R18.com was once the largest Japanese porn website published in English. Operated by the large DMM conglomerate the R18 site opened up the archives of Japanese adult video and made new releases available to a paying audience. For the first time it was easy to acquire professionally made Japanese porn releases in the West..
The Japanese porn industry is incredibly large and storied. Japanese porn stars have been internationally known at least since the rise of the internet era. Yet most consumption outside of Japan was through unofficial avenues. There was no portal for non-Japanese fans to purchase Japanese porn. So most just relied on bootlegs and pirated works.
Then came R18. The company’s site was incredible easy to navigate. Everything was categorized and clear. Prices were upfront. There were no tricks or hidden fees. You could watch a nearly endless supply of Japanese AV with ease. The site was truly was the first of its kind.
R18 was so successful that it managed to make paying customers out of people who had only viewed free content before. As the music and movie industries have learned people will actually support the arts if they are given a method to do so. Otherwise everything simply goes underground.
R18 shut down
Sadly R18 stopped selling content in late 2022. In early 2023 they shut down the site completely. First R18 posted a notice that they would be closing the site. Next they took down all the content and left a simple message on the domain that read:
Notice of R18.com Closure
R18.com will stop selling content from October 24, 2022. From this date, users will have access to their already purchased content only.
A few months later, from January 31, 2023 the site will be completely closed and accessing purchased content will not be possible. Note that it is possible that the website may close before the due date due to unexpected reasons.
These days the website doesn’t even load. So it seems this stellar website has been lost for good. Even those who downloaded videos from R18 are out of luck. The content was protected by digital rights management protections. So it only loaded on R18’s player.
Thankfully the full library of Japanese pornography is not lost to those of outside of the country. These days there are a few websites like R18.com that make it easy for English speakers to purchase and watch authentic JAV.
Zenra
Zenra is the best source for English speakers to find Japanese porn today. The site hosts more than 1000 Japanese porno movies for members. There are also several free to view videos on the site. New content is added every few days so the library is constantly growing. Zenra carries titles from big studios like ROCKET and SOD right on down to smaller outfits like TOKYO ZENTAI CLUB.
Zenra might not be able to compete in terms of sheer volume. After all R18 had a whopping 200,000 full length videos on offer. But Zenra goes further than R18 in some areas too. First it offers uncensored versions of Japanese porn that were not available on R18. Second Zenra offers Japanese porn with English subtitles. So now you can follow the story when you watch “The Woman Whose Work And Appearance Is Perfect Was Actually Wearing Mismatched Underwear”.
The site launched years ago and has grown continually since. I interviewed the owner of Zenra in 2019. The site is now larger and more prominent.
At this point Zenra has become a sort of beacon for fans of Japanese porn. The site combines new releases with classics. Zenra also releases news about the Japanese porn industry in English. They even covered the demise of R18 on their blog.
Japan HDV
Japan HDV is a modern alternative to R18. With a library featuring nearly a thousand different Japanese AV actresses you are sure to find what you are looking among the thousand plus videos on this site.
Japan HDV contains a lot of uncensored scenes. They also have scenes with English subtitles. So there is a good mix of content. You can find bukkakes, blowjobs, group sex, cuckolding and pretty much anything else that strikes your fancy. If its done in Japanese AV it can be found at Japan HDV.
Widely considered the “industry’s best valued website” the cost of a Japan HDV membership costs as little as $4.95 USD. That membership also gets you access to other Japanese porn sites like Ferame, Hey Milf, and AV Anal. At a lower price than single purchase from the old R18 a membership at Japan HDV is definitely worth the cost.
Unlike most Western based businesses Japan HDV actually has a responsive customer service team. You can email or even call them with any question or concern. An actual human being will respond to you in no time. That alone makes this website a standout in a world of increasing automation.
Caribbeancom
Caribbeancom is probably the longest lived Japanese porn outlet still in existence. Famous for offering uncensored Japanese AV this site has made waves in and outside of Japan. Caribbeancom is hosted outside of Japan. That means they can get around the local requirements to censor all pornography. Or at least that is the idea.
In the past employees of the company and porn stars appearing on the site were actually arrested in Japan. That’s a real travesty of justice. Though the truth is it doesn’t really have much effect on viewers outside of Japan.
To this day we can watch something like 5000 different Japanese porn videos on Caribbeancom. Although the site may look a little old school it is well organized. Movies are broken down into different categories like creampie, lesbian, maid and office lady. Content from famous AV stars like Rei Kitajima can be watched without the annoying mosaic. They even have fetish scenes featuring things like golden showers for true fans.
Paying for a membership to Caribbeancom is a great way to gain access to tons of uncensored Japanese porn. Especially since the price is so fair. Membership includes unlimited streaming and new signups come with free credits for DX Live.
If none of these sites strike your fancy you could always join many others who prefer to simply put up with many ads and stream JAV for free on a site like JAV Guru. The choice is yours.
