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34-426: As of July 2007, DMM had 185 employees and total assets of 16,618,000,000 yen (about $ 166 million). Stockholders' equity was 6,073,000,000 yen (about $ 60 million) and company capital amounted to 45 million yen (about $ 450,000). Sales for the fiscal year ending February 2007 were 28,366,000,000 yen (about $ 283 million) with sales for the 2008 fiscal year extrapolating to about 30 billion yen (about $ 300 million). Hokuto had

68-693: A Japanese adult video group of companies which has its headquarters in the Nakano ward of Tokyo . SOD was founded in December 1995 by Ganari Takahashi , who retired from the company in March 2005 and is currently working in agriculture. The company is one of the largest adult video companies in Japan and is notable for its creative approach to adult videos. In 2009, the company, under president Chie Sugawara (菅原 千恵), had 128 employees (27 male and 101 female) and

102-459: A bungee jump from the platform. Another large-scale production, All Naked Airborne F**k , filmed from a helicopter, proved to be one of his rare failures with the public but Takahashi felt that the video "showed our customers that we weren't afraid to spend the dough on making a good flick". Takahashi retired from SOD at the end of fiscal year 2005 (March) and used the 1 billion yen (about $ 10 million) " golden handshake " he received to purchase

136-568: A capital of 100 million yen (about US$ 1.1 million). For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, SOD had total sales of 14.9 billion yen (about US$ 165 million) and a profit of 670 million yen (about US$ 7.4 million). For 2007 the figures were sales of 13.5 billion yen (about US$ 120 million) and profit of 900 million yen (about US$ 8 million). SOD has been a fast-growing company since its foundation, going from sales of 300 million yen in 1996 to 1.5 billion in 1998 to 4.1 billion in 2000, 7.8 billion in 2003, and 9 billion in 2005. In spite of its rapid growth, it

170-553: A catalog of more than 160,000 DVDs for sale, more than 200,000 adult videos available for rental and more than 130,000 videos for digital download. It also lists information on more than 30,000 AV actresses and compiles an annual list of the top 100 ranked actresses in sales from its site. In addition, the DMM site provides facilities for a large number of AV actress blogs. DMM also provided an English-language version, en.dmm.co.jp, for pay-per-view or monthly subscription downloads only, but it

204-578: A driver for the Sagawa Express Co. where he made himself into the best driver in the company. In 1981 he joined the TV production company IVS where he worked for Terry Itoh ( ja:テリー伊藤 ) directing shows such as Tensai Takeshi no Genki ga deru TV (Genius Takeshi's Exhilarating TV Show). He also later worked at a Chinese restaurant. Takahashi used 10 million Yen (about $ 100,000) borrowed from Itoh to invest in two companies, one in golf-related goods and

238-410: A farm in suburban Tokyo which would provide fresh produce to be served at his nearby restaurant. He traveled to farms all over Japan to learn the business, and noted: "Everybody who works for me is an idiot, who keeps saying how things can't be done instead of using their heads and trying to work out the ways things can be done". Takahashi started his new company "National Farm" ( 国立ファーム ) in 2006 with

272-663: A period of rapid growth from the time of its foundation with sales going from 5.1 billion yen (about $ 50 million) in the fiscal year 2001 to 6.2 billion yen ($ 60 million) in 2002, 9.8 billion yen ($ 100 million) in 2003 and 12.3 billion yen ($ 125 million) in 2004. Under CEO Hiroyuki Shimazaki (島崎啓之), DMM caught up with and surpassed its chief rival in AV sales, the Soft On Demand (SOD) group. Some companies which had formerly been part of SOD, including Dogma , Hajime-Kikaku and Aroma Planning, left SOD to become clients of DMM. According to

306-478: A significant shift towards producing more virtual reality content in recent years, and even went as far as to build an adult theme park in the heart of Tokyo , also known as SOD Land. In addition to the SOD label, SOD Create has produced videos under the following labels: Directors who have worked at SOD include: Many well-known AV Idols have performed for SOD: Important thematic series at SOD include: For

340-411: A special jury award at the 2006 AV Open . By 2003, SOD was releasing more than 1,000 adult video titles per year. SOD also works with a number of companies in other areas and has thus become a group of companies mainly in the area of producing adult videos. Besides producing videos the company also produces condoms and lubricant lotions, PC games (aka hentai games ), and adult anime . Outside of

374-555: Is a list of the companies that were part of the SOD group as of June 2010. Below are a list of companies that have left the SOD group: Ganari Takahashi Ganari Takahashi ( 高橋がなり , Takahashi Ganari ) is a Japanese adult video director and company founder. He founded Soft On Demand (SOD), one of the largest adult video conglomerates in Japan. Takahashi was born in Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan in 1958. After graduating from high school he went to work as

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408-666: Is a major distributor of videos in Japan for both sales and rental, and also provides pay-per-view and downloadable digital adult content via its website dmm.co.jp. The director of DMM is Tatsuya Matsue (松栄立也) and the company has a capital of ¥30 million (about $ 300,000). The DMM website was opened in July 1998 and in September 2011 was ranked #30 in traffic for Japanese sites, #177 in Hong Kong, and #422 globally, with an audience slanted towards middle-aged men. As of September 2011, DMM had

442-568: Is known as the Nihon Ethics of Video Association (NEVA). In response, SOD in 1996 began its own regulatory group known as the Media Ethics Association ( メディア倫理協会 , Media Rinri Kyōkai , usually abbreviated as Medirin (メディ倫)) . Medirin was composed of "indie" companies, independent AV studios which explored porn themes forbidden by NEVA rules and which used a smaller-pixeled censorship mosaic for their videos. Medirin

476-485: Is ridiculous. There's nothing really sordid about it" and "different to anything else in the porno world". Some of its most notable approaches have been quiz shows that tested the knowledge of AV (adult video) actresses with challenging questions, CFNM ( clothed female, naked male ) videos that have women studying a man's penis (the "Uniforms, Undies and All Naked School Multi-Story" series), and plots where women are put under hypnosis. There have also been nude sports series,

510-545: The Shougakukan Big Comic Original manga series Ajisai no Uta (Song of Hydrangea) as an original video animation (OAV), Takahashi said he started the project because he and his wife both enjoyed the manga and he wanted to make something his 6-year-old son could enjoy. Along with AV actresses Nao Oikawa and Mariko Kawana , actor Taka Kato , and director Goro Tameike , Takahashi was interviewed for Misato Nakayama's study of professionals in

544-416: The AV business for the 2007 AV Open contest. His entry, Making AV Debut Without Being Nude ( 絶対にAVには出ません！というグラビアアイドルを「君なら裸にならないAV女優になれる」と口説いてAVに出てもらいました ) [OPEN-0719] starring Mao Hirai, was made under the label of his first restaurant "Kunitachi Farm". The video finished in 5th place in the competition. Takahashi is married and has children. When SOD announced plans in 2004 to produce an adaptation of

578-401: The DMM group included 20 studios producing gravure (non-nude) videos and another 19 units involved in adult toys. More than 150 companies were in the business of producing adult videos in various formats and genres. Below is a list of some of the main companies involved in AV production. Soft On Demand Soft On Demand ( ソフト・オン・デマンド , Sofuto On Demando ) , often known as SOD , is

612-554: The Japanese market research company Teikoku Databank, after this period of rapid growth, there was a sharp drop in sales at DMM, probably due to competition from internet porn sites. From a high of 32.4 billion yen (about $ 330 million) for the fiscal year 2008, income dropped to less than half that amount for the 2010 fiscal year and rival SOD once again became the largest adult conglomerate in Japan. The DMM Corporation (株式会社デジタルメディアマート or "Digital Media Mart"), incorporated November 1999,

646-602: The SOD group. In 2006, the company also sponsored, along with Tokyo Sports , a wider award contest called the AV Open . Sixteen companies competed for a total prize pool of 25 Million yen with the winner being decided by sales of the videos entered in the contest. In the second year of the AV Open competition, 19 companies participated and the SOD entry won by a large margin. But it was subsequently discovered that SOD had used company funds to buy thousands of their own videos. SOD

680-489: The adult area, SOD is also involved in producing softcore and genre movies, idol videos and TV programs. Among their mainstream movies, some have featured SOD AV actresses including the 2008 horror film Yoroi Samurai Zombie with Nana Natsume and the 2006 comedy-drama Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari , directed by Tatsuya Egawa and featuring Sasa Handa. A third entry was the 2014 science fiction film Danger Dolls , with SOD star Mana Sakura making an appearance. In 2004,

714-682: The company announced plans to produce an adaptation of the Shougakukan Big Comic Original manga series Ajisai no Uta ( Song of Hydrangea ) as an original video animation (OVA) for a general audience. Volume 1 of the series was released in August 2004 and the fourth and final volume came out in December of that year. Internally, SOD outsources work to its individual units, original video production being done by SOD Create Inc. ( SODクリエイト株式会社 ) headed by Daisuke Kasai ( 葛西　大祐 ). This affiliate, founded in March 1999,

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748-405: The company had a staff of 180 and was generating profits of 1.5 billion yen (about $ 15 million) on sales from 1000 titles a year. Takahashi's plan was to increase market share and to absorb or eliminate competition from the hundreds of other AV manufacturers by producing high quality products at lower prices ("We want to spend money making good movies that we can sell cheaply") and by removing some of

782-607: The goal of trying to improve farm products saying that years of government subsidies had discouraged farmers - "The farmers are not rewarded for producing better agricultural products". Takahashi's solution was to support new farming techniques and to encourage farmers by opening a series of restaurants buying fresh vegetable produce directly from farmers. A second restaurant was opened in the Roppongi district of Tokyo in November 2008. After leaving SOD, he made one more foray into

816-549: The largest English library of Japanese adult videos on the Internet. With over 200,000 movies available for VOD via streaming and downloading, it far surpasses other rival JAV sites. On October 24, 2022, the site ended selling content, and announced that it would close down (except for enquiries from customers with R18 member accounts) on January 31, 2023. From January 31, 2023, customers with R18 member accounts were no longer able to access videos that they had already "purchased", and

850-481: The other in the apparel business, but both failed. About that time, an AV company with about 10 employees was on the edge of bankruptcy and Takahashi with help from Itoh was able to use the company as the basis for the foundation of Soft On Demand (SOD) in 1995. Takahashi was able to grow SOD into a major company, from sales of 300 million yen (about $ 3 million) in 1996 to 6 billion yen (about $ 60 million) by 2001 and to 9 billion yen (about $ 90 million) in 2005. In 2003

884-480: The past several years, SOD has run a campaign to bring attention to the rise of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in Japan and to increase the use of condoms. The program, called STOP! STD, has used former SOD star Nana Natsume as a spokeswoman. From 2002 to 2006, the company held the SOD AV Awards , an annual ceremony to present a series of awards to honor actresses, directors, and staff of companies in

918-551: The senior citizen epic "All Naked Nursing Home for the Elderly", Company Sex Parties, Summer Festivals (a festival focused on penises and not to be confused with the actual Shinto festival dealing with fertility) and Sex Camps. One of their releases from May 2006, 500 Person Sex ( 500人SEX ), features 250 couples having sex (apart from each other but in the same room) in an impressive synchronized way, and thus got some raised eyebrows from occidental adult sites. The video received

952-573: The site was shut down completely, as previously announced that it would be, on May 12, 2023. Upon the demise of the SOD-sponsored AV Open contest in 2007 owing to fraud, DMM started a new competition in 2008, the AV Grand Prix . Winners were determined by sales and by fan voting at the DMM website. The 2008 AV Grand Prix was a success with 77 studios competing and an even larger 2009 contest began in late 2008. As of mid-2010,

986-440: The stigma attached to adult products ("I want people to know that there's nothing dirty about adult videos"). In addition, Takahashi, who has been described as "strong-willed" and "out-spoken", made SOD into one of the most creative, innovative and outrageous AV companies in Japan. One of his stunts involved using a crane to raise couples on a transparent platform 20 meters into the air where they engaged in sex which climaxed in

1020-520: Was discontinued on 29 April 2013. In December 2014, DMM partnered with Nutaku with the objective of marketing and publishing games to the western market. Nutaku is currently the sole distributor of DMM games outside Japan. Several DMM games have been translated in English and released on Nutaku: For additional information see Nutaku#Game release timeline . In May 2013, DMM.com released its English-language adult website R18.com, which grew to become

1054-472: Was disqualified and the discredited AV Open was replaced the next year by the Hokuto Corporation sponsored AV Grand Prix . The Japanese AV industry has several different "ethics groups", which are voluntary organizations to assure adherence with Japanese pornography laws and to regulate content and copyrights. The earliest of these organizations was founded by the major AV companies in 1972 and

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1088-402: Was originally called Hamlet ( ハムレット , Hamuretto ) and changed its name to SOD Create in 2001. Package design for SOD is the realm of another division, SOD Artworks (SODアートワークス), founded in 2004, and under the leadership of Yoshino Toshimitsu ( 吉野敏充 ). Since its inception, SOD has produced over 7,500 movies starring some of the most prominent JAV actresses . The company has also made

1122-436: Was overtaken in sales volume in the early 2000s by rival AV producer Hokuto , which also absorbed some of SOD's former companies. After peaking in 2008, Hokuto sales have plunged while annual income at SOD has stayed level at about 15 billion yen (about US$ 150 million) for the 2008-2010 period allowing it to become once again the largest adult video group in Japan. One director has described their product this way: "SOD's porno

1156-563: Was re-organized in 2005 to form the Content Soft Association (CSA) ( コンテンツ・ソフト協同組合 , Kontentsu Sofuto Kyōdō Kumiai ) to review and regulate adult videos and adult game software. The CSA had more than 65 members among AV producers comprising most of the SOD group and some other major companies. In November 2010, the organization was dissolved and the Ethics Organization of Video took its place. This

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