I imagine some members have used escort services or dating apps to some extent, but have there never been any reports of problems involving STD infections? To maintain the quality of the service, shouldn’t the registration and renewal process be made stricter—perhaps even requiring health screenings?

Column writer Saito here♪ As long as there’s a relationship between a man and a woman, there are no absolute guarantees, just as you say. Even testing has different levels of thoroughness, so nothing is ever 100% certain. And depending on whether tests are done once a month or once a year, I don’t think they can completely prevent anything anyway. Fortunately, I’ve never contracted anything, but I do take a 30-item test that costs around ¥70,000. Even so, I still feel anxious. That anxiety comes partly from the fear of being infected, but more than anything, I don’t want to cause harm to a woman. Unfortunately, there are all kinds of women out there. To put it the other way around, although some people may be surprisingly wary of them, AV actresses are safer in a sense. Since it could affect their careers, they take more precautions than ordinary people. As for testing, there’s no way to know how reliable the results submitted anonymously really are. There are even people who try to register under fake names, so making testing mandatory would also make it difficult to determine who is responsible if something goes wrong. And since this isn’t prostitution facilitation, the clubs themselves describe it as free love. So I sometimes wonder whether it ultimately comes down to personal responsibility.

I’m Kida, the representative, and I’ll answer this. We have received a small number of reports of STD-related issues, involving relatively mild infections such as chlamydia. I agree with the person asking this question. I would like to make testing mandatory. I believe it’s only reasonable to ensure a basic level of safety—namely, that at the time of joining or renewal, not a single member is carrying HIV or syphilis. These days, people who use or work in the adult entertainment industry are actually protected to some extent through regular testing. The real risk lies with people using dating platforms. Reports on syphilis infections also note a particularly significant increase among women in their 20s, which I believe is connected to the spread of dating platforms. That said, there are various opinions both within and outside the company, so as a first step, we launched Partners Check. Before making testing mandatory, we want to work toward increasing the number of people who voluntarily get tested and promote understanding of the importance of doing so.