos. Kaho at least had the business intelligence to recognize her name is very important to her success. It would be extremely difficult for her to start over with a new identity, and even if it means people will still draw the connection to her past work I think the instant success she's had easily outweighs it. I doubt she can ever move past it completely but fans enjoy her enough as a person that they can move past it. Her chat on Twitch is pretty wholesome, especially for Twitch chat standards, so she's definitely moving past it (though who knows where her book will take her).

If you're a fan of Kaho I highly recommend checking out her works. She has a lot of great videos and I've linked a few throughout. Kaho is one of my favourite actresses and I highly recommend her. Also don't forget to check out her Twitch which is fun. Don't expect anything sexual on it and don't be that guy, but I've personally been enjoying it and I'm sure others will too.