JAPAN – Despite the misleading title on The Huffington Post which says that Shigeo Tokuda, 74, currently the oldest porn star in Japan, is retiring, the article they link to says no such thing. In fact, it says exactly the opposite!

“But my job makes me keep alive,” he says, adding he plans to keep going at least till he hits 80 years old.” (Note to aggregation editors: read the stories to which you are posting and writing headlines.)

The fact remains, however, that Tokuda is clearly older than the States’ own Dave Cummings, who had been plying his impressive trade for many years. We know he likes to claim that he is the oldest porn star, and we don’t really think that it’s such abig deal, but from all accounts, Japan is impressive in its own right as a nation of long-living people who have few qualms about changing career late in life. Tokuda is a perfect example.

As reported by Stuff.co.nz, “Tokuda turned to the pornographic industry late. He lived a typical Japanese office worker’s life as a travel agent after graduating from one of Tokyo’s elite colleges. The career sideline came about because he was unsatisfied with a lack of story lines in sex movies he’d seen, which led to a discussion with a film producer about whether he could do better. It took a couple of years of thinking about it but Tokuda eventually took his pants off for the camera. Since then, he has became a popular figure in porn movies for rent in Japan, with its rapidly aging population and long life expectancy. One in five Japanese is over 65 years old.” He debuted at age 59.

Tokuda wasn’t always the oldest porn star in Japan, however. According to The Age, “Since his top rival died recently at the age of 90, Tokuda has become the country’s undisputed king of Japanese “mature porn” — a category that has flourished in the fast-ageing society since it emerged a decade ago.”

Presumably, he may have moe competition as Japan’s population continues to age and remain healthy. I may even move there, if, to paraphraze the line from the movie, “I can get some of what he’s having.”