ZENRA Exclusive Interview: Mistress Youko

Mistress Youko is a professional Japanese dominatrix based in Tokyo, Japan. She is an independent content creator, and has her own OnlyFans. While Mistress Youko is NOT part of what is considered mainstream JAV, we felt it would be a shame to not try to find out what the 'dark'side of the industry is, especially from a lens of someone not restricted by agencies and bureaucracy. If nothing else, this interview will no doubt be interesting for people who no nothing about BDSM, myself included.  You can find Mistress Youko on Twitter or on her OnlyFans. Thanks to the mutual friend, JAV director Rusher Miyoshi, Mistress Youko and ZENRA were able to become acquainted, and thus how this interview came about. Hope you enjoy!

All further text that is not italicized will be answers from Mistress Youko.

How long have you been involved in the BDSM scene?
I was always interested in the dark side that we usually hide but everybody has.

About 15 years ago or so, I was drawn to a BDSM bar. That world fascinated me. I immediately felt I had to work there and soon after I felt so grateful to get a job there. I could finally be myself. For the first year, my boss mistress showed me the ropes, as it were. She taught me so much about BDSM. From there, I just had to become a professional mistress. I really appreciate her for sharing her wide range of expertise with me, it made me the mistress I am today.
I haven’t looked back, and there hasn’t been a day I didn’t enjoy the kinky world!
After I moved to Tokyo, I belonged to a BDSM bar and a BDSM club. The BDSM bar which I belonged to was very interesting! The owner-mistress strictly ruled over the bar as a “Female worship/Female superior bar”, every client had to be submissive or a female worshipper. Some visitors were kicked out if the top mistress thought they were not sub enough.  I worked there for 5years, after that in 2014, I blossomed into an independent mistress as a free-lance dominatrix.

Mistress Youko and Maika

You speak English well. How did you learn?

When I became independent 7 years ago, I didn’t know a word of English. Even though I didn’t understand English, a foreign friend of mine strongly recommended creating an English page, so I got him to create a simple information page in English. I was surprised at how many foreign subs/ fetishists started visiting me.
It was frustrating to me that my sessions with them were sub-par. It bothered me so much that they weren’t getting the real deal. That really motivated me to learn the language, because I needed to know my clients desires to dominate them properly. After I began learning English, I also noticed that my perspective broadened.
I’ve put serious effort into improving my English when hanging out with English speaking friends, having English sessions, and creating English content. Even though I am in Japan, I try to live my life using English as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy, but the more I learn it the more I’m into dominating subs internationally.
 

Do you think your English ability gives you a leg-up with getting exposure outside of Japan?
Absolutely. Japan is an especially homogeneous country with many isolated and old-fashioned people. Even in the [REDACTED] world of BDSM, it is still uncommon to look beyond our borders. Conservatism can be found in the strangest places!
English has opened doors for me. I’ve had opportunities  and precious experiences that I couldn’t have had if I only spoke Japanese.

I feel especially happy when I travel abroad to meet my foreign subs, visit foreign BDSM dungeons, participate in fetish events, and meet new foreign people abroad.

Do you have many foreign fans?  What percent of your clientele are foreigners?
Well it’s all up in the air now thanks to COVID. Before that, it was 60:40 foreigners to Japanese for my sessions. My twitter followers are 80% foreigners and only 20% Japanese though. But now with travel restrictions, I’ve been creating BDSM/fetish content for the world in English and Japanese. It’s especially for my foreign fans who can’t see me in person.
I still have regular sessions with Japanese or foreigners who live in Japan. Or those who get creative.

You mentioned before how you’ll have an English-speaking slave help you out with the interview.  Can you expand on this type of relationship?
If a sub is reliable, faithful, and is begging to help me, I may give them the chance to be closer, for instance with English or life advice because they are usually much older than me.
Two of my Japanese private slaves don’t have sexual contact with me. I have trained them to receive pleasure by serving me. They are happy to be exploited! They’ve helped me out a lot. It may not be what people imagine, but in a BDSM relationship I think having mutual respect is very important.
 

What is your view on mosaic censorship in JAV?  I notice you use some mosaic on your OnlyFans movies (at least the ones on Twitter).
It definitely annoys me. It’s total bullshit. I don’t understand why we have to pixelate our sexual organs, all animals have them! Also, I know how much work and how time consuming it is to pixelate, because I edit my clips by myself.  I’d honestly rather spend that time relaxing.

Looking back, I didn’t have a proper sex education when I was a kid because Japan didn’t have a great sex education system. Even though we were all born thanks to people having sex, they still strongly think that sexual activity is shameful and a big [REDACTED] in Japan.  I assume this Japanese culture plays a role in mosaic censorship too.  Personally, I think if we didn’t need to think of sex as a shameful act or of sexual organs as forbidden to see, we could enjoy our sex life more freely, have proper sexual education, and accept many types of sexualities more openly. One silver lining of Japanese pixelation is that it does give people a chance to exercise their imagination and fantasize about what’s hidden.

I have no choice but to pixelate my videos which are available in Japan, that’s why I’ve blocked access from Japan on my OnlyFans, like your website. I can express my attraction more freely on the platform.
 

What is your reasoning for not shaving your armpits?  Did you take inspiration from Kaoru Kuroki?
I hate to say it, but I didn’t really know about Kaoru Kuroki. When I was little, I struggled to love my body. I didn’t like my body hair or my body odor. But when I started working in the BDSM bar, I saw so many people with a variety of charms and beauty. They made me realize that beauty and sexual attraction are in the eye of the beholder. Also, if I felt ashamed of my body, who would worship me and my body as a dominatrix? Since then, I’ve started loving and accepting my body and what makes me unique. Also, that made me realize that a weakness can become a strength. 
I haven’t shaved my armpits for over a decade now and I truly adore my armpit hair and the scent. My hairy armpits draw a lot of new clients too, not only submissive men, sometimes people who are not sub but they have strong hairy armpit fetish/body odor fetish. The more I meet them, the stronger I believe that my body, gaze, words, scent, and existence have more power to dominate and mesmerize men.

Would you say platforms like OnlyFans have made it easier to connect with a foreign audience?  From what I hear XCream is not very popular with foreigners (outdated interface).
I’m blocking access from Japan on OFs, so I only connect to foreign fans there. And yes, it makes it easier to connect with my fans. We can communicate through DM, even text dominating is possible.
It’s also sustainable. I used to use Instagram a lot but my account often got banned without warning. If I keep in touch with a sub on Instagram, I can suddenly lose contact with them.

I really appreciate the recent online environment where we have a variety of options to express ourselves. However, it’s still hard to find a foreign platform which accepts full toilet content. Full toilet content is one of my favorites and it is popular content.

Regarding XCream, I used to have many clip purchasers on the platform especially from China/Korea, but it has stopped accepting foreign credit cards, so it’s hard for them to purchase clips on the platform. Bitcash is the only option on XCream for now for foreigners. I hope the credit card problem will be solved soon and my foreign fans can purchase my clips easily again.

Natsuki Aoyama, a fellow dominatrix, sometimes directs JAV movies.  Is this something you’d like to try?
For now, I’m not interested in it. I may well do so in the future but I am so busy at present! Currently I only want to create content that I’m into myself. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve become independent.
However, I’ve been collaborating with other girls in the Japanese fetish scene recently, but only those who I feel have the right vibe. Sometimes I have a magical chemistry with another girl, so I’d like to film more content with girls. Also, I’m strongly interested in collaborating with foreign mistresses or girls. Natalie Mars - a famous trans porn actress who is based in the US - and I have promised to do a shoot together, I’m really looking forward to it.


How has COVID affected your profession?  When/if you do in person sessions, are you taking extra precautions?
As I wrote before, I used to see a lot of foreign clients but they can’t come to Japan now, so the number of foreign clients is considerably reduced due to Covid.
I care for myself by taking all the precautions required by the government, including washing my hands many times a day as well as sanitizing all equipment and keeping healthy.  As far as my clients are concerned, I request them to do the same but, in the end, I trust them.


Speaking of sessions, what is the normal flow for one?  Are there things that are normally OK in delivery health that are off limits for you?
I receive a session booking email, I only reply to genuine emails. After we discuss the session date and time, we meet up in a city or in a hotel room. Having a play room or a BDSM dungeon is illegal in Japan, so we can only have a session in a love hotel or a normal hotel. Also, we need to get permission from the police for sex work in Japan. I have this permission.  Before I start a session, I always ask my client about their fantasies, fetishisms, and hard limits as well as a safe word.

Normal Japanese delivery sex services offer kissing/a girl licking a client’s body and blow jobs, but I don’t do any of this because slaves don’t deserve it. I only do what I feel comfortable with and what is acceptable under My FemDom rules. 

Piracy is, of course, a huge issue in every industry. What do you think is the best way to tackle the issue? Do you think there are double standards between the expectation of social norms between Japanese and foreigners, i.e. -> expecting foreigners to pirate?

On XCream, they automatically put a DRM copyright guard on videos. It might help tackle some piracy problems at least. But I feel it’s hard to prevent it completely, it’s like whack-a-mole. When my foreign slaves find pirated content of mine, they always report it and try to have it deleted but people who do piracy don’t care. My subs and I often find fake pages where a person pretends to be me by using my pics to scam money too. It’s annoying and it’s always happening abroad. I’ve never heard of that kind of thing happening in Japan. I hate to say, but Japanese people do expect such behavior from a certain developing Asian country. Basically, it’s plagiarizing my work, which is wrong, but it does show people appreciate what I do!
If they want to keep utilizing sexy content, they should respect all porn creators and sex workers to sustain the industry. I believe this industry is helping to prevent an increase in sexual crimes too.

Lots of foreigners have gripes about not being able to easily have access to physical items as well as digital media being region blocked. What's your opinion on this, and do you think helping make JAV more accessible across all mediums would be beneficial to the industry?

I definitely think it would help the Japanese industry if physical media were accessible from all over the world.  Also, although there are many JAV, they don’t target foreigners. For instance, they don’t have English subtitles or English purchasing pages. I’d like to help to resolve the problem, so I’m creating my content for both Japanese fans and foreign fans.

Recently, there are many individual porn creators online, like me. The content can be more specialized, covering specific niches, fetishes, or fantasies and can be unique. Also we can get their content from a variety of platforms which are available internationally like IWantClips, Clips4sale, and AVN Stars. I predict such platforms will enable a growth in independent content creators, as well as porn videos which are made by big porn companies.
 

Your costumes look extremely high quality. How much do they usually cost? Are you able to re-use them to get value for them? How many outfits do you have in total?
I usually buy rubber outfits when I visit a foreign country, especially in Europe. They are about 300 EUR each. A rubber catsuit is more expensive. I try to wear high quality outfits as much as I can, because I believe that is appropriate for a high class Domme and it’s what my followers want and deserve. It can be my Domme switch too, sexy fetish outfits make me sexually excited and much more confident. When I put a fetish outfit on, I feel I’m ready to seduce the prey which is mouth-watering!

Also, I always do my photo shoots with a highly skilled photographer for my self branding.

I don’t buy fetish outfits or even lingerie in Japan because it always tends to be “Kawaii.” I haven’t counted how many outfits I have, but it’s a lot. I live surrounded by my fetish outfits, which is so happy for me. I haven’t re-used them but I’d like to find a way to give them a second life. I know that my fans like sweat soaked outfits with my scent, even my dirty laundry.

Is content creation and being a mistress your main job?
Yes, I see content creation as a part of my full time mistress job. I feel so happy doing what I love for a living. BDSM/fetish is the only thing I want to do throughout my entire life.

Are people close to you aware of your adult activities? If so, how did they react?
I haven’t breathed a word of it to them. They don’t have a clue about my tattoos either. In Japan, we tend to respect independence within the home, especially my home. I hope I am nor made into a situation where I have to discuss it with them. Not only for my sake, but I don’t want them to be shocked either. I believe that me living happily without causing trouble or committing crime makes my ancestors happy.

Due to the nature of the question and response, and nue guidelines, I have adjusted the nouns accordingly.

Given your inked appearance, do you have any interesting stories about it?  Such as being asked to leave onsens.
Japanese people are still very judgmental about tattooing or tattooed people. Many people already know that inked people are generally not allowed to enter hot springs or swimming pools in Japan. Recently, we can’t even show ink on public beaches! I was so surprised. Or in fitness clubs! Therefore, when I go to that kind of place I always wear long sleeves and long pants. Honestly, I can’t be relaxed in those circumstances. They need to change this very conservative perspective. That said, I did choose to get tattoos with full knowledge of this problem, so I’d rather go to beaches abroad than complain about it. I still wonder how this county would have welcomed certain foreign visitors if the Tokyo Olympics had been held in Tokyo last year.
 

Is Rusher Miyoshi the most perverted, most kinky man in the JAV industry?
He is definitely kinky and perverted! The first time I had a professional shoot with him, I was very surprised because while I was vomiting, he was masturbating and holding a camcorder!

At the same time, I’m super impressed by how genuine and passionate his kinkiness is. We sometimes have drinks until the morning while we are talking about our perverted fantasies.
Outside of the industry, I sometimes meet serious kinky people who devote their lives to the world through my sessions. They always really impress me as well. I would say Rusher is not only kinky and perverted himself but also the dirtiest and most perverted porn director I have worked with, which is why I strongly admire him, secretly though. I guess the cat would be out of the bag, if he could read English!

Thank you so much!
 

No, thank you! I’m sure everyone will enjoy the interview as much as I did.
 

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