The former porn star and now manga artist Nayuka Mine has interviewed Nanami Kawakami, the actor who this year set up her own agency and announced her upcoming retirement from adult video.
In the article published in Spa!, the two share stories about how they got into porn, both coming from rural parts of Japan and going to not especially reputable high schools before they were scouted. Inevitably, as provincials, they were awed by the idea of moving to be the big city and earning big bucks as porn stars.
In Kawakami’s case, it was in Fukui Prefecture. Though she says her first release didn’t sell because of her lack of breasts, she eventually became one of the biggest stars in the industry.
Mine worked in porn from 2005 to 2009, and has since established herself as a popular manga artist and essayist. Now in her late thirties, she is married and a mother.
Still just 28, Kawakami debuted in 2012 and is set to retire in January 2022. She has also started to develop a career as a regular actor, of sorts, with a memorable (and nude) recent appearance in The Naked Director. She had actually wanted to retire after five years in the industry but she hadn’t earned enough money and had trouble with her agency, which she says treated her badly. Initially, her income had been just a bit better than a regular office lady’s but continued to decline, even though she was a star headlining releases that sold well.
The truth behind Kawakami’s ten-year run in porn was partly down to necessity: because her agency was taking so much of her fees, she had to keep working to save enough to finally retire. But now she’s in charge of her destiny and calling the shots when it comes to her projects.
