Japanese Intimacy Coordinator Makes Love Scenes Sexy But Safe

If an actress is pressured to get naked for a role or an actor wants to have a say in how much fake sex he is willing to do on camera, who is the person they confide in? Chiho Asada is that person in Japan.

Photo Insert: Some of the ways Asada advocates for the cast are by requiring erotic scenes to be shot on a closed set with as few crew as possible, making sure actors are given modesty patches to cover their private parts, and ensuring there are no surprises while the camera is rolling.

As one of only two certified intimacy coordinators in the country, her job is to create a safe plan for scenes that involve nudity, kissing, touching, simulated sex or sexual content, on screen and in theater, Kyodo News reported.

"It's still a new job title that many Japanese have not heard of. But I want intimacy coordinators to be as normalized as stunt choreographers," Asada told Kyodo News in a recent interview.

"Japanese people are not used to communicating directly so it's hard to try and get them to share and accept boundaries. But many actors have experienced some level of stress because they were afraid of listening to their feelings about what they are comfortable doing with their bodies."

Asada often facilitates difficult conversations between the cast, director, wardrobe, and production. Some of the ways she advocates for the cast are by requiring erotic scenes to be shot on a closed set with as few crew as possible, making sure actors are given modesty patches to cover their private parts, and ensuring there are no surprises while the camera is rolling, Mainichi Japan also reported.

An intimacy coordinator is "an advocate, a liaison between actors and production...in regard to nudity and simulated sex," as defined by SAG-AFTRA, the largest actors union in the United States.

Though the concept is new to Japan and there are no institutions that provide training or certification programs, the #MeToo movement ushered in the role of the intimacy coordinator on Hollywood film sets.

American cable television network HBO became the first to hire an intimacy coordinator for sex scenes in its 2018 film, "The Deuce." In Japan, Netflix released its first show crediting an intimacy coordinator, Ride or Die, in 2021.

That is when Japan got its first certified intimacy coordinator, Asada, fresh from an intense 75-plus-hour training course with Intimacy Professionals Association.

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