Meet the oldest porn actress in the world

Ogasawara Yuko, 89

Porn actress Ogasawara Yuko is 89 years old.

According to the World Health Organization, “sexual health is not limited to the reproductive age, but affects a person's entire life from adolescence to old age.” The world's oldest AV (Adult Video) actress, Ogasawara Yuko, is living a life that is in line with this statement, and she is 89 years old this year. Let’s see what kind of life the endlessly "healthy" Ogasawara has led.

Ogasawara has been in the business since she was 81.. Her unusual life has even led to a documentary feature by the French national broadcaster.

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What were your parents like?

My father was from Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, and met my mother when he was working for an insurance company in Tokyo after graduating from Waseda University. My mother came from a wealthy family that owned a large raw silk factory, so at first, they were strongly against their marriage because of their different family background.

So they eloped and I was born. That’s quite dramatic, right?

That's amazing considering it was before the war.

I had four siblings. My father was transferred first to Yamagata and then to Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture. He was busy, but he still had five children to feed during the war, and he did his best.

Do you have any memories of the war?

When I was in the second grade of elementary school, the war damage got worse, so we evacuated to a farmhouse four ri (2 km) away from Yamagata City. Since we could not take regular baths, we went to a river instead where the cows also bathed every day. So we had many problems with lice and fleas. We were all lined up in the schoolyard and had DDT poured over our heads. Next, we went to Tsuruoka, where my father had many relatives. There, in August 1945, we listened to the emperor’s radio broadcast announcing Japan’s defeat. I was ten at the time.

After that, we moved to Shizuoka and Chiba when my father was transferred.

Ogasawara as a young girl and when she was newly married. There are also photos of her sending off her uncle who had received a draft notice. Since she was wealthy, it was customary to take photos on special occasions. She still treasures these photos.

What about love in your school days?

In junior high, there was a cool boy I liked, but that was it. I was transferred a lot, and I went to an all-girls school. At my school reunion, someone said to me, "You had a lot of love letters in your shoe locker, right?" but I don't remember it at all. I wasn't that interested in it until high school. After graduating from university, I worked for Konishiroku Photo Industry (now Konica Minolta), and after my father died, I got a job at the same insurance company as my father.

Even now she smokes one pack every two days.

Is that where you met your husband?

My mother told me, “A woman should leave home when she turns 23. If she's older than that, she's left unsold, so find a good man and get married before you turn 23.” Since I was young, my ideal man was tall, smarter than me, good-looking, and good at sports. My mother thought that he had to be someone who would let me be a full-time housewife, and that's not easy to find.

The man who fulfilled that high ideal was my future husband, who was the same age as me. When we met at work, I immediately thought, “This guy is cool.” We were in different departments, but we joined the company at the same time, so we quickly became interested in each other. He was an American football player at Kyoto University, so he was well-built, and since he had a good job, I didn’t have to keep working and was allowed to be a full-time housewife, so our conditions were perfect.

We met in October, got engaged at the end of that year, and got married the following year. It was a quick marriage.

How was the relationship with your husband?

We got married at 23, and in the beginning, we did it twice in the morning and twice at night, four times a day. He came home at 6:30 every day and was always at home on weekends. He drank at home, not outside with his coworkers, and he never brought anyone over from work. He was a good husband. Even after the excitement of being newlyweds died down, we did it every day until he got sick at 57, even when I had my period.

He must be really devoted to you.

He loved his family, but he was very possessive. We always went shopping together on weekends. In the morning, I'd get up earlier than anyone else, put on makeup for him right away, kiss him, and when he went out, I'd wait for him to come back. But I've lived my life thinking that this is what men are like. Try doing that for 35 years. I had no free time and couldn’t even go out with my friends. I'm the type of person who likes to go out, so as soon as my husband died at 59, I felt free and started going out to snack bars [pub-like bars].

My husband stayed in a hospital for one year and 2 months until he died, and I was always with him. The nurses only came to give him IV drips and change his medicine, so we were together all the time, and even though we had separate beds, we slept together.

What kind of life did you live after he died?

With the house and money that my husband left me, I went to karaoke and drank every day for 2 years. At that time, I met a good-looking guy who was in the equestrian club at Chuo University, and we started drinking together. He was also a host, so I told him to quit his job. But he said he needed 1.9 million yen to quit. So I paid for it.

I also paid his tuition and the fees for the horse racing school's trainer course. We went on trips with my money, and I spent about 10 million yen in total over the 14 years we were together.

We didn't have a physical relationship, though. And yet, when I was about 70 years old, I suddenly got a text message saying, “I'm getting married.” After all the care I'd given him, he just ended it like that, so I thought about taking him to court, but he had a proper job and I didn’t want to cause any problems.

Eventually, I was invited to open a bar in Tokyo at the age of 61. I closed it after about seven years, but a female friend who was a regular customer invited me to enter the AV world. This friend of mine often went to adult film sets as a freelance hair and makeup artist. There, someone asked her if she knew “anyone good” and the first person she thought about was me.

I refused at first, but the filmmaker persuaded me to go see the set first. There, I accepted to give it a try if they found me a young good-looking actor, and within a week, they called me again, so I couldn't refuse.

I have two daughters and one son, but what I do with my life doesn’t concern them. I told my son, and he said, “If it helps you stay young, why not?”

So you made your debut in 2016 at the age of 81.

Yes, it was the first time I had sex in 24 years and the first time I had sex with a man other than my husband. And I got wet! Maybe it's because my husband trained me for 35 years (laughs). Maybe my body remembered.

I had to work on getting in shape. I have to sit in a way that normal people don't, and do stretching exercises are essential. I try not to lean on a chair, and I try to keep my back straight when I walk.

All the clothes I wear in my work are my own. I style myself and change makeup according to the content of the film. On the day of shooting, I load my car with my costume and fried chicken and curry that I made for the staff, and head to the set.

I'm often asked what the secret to my energy is. I think it's because I interact with young people and talk to them a lot. Old people shouldn't just sit at home and moan about their ailments.

Don’t you mind what other people think about you?

Appearing in AV and my everyday life are two completely different worlds. Even if someone says something to me, I immediately shut them up.

My married life was my first life, my time as a bar hostess was my second life, and now I’m living a third life as an AV actress.

I’ve been through tough times, so I can be strong-minded. Life happens as it should, and I accept anything.

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