ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the challenges posed to Biderin when a new self-regulatory agency, Medirin, emerged in the Japanese adult video (AV) industry in 1997. According to Turner’s schema, every social drama goes through four phases: breach, crisis, redressive action, and reintegration. More importantly, the reactionary atmosphere resulting from the founding of Medirin further motivated industry people to establish many other self-regulatory bodies or even dodge inspection. Biderin’s sudden and radical relaxation of its inspection criteria was no doubt an event that marked the arrival of a completely different mode of circulation as well as consumption of Japanese AVs. By the end of 1987, the rental video market in Japan had exceeded 20,000 outlets, with an average growth rate of one store per day throughout the country. The sudden increase in rental shops intensified the competition among rental stores, giving rise to a sales war.
