Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational software corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues.[4] It is also one of the world's most valuable companies.[5]
Microsoft was established to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.[6]
As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the PC operating system and office suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft announced that it would be entering the PC vendor market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface tablet computer.
In the 1990s, critics began to contend that Microsoft used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws.
1972–83: Founding and company beginnings
Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company named Traf-O-Data, which offered a rudimentary computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in computer science at the University of Washington, later dropping out of school to work at Honeywell. Gates began studies at Harvard.[9] The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.[7]:108, 112–114 They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO.[10] Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," the combination of the words microcomputer and software, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft".[11] The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.[10]
Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix.[12] However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC).[13] For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC-DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor.[8][14]:210 The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[7]:232 Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in February after developing Hodgkin's disease.[7]:231
1984–94: Windows and Office
While jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20, 1985.[7]:242–243, 246 Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond on February 26, 1986, and on March 13 the company went public;[15] the ensuing rise in the stock would make an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[16] Due to the partnership with IBM, in 1990 the Federal Trade Commission set its eye on Microsoft for possible collusion; it marked the beginning of over a decade of legal clashes with the U.S. Government.[17] Microsoft announced the release of its version of OS/2 to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987;[7]:243–244 meanwhile, the company was at work on a 32-bit OS, Microsoft Windows NT, using ideas from OS/2; it shipped on July 21, 1993 with a new modular kernel and the Win32 application programming interface (API), making porting from 16-bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated.[18]
In 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.[7]:301 On May 22 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0 with a streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor.[19] Both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas.[20][21] Novell, a Word competitor from 1984–1986, filed a lawsuit years later claiming that Microsoft left part of its APIs undocumented in order to gain a competitive advantage.[22]
On July 27, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division filed a Competitive Impact Statement that said, in part: "Beginning in 1988, and continuing until July 15, 1994, Microsoft induced many OEMs to execute anti-competitive "per processor" licenses. Under a per processor license, an OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it sells containing a particular microprocessor, whether the OEM sells the computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non-Microsoft operating system. In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEM's use of a competing PC operating system. Since 1988, Microsoft's use of per processor licenses has increased.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
What that explosion-proof 'label' really means
Who decides these things and what are their credentials?
We take a close look at the whole labeling process
LABELS ON FOODS, SPELLING OUT THE NUTRItional ingredients; labels on pesticides, spray cans, and fertilizers warning of hazardous contents or threats to the environment-we're all growing ever more accustomed to product labeling assurances of just what we are (or are not) getting.
For electric motors, the marking we're used to is the "UL label," certifying that Underwriters Laboratories has found such a motor safe for use in a particular environment. But why UL? And just what does the certification mean?
For motors, the only safety labeling issue concerns the risk of fire or explosion originating with the motor and spreading to its surroundings. The nature of those surroundings is not defined by UL, but by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in its Standard No. 70, the National Electrical Code. The language of the Code needs to be clearly understood.
First, in Article 100, the Code offers this general definition of "explosion-proof apparatus": "Apparatus enclosed in a case that is capable of withstanding an explosion of a specific gas or vapor that may occur within it and of preventing the ignition of a specified gas or vapor surrounding the enclosure by sparks, flashes, or explosion of the gas or vapor within, and that operates at such an external temperature that a surrounding flammable atmosphere will not be ignited thereby."
Note that the Code definition does not require the apparatus to be designed so that an internal explosion cannot occur. The only requirement is that any such explosion be confined to the apparatus interior.
Second, Article 500 of the Code defines specific environments as follows:
* Class I: environments containing flammable gases or vapors.
* Class II: environments containing combustible dusts.
* Class III: environments containing "easily ignitible fibers or flyings."
Within Classes I and II are several "groups" of materials having similar characteristics. For example, under Class I are Groups A (acetylene); B (predominantly hydrogen); C (ethyl ether or ethylene); and D (gasoline, acetone, ammonia, butane, methane, natural gas, etc.). Under Class II we find Groups E (combustible metal dusts); F (carbonaceous materials such as carbon black or coal); and G (other dusts such as flour, wood, and plastic).
"Explosion" versus "dust-ignition" proof
Strictly speaking, an electric motor is considered "explosion-proof' (to use the NEMA standard term rather than the Code wording) only when designed for a Class I location. A motor for Class II area service is considered "dust-ignitionproof." In ratings up to at least 500 hp, motor construction is basically the same for either type of service. But that is only because of convenience in design and manufacture, not because the requirements are identical.
Because Class III applications are found almost entirely in the textile industry, which is a limited market, we will confine our attention here to the far more widely-encountered Classes I and II. Each is divided by Code Article 500 into two main subdivisions: Division 1 and Division 2 (or "Div 2" in the commonly used chemical industry shorthand term).
Here is where many misunderstandings have arisen. In a Division 1 location, a motor must be built-and labeledas "explosion-proof." Here's the reason: for a Class I environment, the NEC defines Division 1 as ". . . a location. . in which ignitible concentrations of flammable gases or vapors can exist under normal operating conditions; or . . . in which . . . [such concentrations]. . may exist frequently because of repair or maintenance operations or because of leakage; or . . . in which breakdown or faulty operation of equipment or processes might release ignitible concentrations . . . and might also cause simultaneous failure of electric equipment."
That's quite a mouthful. Obviously, it's subject to a lot of interpretation. How often is "frequently"? What are "normal" operating conditions? (For motors, the Code seems to answer that last question in Section 500-3(c), which states: "Unless otherwise specified, normal operating conditions for motors shall be assumed to be rated full-load steady conditions." But is starting a motor really "abnormal"? And what does "otherwise specified" mean?)
However, neither the motor supplier nor the equipment user makes the choice of whether or not the area is properly considered Division 1. That's up to the AHJ-"the Authority Having Jurisdiction" over Code enforcement. The AHJ may be a local or state Fire Marshal, an electrical or building inspector, or an insurance agent. Other industry standards and publications offer guidelines for "area classification," a subject that need not concern us here.
Once the decision is made, the Code simply says that "explosion-proof apparatus," as defined earlier, is a "protection technique" applicable to "Class I, Division 1 and 2 locations." That implies an "explosion-proof" motor as appropriate in a "Div 2" area-and we'll return to that subject a bit later. The NEC is silent concerning the manner in which a motor is rendered suitable for a specific hazardous area, saying only that the apparatus must be "approved" for the service.
How a motor is to be rendered "explosion-proof" is not dealt with in NEMA Standards MGI, either. But to safely confine an internal explosion, which could initiate with an arc associated with insulation failure, a motor must have a certain level of frame strength; the hardware holding the parts together must not fail; and the joints between parts, as well as the necessary clearance around the shaft passing through bearing assemblies, must not permit escape to the outside atmosphere of any flame or hot gas that could ignite that atmosphere.
Origin of the label
Many years ago, UL established a motor test program to verify that capability for any motor manufacturer. A satisfactory product was then entitled to be labeled for the application. The "label" is a UL nameplate attesting to the Class and Group appropriate to the atmosphere for which the design is acceptable.
Is every motor built subjected to such testing? No. Once the prototype has been approved, UL sets up a "Label Service Procedure" to monitor production of the design at specific plants and periodically sends out inspectors to see that no changes have been made. Each label used must be accounted for. Each is coded to indicate what specific factory produced the motor.
To maintain the motor's integrity in service, any repairs to the unit must follow the UL "Repair and Relisting Procedure," subscribed to by many apparatus service centers, which involves its own written procedures and surveillance. Otherwise, the label is considered void even though it remains in place on the motor.
That's because any construction changes can compromise enclosure integrity-substituting low-strength bolts; drilling holes to mount identification plates; changing a bearing seal; even tool marks or burrs on machined surfaces at assembly joints, or in seal fits.
In addition to adequate strength and "flame sealing," the temperature of any external surface of a Class I Division 1 motor exposed to the environment must not exceed 80% of the ignition temperature of the gas or vapor involved. But what temperature is that? The Code requires, in Section 500-3(d), that the motor nameplate carry an "Identification Number" expressing the maximum surface temperature within which the motor will operate under those "normal conditions." Given in Code Table 500-3(d), those codes range from T1 (meaning maximum surface temperature of 450 deg C) to T6 (denoting 85 deg C).
Groups C and D, for which Division 1 motors are most commonly labeled, include a large number of gases and vapors belonging to various chemical families. Although NFPA Standard 325M lists ignition temperatures of many such materials, more are being developed all the time. The numbers show wide variation. For example, acetone at 869 deg F; ammonia at 1204 deg ; benzene at 1040; and hexane at 437 all fall within Class I Group D. The user and the AHJ must work together to determine that the temperature identification code on the nameplate for the proposed motor is compatible with the ignition temperature of the actual atmosphere to be encountered.
In the lower horsepower ratings, most motors are "duallabeled"designed and approved for both Class I (usually Group D) and Class II (Groups F and G most often). Although Class II service does not involve confining an internal explosion, because no gas or vapor is present, the bearing assemblies must still be sealed to keep out dust that could contaminate the lubricant. As the grease hardens, the bearing begins to overheat, accelerating the process of lubricant deterioration. Grain explosions
In a grain handling facility, the results are often catastrophic. Explosions in grain dust killed 75 persons in Japan between 1962 and 1975; Britain suffered 20 major losses in one year alone. During 1977, four grain elevator explosions in the U.S. took 55 lives.
That emphasizes the importance of bearing and seal maintenance for labeled Class II motors. Surface cleaning and winding thermostats can eliminate winding and frame overheating, but won't help the bearings.
Suppose the AHJ concludes that the location is not a Division 1 area? Here's how the NEC defines Division 2 (for Class I atmospheres): ". . . a location . . . in which volatile flammable liquids or flammable gases are handled, processed, or used, but in which . . . [they] . . . will normally be confined within closed containers or closed systems from which they can escape only in case of accidental rupture or breakdown of such containers or systems, or in case of abnormal operation of equipment; or . . . in which ignitible concentrations. . . are normally prevented by positive mechanical ventilation, and which might become hazardous through failure or abnormal operation of the ventilating equipment; or . . . that is adjacent to a Class I, Division 1 location, and to which ignitible concentrations. . might occasionally be communicated unless such communication is prevented by adequate positive-pressure ventilation from a source of clean air, and effective safeguards against ventilation failure are provided."
That's an even bigger mouthful-one that has caused a great deal of controversy. We usually sum up the distinction between Divisions 1 and 2 by simply saying, "In Division 1 the hazard can be expected to be present any time; in Division 2 it's present only when something goes wrong." But careful reading of the Code indicates that this is an oversimplification. Words like "normally," "effective," or "occasionally" can be subjectively interpreted.
Nevertheless, the most common view is that in a Class I Division 2 atmosphere a motor need not be explosion-proof. For official guidance, we must turn to Section 501-8 of the NEC. There, the Code specifically allows the use of motors in "open" enclosures-provided the design does not include "brushes, switching mechanisms, or similar arc-producing devices." In addition, the exposed surfaces of space heaters must not reach temperatures above 80% of the ignition temperature of the gas or vapor involved.
What about the temperatures attained by the electrical parts of the motor itself? In a "Fine Print Note," the Code says only that "It is important to consider" those temperatures.
That has been one of the causes of concern about use of any open motor in "Div 2" areas. Because of uncertainty concerning the risk of ignition, many motor users have standardized on labeled explosion-proof motors even in Division 2 locations. That position has been supported by NEMA MG2, the "Safety Standard for Construction and Guide for Selection, Installation, and Use of Electric Motors and Generators."
In Para. 3.5, that document says this: ". . . the user has two possibilities when selecting a motor for Class I, Division 2 applications. The recommended approach. . . is to select an explosion-proof motor, which in accordance with Underwriters Laboratories Inc. requirements, shall not exceed the specified external surface temperature under any operating condition. As an alternative, the user may select an open or non-explosion-proof enclosed motor for submission to the local authority for approval . . . the user should consider the temperature of external and internal surfaces of the motor to which the surrounding atmosphere has access."
What's wrong with that statement? That phrase "under any operating condition." As we have already seen, the surface temperature limitation applies only under "normal operating conditions," not under "any operating condition." Moreover, that vague exhortation to "consider" surface temperatures of a non-explosion-proof motor is of negligible value.
Motor temperature
Of greatest concern in application of non-explosion-proof motors to Class I Division 2 service is the surface temperature of the rotor. During those Code-defined "normal running conditions," rotor and stator surface temperatures are about the same (although no extensive body of data shows precise relationships).
We know, however, that during starting-particularly of a high inertia or high torque load-rotor bars and end rings may get much hotter than the stator. Typical design limits for bar temperature are 300 deg C to 400 deg C. Yes, the Code considers starting (or even service factor overload) to be "abnormal." But NEMA standards define ranges of allowable starting frequency; "severe starts" are far from uncommon in motor usage, no matter how "abnormal" the Code may consider them; and no motor can reach "normal running conditions" without first having been started. Ignoring the high rotor temperature resulting from acceleration hardly seems realistic, even though the Code may not be violated.
If the motor is built and labeled as explosion-proof, for Division 1 use, the rotor temperature can be ignored. If it does rise high enough to cause an internal explosion, the motor construction will confine that to the interior. But if the motor is not explosion-proof-and especially if it is of open construction-a high rotor surface temperature is dangerous. European standards require testing to show that such temperatures don't exceed safe limits during starting or stalling. That's not part of U.S. practice.
Because a hazard can therefore exist despite full compliance with the NEC, engineers have come to accept this truth, from a 1994 IEEE paper on Division 2 applications: "Good experience based on present practice is not sufficient. Sound engineering judgment is required in selecting and applying motors in Class I, Division 2 locations?"
Recognizing the uncertainties involved in that process, UL attempted to develop a standard for this application a decade ago. When the proposed document (UL 1836) was reviewed by the IEEE Petroleum & Chemical Industry Committee, however, numerous deficiencies were pointed out. A few examples: Motor ambient temperature was limited to -13oF-unrealistic in the northern U.S.; resistive devices such as space heaters were required to be of Division 1 construction, a requirement not in the NEC (such devices are not normally available anyway); the usual 90 deg rotation capability of motor terminal boxes appeared to be prohibited.
The upshot was that UL 1836 was withdrawn from consideration without being published. In 1993, however, UL began looking at the Division 2 issue again, primarily from the rotor surface temperature standpoint. With the widespread use of adjustable-speed drives (ASDs), a motor's "normal running conditions" now include many instances of possibly high surface temperatures caused by low speed and harmonic currents. The values will depend upon the nature of the inverter used, and the way the drive is used. No easy solution to this problem has appeared because of the wide variation in those conditions.
Nevertheless, the NEC does not impose limits on internal (stator or rotor) surface temperatures for an open motor in a Division 2 area. A hazard could exist as a result, and that has been widely recognized by petrochemical engineers within the IEEE, which has set up a Working Group to develop its own standard, No. 1349, under development for several years now, to be titled "Guide for Application of Electric Motors in Class I Division 2 Hazardous (Classified) Locations."
Extensive motor testing is under way to establish a firmer basis for application than existed for UL 1836. Although much work remains to be done, one of the conclusions thus far is that ignition temperature of a gas or vapor in motion, within a running motor, may be as much as 200 deg C higher than with the gas at rest in a lab sample. "Movement inhibits ignition," and such movement exists by definition when the NEC's "normal running conditions" are present. Requirements for TEFC motors may well differ from those for open machines. Diffusion of the potentially hazardous atmosphere into-and out of-an idle motor is being examined in detail.
So, will you be finding UL labels on Division 2 motors? Certainly not soon. If the motor is labeled for Division 1, of course, it's automatically suitable for Division 2. But the reverse will not be true.
For Class II service (not to be considered in IEEE 1349), the problem becomes still more complex. Dust can readily accumulate on the stator windings of an open machine. That can create a hazard in two ways. First, the dust blanket can interfere with heat dissipation such that the winding burns out, leading directly to fire or explosion that immediately involves the surrounding atmosphere. Second, the dust can create surface tracking paths, leading to local arcing that produces the same result. If, however, the motor is totallyenclosed (even though not of dust-ignition-proof design), internal dust accumulation isn't a problem. Rotor overheating caused by dust buildup isn't likely for any type of motor enclosure.
A difficulty with Class II areas is that the dust present may be a material that is not ordinarily combustible. Hydrocarbon gases and vapors are recognized as fire or explosion hazards even by those untrained in fire protection. But starch, sugar, flour, and many other materials never used as fuels or solvents are seldom thought of as an explosion hazard.
A good example is ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer. Here's a complaint submitted to an electrical trade magazine by a designer of industrial facilities: "Over the years. . . we have always used TEFC motors. . . in our fertilizer blending plant construction .... These plants blend potash, ammonium nitrate and other inert materials. The dusts produced by these operations. . . are not of an explosive or combustible nature. But a local electrical inspector recently stated that the equipment in such plants should be Class II, Group G rated.... We do not agree. ..."
Ammonium nitrate "inert" and "not of an explosive or combustible nature"? In 1947, explosion of two shiploads of ammonium nitrate leveled most of Texas City, killing 468 persons and causing $50 million in damage. An NFPA staff member has commented that "it is especially dangerous to permit contamination of ammonium nitrate with oil," which can certainly happen if the material is used around motors lacking proper bearing seals. The effect of such a mixture was thoroughly demonstrated in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
In finely powdered form, many other ordinary or "nonflammable" materials become deadly explosives, not only more powerful than dynamite but far less predictable. A chewing gum factory in New York was blown apart by explosion of magnesium stearate dust used as a non-stick coating on the gum; six workers died. Cause of the blast was machinery failure leading to high vibration, followed by a bearing/shaft failure producing friction sparks.
Resist any temptation, then, to cut corners by assuming that a dusty atmosphere should be safe just because you aren't aware of any particular hazard involved with the material. And beware of anyone in plant operations who says "it's OK" to put an unlabeled motor in place of an explosion-proof unit, even temporarily. Don't listen when you're told that some other motor is "just as good, but doesn't happen to have a UL label."
Is UL the only agency that can certify motor safety in hazardous areas? What about Factory Mutual, or some other organization? Since 1973, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been empowered to adopt suitable product-certification procedures as adjuncts to workplace safety. That has resulted in an OSHA program to accredit "nationally recognized testing laboratories" or NRTLs, permitted to certify product safety.
Several other certifying or testing agencies have since been recognized as NRTLs and have begun listing products formerly certified only by UL. Often, however, the certification standards-the design/test criteria-have remained those of UL, as being "the only game in town."
User specifications still sometimes call for motors to meet the requirements of the "NBFU"-the National Board of Fire Underwriters. That body went out of existence more than 30 years ago, merged into the American Insurance Association and later becoming the Insurance Services Office, which rates municipal fire protection agencies and has nothing to do with electrical equipment or hazardous areas of application.
As far as motors are concerned, then, the "UL label" remains the basic sign of hazardous area acceptance. If another agency tests or certifies a motor, the procedures will probably continue to be those first arrived at by UL testing. In any event, the motor user must satisfy the AHJ first.
We take a close look at the whole labeling process
LABELS ON FOODS, SPELLING OUT THE NUTRItional ingredients; labels on pesticides, spray cans, and fertilizers warning of hazardous contents or threats to the environment-we're all growing ever more accustomed to product labeling assurances of just what we are (or are not) getting.
For electric motors, the marking we're used to is the "UL label," certifying that Underwriters Laboratories has found such a motor safe for use in a particular environment. But why UL? And just what does the certification mean?
For motors, the only safety labeling issue concerns the risk of fire or explosion originating with the motor and spreading to its surroundings. The nature of those surroundings is not defined by UL, but by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in its Standard No. 70, the National Electrical Code. The language of the Code needs to be clearly understood.
First, in Article 100, the Code offers this general definition of "explosion-proof apparatus": "Apparatus enclosed in a case that is capable of withstanding an explosion of a specific gas or vapor that may occur within it and of preventing the ignition of a specified gas or vapor surrounding the enclosure by sparks, flashes, or explosion of the gas or vapor within, and that operates at such an external temperature that a surrounding flammable atmosphere will not be ignited thereby."
Note that the Code definition does not require the apparatus to be designed so that an internal explosion cannot occur. The only requirement is that any such explosion be confined to the apparatus interior.
Second, Article 500 of the Code defines specific environments as follows:
* Class I: environments containing flammable gases or vapors.
* Class II: environments containing combustible dusts.
* Class III: environments containing "easily ignitible fibers or flyings."
Within Classes I and II are several "groups" of materials having similar characteristics. For example, under Class I are Groups A (acetylene); B (predominantly hydrogen); C (ethyl ether or ethylene); and D (gasoline, acetone, ammonia, butane, methane, natural gas, etc.). Under Class II we find Groups E (combustible metal dusts); F (carbonaceous materials such as carbon black or coal); and G (other dusts such as flour, wood, and plastic).
"Explosion" versus "dust-ignition" proof
Strictly speaking, an electric motor is considered "explosion-proof' (to use the NEMA standard term rather than the Code wording) only when designed for a Class I location. A motor for Class II area service is considered "dust-ignitionproof." In ratings up to at least 500 hp, motor construction is basically the same for either type of service. But that is only because of convenience in design and manufacture, not because the requirements are identical.
Because Class III applications are found almost entirely in the textile industry, which is a limited market, we will confine our attention here to the far more widely-encountered Classes I and II. Each is divided by Code Article 500 into two main subdivisions: Division 1 and Division 2 (or "Div 2" in the commonly used chemical industry shorthand term).
Here is where many misunderstandings have arisen. In a Division 1 location, a motor must be built-and labeledas "explosion-proof." Here's the reason: for a Class I environment, the NEC defines Division 1 as ". . . a location. . in which ignitible concentrations of flammable gases or vapors can exist under normal operating conditions; or . . . in which . . . [such concentrations]. . may exist frequently because of repair or maintenance operations or because of leakage; or . . . in which breakdown or faulty operation of equipment or processes might release ignitible concentrations . . . and might also cause simultaneous failure of electric equipment."
That's quite a mouthful. Obviously, it's subject to a lot of interpretation. How often is "frequently"? What are "normal" operating conditions? (For motors, the Code seems to answer that last question in Section 500-3(c), which states: "Unless otherwise specified, normal operating conditions for motors shall be assumed to be rated full-load steady conditions." But is starting a motor really "abnormal"? And what does "otherwise specified" mean?)
However, neither the motor supplier nor the equipment user makes the choice of whether or not the area is properly considered Division 1. That's up to the AHJ-"the Authority Having Jurisdiction" over Code enforcement. The AHJ may be a local or state Fire Marshal, an electrical or building inspector, or an insurance agent. Other industry standards and publications offer guidelines for "area classification," a subject that need not concern us here.
Once the decision is made, the Code simply says that "explosion-proof apparatus," as defined earlier, is a "protection technique" applicable to "Class I, Division 1 and 2 locations." That implies an "explosion-proof" motor as appropriate in a "Div 2" area-and we'll return to that subject a bit later. The NEC is silent concerning the manner in which a motor is rendered suitable for a specific hazardous area, saying only that the apparatus must be "approved" for the service.
How a motor is to be rendered "explosion-proof" is not dealt with in NEMA Standards MGI, either. But to safely confine an internal explosion, which could initiate with an arc associated with insulation failure, a motor must have a certain level of frame strength; the hardware holding the parts together must not fail; and the joints between parts, as well as the necessary clearance around the shaft passing through bearing assemblies, must not permit escape to the outside atmosphere of any flame or hot gas that could ignite that atmosphere.
Origin of the label
Many years ago, UL established a motor test program to verify that capability for any motor manufacturer. A satisfactory product was then entitled to be labeled for the application. The "label" is a UL nameplate attesting to the Class and Group appropriate to the atmosphere for which the design is acceptable.
Is every motor built subjected to such testing? No. Once the prototype has been approved, UL sets up a "Label Service Procedure" to monitor production of the design at specific plants and periodically sends out inspectors to see that no changes have been made. Each label used must be accounted for. Each is coded to indicate what specific factory produced the motor.
To maintain the motor's integrity in service, any repairs to the unit must follow the UL "Repair and Relisting Procedure," subscribed to by many apparatus service centers, which involves its own written procedures and surveillance. Otherwise, the label is considered void even though it remains in place on the motor.
That's because any construction changes can compromise enclosure integrity-substituting low-strength bolts; drilling holes to mount identification plates; changing a bearing seal; even tool marks or burrs on machined surfaces at assembly joints, or in seal fits.
In addition to adequate strength and "flame sealing," the temperature of any external surface of a Class I Division 1 motor exposed to the environment must not exceed 80% of the ignition temperature of the gas or vapor involved. But what temperature is that? The Code requires, in Section 500-3(d), that the motor nameplate carry an "Identification Number" expressing the maximum surface temperature within which the motor will operate under those "normal conditions." Given in Code Table 500-3(d), those codes range from T1 (meaning maximum surface temperature of 450 deg C) to T6 (denoting 85 deg C).
Groups C and D, for which Division 1 motors are most commonly labeled, include a large number of gases and vapors belonging to various chemical families. Although NFPA Standard 325M lists ignition temperatures of many such materials, more are being developed all the time. The numbers show wide variation. For example, acetone at 869 deg F; ammonia at 1204 deg ; benzene at 1040; and hexane at 437 all fall within Class I Group D. The user and the AHJ must work together to determine that the temperature identification code on the nameplate for the proposed motor is compatible with the ignition temperature of the actual atmosphere to be encountered.
In the lower horsepower ratings, most motors are "duallabeled"designed and approved for both Class I (usually Group D) and Class II (Groups F and G most often). Although Class II service does not involve confining an internal explosion, because no gas or vapor is present, the bearing assemblies must still be sealed to keep out dust that could contaminate the lubricant. As the grease hardens, the bearing begins to overheat, accelerating the process of lubricant deterioration. Grain explosions
In a grain handling facility, the results are often catastrophic. Explosions in grain dust killed 75 persons in Japan between 1962 and 1975; Britain suffered 20 major losses in one year alone. During 1977, four grain elevator explosions in the U.S. took 55 lives.
That emphasizes the importance of bearing and seal maintenance for labeled Class II motors. Surface cleaning and winding thermostats can eliminate winding and frame overheating, but won't help the bearings.
Suppose the AHJ concludes that the location is not a Division 1 area? Here's how the NEC defines Division 2 (for Class I atmospheres): ". . . a location . . . in which volatile flammable liquids or flammable gases are handled, processed, or used, but in which . . . [they] . . . will normally be confined within closed containers or closed systems from which they can escape only in case of accidental rupture or breakdown of such containers or systems, or in case of abnormal operation of equipment; or . . . in which ignitible concentrations. . . are normally prevented by positive mechanical ventilation, and which might become hazardous through failure or abnormal operation of the ventilating equipment; or . . . that is adjacent to a Class I, Division 1 location, and to which ignitible concentrations. . might occasionally be communicated unless such communication is prevented by adequate positive-pressure ventilation from a source of clean air, and effective safeguards against ventilation failure are provided."
That's an even bigger mouthful-one that has caused a great deal of controversy. We usually sum up the distinction between Divisions 1 and 2 by simply saying, "In Division 1 the hazard can be expected to be present any time; in Division 2 it's present only when something goes wrong." But careful reading of the Code indicates that this is an oversimplification. Words like "normally," "effective," or "occasionally" can be subjectively interpreted.
Nevertheless, the most common view is that in a Class I Division 2 atmosphere a motor need not be explosion-proof. For official guidance, we must turn to Section 501-8 of the NEC. There, the Code specifically allows the use of motors in "open" enclosures-provided the design does not include "brushes, switching mechanisms, or similar arc-producing devices." In addition, the exposed surfaces of space heaters must not reach temperatures above 80% of the ignition temperature of the gas or vapor involved.
What about the temperatures attained by the electrical parts of the motor itself? In a "Fine Print Note," the Code says only that "It is important to consider" those temperatures.
That has been one of the causes of concern about use of any open motor in "Div 2" areas. Because of uncertainty concerning the risk of ignition, many motor users have standardized on labeled explosion-proof motors even in Division 2 locations. That position has been supported by NEMA MG2, the "Safety Standard for Construction and Guide for Selection, Installation, and Use of Electric Motors and Generators."
In Para. 3.5, that document says this: ". . . the user has two possibilities when selecting a motor for Class I, Division 2 applications. The recommended approach. . . is to select an explosion-proof motor, which in accordance with Underwriters Laboratories Inc. requirements, shall not exceed the specified external surface temperature under any operating condition. As an alternative, the user may select an open or non-explosion-proof enclosed motor for submission to the local authority for approval . . . the user should consider the temperature of external and internal surfaces of the motor to which the surrounding atmosphere has access."
What's wrong with that statement? That phrase "under any operating condition." As we have already seen, the surface temperature limitation applies only under "normal operating conditions," not under "any operating condition." Moreover, that vague exhortation to "consider" surface temperatures of a non-explosion-proof motor is of negligible value.
Motor temperature
Of greatest concern in application of non-explosion-proof motors to Class I Division 2 service is the surface temperature of the rotor. During those Code-defined "normal running conditions," rotor and stator surface temperatures are about the same (although no extensive body of data shows precise relationships).
We know, however, that during starting-particularly of a high inertia or high torque load-rotor bars and end rings may get much hotter than the stator. Typical design limits for bar temperature are 300 deg C to 400 deg C. Yes, the Code considers starting (or even service factor overload) to be "abnormal." But NEMA standards define ranges of allowable starting frequency; "severe starts" are far from uncommon in motor usage, no matter how "abnormal" the Code may consider them; and no motor can reach "normal running conditions" without first having been started. Ignoring the high rotor temperature resulting from acceleration hardly seems realistic, even though the Code may not be violated.
If the motor is built and labeled as explosion-proof, for Division 1 use, the rotor temperature can be ignored. If it does rise high enough to cause an internal explosion, the motor construction will confine that to the interior. But if the motor is not explosion-proof-and especially if it is of open construction-a high rotor surface temperature is dangerous. European standards require testing to show that such temperatures don't exceed safe limits during starting or stalling. That's not part of U.S. practice.
Because a hazard can therefore exist despite full compliance with the NEC, engineers have come to accept this truth, from a 1994 IEEE paper on Division 2 applications: "Good experience based on present practice is not sufficient. Sound engineering judgment is required in selecting and applying motors in Class I, Division 2 locations?"
Recognizing the uncertainties involved in that process, UL attempted to develop a standard for this application a decade ago. When the proposed document (UL 1836) was reviewed by the IEEE Petroleum & Chemical Industry Committee, however, numerous deficiencies were pointed out. A few examples: Motor ambient temperature was limited to -13oF-unrealistic in the northern U.S.; resistive devices such as space heaters were required to be of Division 1 construction, a requirement not in the NEC (such devices are not normally available anyway); the usual 90 deg rotation capability of motor terminal boxes appeared to be prohibited.
The upshot was that UL 1836 was withdrawn from consideration without being published. In 1993, however, UL began looking at the Division 2 issue again, primarily from the rotor surface temperature standpoint. With the widespread use of adjustable-speed drives (ASDs), a motor's "normal running conditions" now include many instances of possibly high surface temperatures caused by low speed and harmonic currents. The values will depend upon the nature of the inverter used, and the way the drive is used. No easy solution to this problem has appeared because of the wide variation in those conditions.
Nevertheless, the NEC does not impose limits on internal (stator or rotor) surface temperatures for an open motor in a Division 2 area. A hazard could exist as a result, and that has been widely recognized by petrochemical engineers within the IEEE, which has set up a Working Group to develop its own standard, No. 1349, under development for several years now, to be titled "Guide for Application of Electric Motors in Class I Division 2 Hazardous (Classified) Locations."
Extensive motor testing is under way to establish a firmer basis for application than existed for UL 1836. Although much work remains to be done, one of the conclusions thus far is that ignition temperature of a gas or vapor in motion, within a running motor, may be as much as 200 deg C higher than with the gas at rest in a lab sample. "Movement inhibits ignition," and such movement exists by definition when the NEC's "normal running conditions" are present. Requirements for TEFC motors may well differ from those for open machines. Diffusion of the potentially hazardous atmosphere into-and out of-an idle motor is being examined in detail.
So, will you be finding UL labels on Division 2 motors? Certainly not soon. If the motor is labeled for Division 1, of course, it's automatically suitable for Division 2. But the reverse will not be true.
For Class II service (not to be considered in IEEE 1349), the problem becomes still more complex. Dust can readily accumulate on the stator windings of an open machine. That can create a hazard in two ways. First, the dust blanket can interfere with heat dissipation such that the winding burns out, leading directly to fire or explosion that immediately involves the surrounding atmosphere. Second, the dust can create surface tracking paths, leading to local arcing that produces the same result. If, however, the motor is totallyenclosed (even though not of dust-ignition-proof design), internal dust accumulation isn't a problem. Rotor overheating caused by dust buildup isn't likely for any type of motor enclosure.
A difficulty with Class II areas is that the dust present may be a material that is not ordinarily combustible. Hydrocarbon gases and vapors are recognized as fire or explosion hazards even by those untrained in fire protection. But starch, sugar, flour, and many other materials never used as fuels or solvents are seldom thought of as an explosion hazard.
A good example is ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer. Here's a complaint submitted to an electrical trade magazine by a designer of industrial facilities: "Over the years. . . we have always used TEFC motors. . . in our fertilizer blending plant construction .... These plants blend potash, ammonium nitrate and other inert materials. The dusts produced by these operations. . . are not of an explosive or combustible nature. But a local electrical inspector recently stated that the equipment in such plants should be Class II, Group G rated.... We do not agree. ..."
Ammonium nitrate "inert" and "not of an explosive or combustible nature"? In 1947, explosion of two shiploads of ammonium nitrate leveled most of Texas City, killing 468 persons and causing $50 million in damage. An NFPA staff member has commented that "it is especially dangerous to permit contamination of ammonium nitrate with oil," which can certainly happen if the material is used around motors lacking proper bearing seals. The effect of such a mixture was thoroughly demonstrated in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
In finely powdered form, many other ordinary or "nonflammable" materials become deadly explosives, not only more powerful than dynamite but far less predictable. A chewing gum factory in New York was blown apart by explosion of magnesium stearate dust used as a non-stick coating on the gum; six workers died. Cause of the blast was machinery failure leading to high vibration, followed by a bearing/shaft failure producing friction sparks.
Resist any temptation, then, to cut corners by assuming that a dusty atmosphere should be safe just because you aren't aware of any particular hazard involved with the material. And beware of anyone in plant operations who says "it's OK" to put an unlabeled motor in place of an explosion-proof unit, even temporarily. Don't listen when you're told that some other motor is "just as good, but doesn't happen to have a UL label."
Is UL the only agency that can certify motor safety in hazardous areas? What about Factory Mutual, or some other organization? Since 1973, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been empowered to adopt suitable product-certification procedures as adjuncts to workplace safety. That has resulted in an OSHA program to accredit "nationally recognized testing laboratories" or NRTLs, permitted to certify product safety.
Several other certifying or testing agencies have since been recognized as NRTLs and have begun listing products formerly certified only by UL. Often, however, the certification standards-the design/test criteria-have remained those of UL, as being "the only game in town."
User specifications still sometimes call for motors to meet the requirements of the "NBFU"-the National Board of Fire Underwriters. That body went out of existence more than 30 years ago, merged into the American Insurance Association and later becoming the Insurance Services Office, which rates municipal fire protection agencies and has nothing to do with electrical equipment or hazardous areas of application.
As far as motors are concerned, then, the "UL label" remains the basic sign of hazardous area acceptance. If another agency tests or certifies a motor, the procedures will probably continue to be those first arrived at by UL testing. In any event, the motor user must satisfy the AHJ first.
Copyright Barks Publications Nov 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
Nailen, Richard L "What that explosion-proof 'label' really means". Electrical Apparatus. FindArticles.com. 02 Jun, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3726/is_199711/ai_n8780307/
Copyright Barks Publications Nov 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
Source: http://findarticles.com
Sexy and smart: one sector that won't be left behind: Japan's massive sex industry has shifted from bricks-and-mortar deflation to Internet elation - Industry Overview
LIKE IT OR LOATHE it, the sex industry in Japan is big business. And despite the rickety economy, it's getting bigger. A recent survey by Takashi Kadokura, an economist with Daiichi Life Research Institute Inc., found that the Japanese market for what is rather quaintly called the entertainment trade fuzoku sangyo, swelled to a tumescent [yen] 2.37 trillion in fiscal 2001, up from [yen] 1.7 trillion a decade earlier.
This figure does not include "virtual sex"--Japan's huge sales of adult magazines, rentals and sales of porn videos and DVDs and the burgeoning market for Internet porn. And let's not forget receipts from the country's 40,000-odd love hotels.
Put together, the buying and selling of sex and related services in the world's second largest economy is worth more than the GDP of many smaller countries.
As the sex business expands along with the service sector it becomes increasingly integrated into the mainstream economy, earning billions for blue-chip firms like NTT and increasingly becoming a source of direct and indirect tax revenue for the government.
Why does this industry seem immune to the problems that have kept Japan on the economic disaster pages of the world's newspapers for over a decade? The truth is: It isn't.
As a stroll around the licentious pink heart of Tokyo's sex industry, Kabukicho, or the "soaplands" district of Yoshiwara confirms, many operators of sex clubs and massage parlors have resorted to the same deflationary price-cutting approaches practiced by other businesses.
More noticeable than the stagnation and decline of some areas of the sex trade, however, are the vitality and innovation that characterize the industry as a whole. Despite its murky image and legal problems, thousands of new businesses have sprung up in the last five years, offering all the eye popping lechery that money can buy.
The older ranks of industry veterans have been swelled by thousands of younger entrepreneurs and casualties from the mainstream economy who are transforming the selling of sex using new technology. Many of them are voraciously ambitious.
Some commentators are now using the once grubby sex trade as a stick to poke in the eye of Japan's arthritic political class. As Dacapo weekly magazine declared in May of this year: "Structural reform has been progressing rapidly in this [sex] industry exactly because the reform-driver has not been Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration. If he wants to know what reform is about, this is where he should be looking."
Winners and Losers
So who are the winners and losers in Japan's sex services industry? At the top of the list of losers are brick-and-mortar businesses like brothels, soaplands and strip clubs, which have seen collective revenues slump by over a third since the mid 80s, says Kadokura.
Stuck with high overheads (particularly for utilities), prices in these outlets are mostly fixed and are driving away male clientele, who have less disposable income than in the past. The price of a single visit to a soapland outlet (staffed by naked prostitutes offering soapy massages) is about [yen] 60,000--a price that is out of reach for most salarymen.
Strip clubs too are seen as expensive and old hat, and many exotic dancers are under pressure to broaden their appeal, says Tomomi Sawaguchi, who recently formed Japan's first union for sex workers. "The number of customers has fallen, so managers will ask some women to perform extra services on the cheap. I've seen foreign women having sex for as little as [yen] 1,000."
Rushing to fill the gap are the thousands of "fashion (sex) massage" outlets that sprang up nationwide in the 90s. With faster turnaround and cheaper labor costs (many are run and staffed by heavily exploited foreign workers), they offer sessions for as little as [yen] 10,000--keeping their services within range of the average male worker.
Sex message joins an increasingly long list of exotically titled innovations including imekura (image clubs), sumata (crotch play--an everything-but sex service designed to get around regulations banning intercourse in outlets) and "delivery health," or deliheru, a pizza-like business that dispatches a prostitute directly to your door for about [yen] 20,000 to [yen] 30,000.
"The life span of popular services used to be 22 years in the high economic growth era, but now it's less than three years," says analyst Takuro Morinaga of UFJ Research. "Firms are working harder to come up with innovations designed to add value to their services."
Many of these services flirt with the limits of the law and exploit mobile phone technology to do it. Prostitution, for example, is prohibited under the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956, helping to explain the huge growth of delivery health. Now a [yen] 461 billion annual business, says Kadokura, delivery health firms hook up working women with paying men by advertising on utility poles in most city neighbor hoods, using only a keitai number. What happens next takes place in the privacy of the client's home and is therefore out of reach of the law.
Many of the women have never met the people they work for. "They call me on my keitai, I get picked up by a driver and delivered to the client's house," says 26-year-old Jun, who works in the Hachioji area. "Afterwards I send them their cut by bank transfer and pocket the rest."
With operating as easy as that, the delivery health business has attracted thousands of budding entrepreneurs. Under the revised Entertainment Establishment Control Law of April 1999, companies must register these services, which provides some idea of how fast they have grown. National Police Agency figures show the number of businesses that "send out female companions" soared from 2,684 in 1999 to 12,251 by the end of 2002.
The sex business has also been a boon to cable, satellite and telecom companies. Consider the fee a mobile phone company pockets every time a user finds his way to a telephone sex business, which often advertises with mass calls to thousands of numbers. The female operators of de-ai businesses are then paid by the minute to keep men on the other end of the line, often by hinting at the possibility of sex.
"I worked in a nice, clean office in Shibuya. Everyone looked like salarymen and office ladies," says Narumi, who spent a year temping at a de-ai firm. "My job was to get men to talk for as long as I could by playing along with their fantasies. Sometimes they ran up bills of [yen] 10,000 to [yen] 20,000."
Other sex services such as telephone clubs terikura and even enjo kosai (or compensated dating) also rake in billions of yen for the telecom firms.
Official data on this sort of business is hard to come by, but in 2001 DoCoMo said that revenue from "non-official sites" was [yen] 250 million--practically all derived from adult and de-ai sites, according to Giles Richter of Mobile Media Japan.
Satellite companies and cable firms, many of which are involved with local governments, are reluctant to divulge revenues from porn, but content and equipment providers say it is significant. "They might not tell you, but people in the industry recognize that the real profits initially are in adult content," says Lincoln Owens, who is director of Asia-Pacific sales at SeaChange International Inc., the largest seller of video servers in the world.
"Pay-TV firms became big in the US by selling adult TV to hotels and other outlets, and they're now tire front-runners in cable. In Japan, one of the few cable and broadband content providers able to make money has 40,000 subscribers to streaming porn, and half the content on pay-per-view satellite is adult."
The impact of the Net
The other big losers in the recession have been adult content publishers and videogaphers. Sales of glossy adult magazines have been in steep decline for some time, falling by over 15 percent last year alone, according to the All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher's and Editor's Association.
Apart from the ever-shrinking average male budget, the main culprit is the Internet, which not only offers billions of free bytes for the curious surfer but often comes uncensored, a novelty for many in Japan where a mosaic-like effect called bokashi blocks out the sex organs.
"The Net has hit us hard," says Go Wada, editor of an adult magazine with Tatsumi Press in Tokyo. "Older guys have stayed with us but the youngsters have all drifted off to cyberspace."
Hiroyuki Tsunoda, president of one of Japan's biggest adult entertainment firms, Media Station Co. Ltd., which releases 15 titles a month under the brand Uchu Keikaku, also admits Net freebies have taken a big chunk out of his business, along with mobile phones, which have eaten up the disposable income of younger customers. "People have a lot more options now, and they can look at uncensored porn from US servers. We estimate video rentals are down by half compared to what they were 10 years ago."
These difficulties bring a rare industry call for government help from Tsunoda. "The government should be doing more to stop uncensored material," he says. "They should realize that this is just another industry and that illegal porn from abroad is hurting us."
Other industry insiders, however, such as Ganri Takahashi of Soft On Demand, say the problem is not falling demand but the failure of firms like Media Station to change quickly enough. "There has been an explosion in the number of genres, so it's no good just churning out the cute-girl-older-guy formula," he says. "If the industry offers imaginative quality products, customers will stay with us."
Most large adult video makers are dealing with the threat from cyberspace by moving online themselves. Media Station's Tsunoda says that about 7 percent of the firm's income currently comes from the Net, and this is likely to grow. "Profit is high because we've already shot the movie. Internet sales are an extra."
Machiki Katsumi of V&R Planning Co. Ltd., another large erotic-video maker, agrees. "About ten percent of our income now comes from the Internet, but there's no question that this will be a crucial part of this business in the near future, once people discover how to make real money from it. The problem at the moment is people will not yet pay for something they can get for free."
The Internet is only one of a raft of new delivery methods that is transforming the industry and leaving video in the technological dustbin. Most adult firms are phasing out VHS for DVD, and many sell directly to satellite and cable companies. All agree that broadband will be hugely important for the industry.
"Until now, people who consumed porn had to find somewhere to keep it," says V&R's Katsumi. "Most didn't want wives or children to find it. The Internet conveniently solved this problem because you don't have an actual product lying around anywhere. Once the quality improves, and it takes less time to access and download the stuff, it will take off."
RELATED ARTICLE: The Ray Kroc of adult video.
Ganari Takahashi is the telegenic president of Soft on Demand, one of Japan's fastest growing porn companies. Now in its eighth year of business, SOD has grown from a company with six employees to a staff of 180 and profits of [yen] 1.5 billion on sales of [yen] 7.8 billion. SOD currently releases 1,000 titles on DVD and video a year. You might think Takahashi would be happy, but far from it. Takahashi wants to destroy the competition, transform adult entertainment in Japan into a mainstream business, open up the market for women and become the "McDonald's of adult entertainment."
JI: HOW'S BUSINESS?
GT: Great. We're aiming for market share by dropping prices, increasing our titles and smashing our rivals--it's the McDonald's formula. Years ago there were about 400 car markers in Japan. Now all that's left is Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda. There are currently about 1,000 adult-film companies. I'd like to make this into 100. The remaining 900 release garbage and fool customers.
We should be aiming higher in this industry. Look at Titanic. It cost $2 billion, but you could buy the video for [yen] 3,000. Why should adult videos, which are much cheaper to make, cost [yen] 4,000! We aim to make high-quality products and sell to a much bigger market, allowing us to cut costs and still make expensive products. Even after paying taxes we're still left with over [yen] 700 or [yen] 800 million in profits--that gives us the power to remove the small makers and sellers. That's our strategy.
JI: Those are ambitious plans. How will you achieve them?
GT: We want to create a relationship of trust between adult entertainment and its customers. Right now, guys buy three videos in the hope that one will be good. I want to become the Sony of adult entertainment, a byword for quality. People should rely on us.
I also want to sell to women. We need to create outlets where women won't feel embarrassed about buying porn. If we create an industry like Universal Pictures with big stars, women will definitely buy.
We have to create an industry where people are not just viewing adult material furtively in their rooms but where customers, women included, regularly buy our products. We should sell in convenience stores. If we stay hidden we'll never become part of mainstream culture, but if we make it a cool industry with attractive stars all out in the open, women will come to us. Japanese women don't think for themselves; they change their opinions based on what everyone around them is thinking.
JI: How about investment?
GT: I want to list the firm, but the nature of our business causes problems. The stock market authorities wanted us to cut our adult products to under 20 percent. They eventually agreed to 50 percent, but I don't think there's anything wrong with adult entertainment so I told them no and that's where it stands. We're now thinking of the Nasdaq. Within two or three years, I think we'll have a good chance of listing.
JI: Has the recession had an impact on business?
GT: We're like Eskimos. In Hawaii, if the temperature drops 10 degrees people complain that the weather is freezing. But native Alaskans are used to the cold. In this industry, we've always been out in the cold, so we have no expectations that the economy is going to get better or worse, or that the government is going to help us out.
People who would never think of doing something like this if the economy were good are coming into the business--I know because I'm one of them. If I had succeeded elsewhere, I wouldn't have started making adult videos.
That said, the recession and the rush of people into the business are helping to slash prices. Seven years ago the retail price of an average adult video was about [yen] 10,000. Now it's down to about [yen] 2,500. The cost of making a video seven years ago was about [yen] 2 million, now it's about [yen] 5.5 million.
JI: Is it easy to find "talent" for your products?
GT: Yes, and it's getting easier, because the morals of Japanese women are falling. There used to be an education system here that taught women that this sort of thing was wrong.
JI: Do you take any responsibility for this?
GT: We're all to blame, yes. Parents are teaching their children the wrong values. We lost the war to America and now we are losing to American values. Have fun whatever else you do--that idea comes from America, and that's why the number of hedonists is on the rise in this country. I would like to return Japan to its Bushido past, when people worked not for themselves but for their country, their firm, their family and parents. That was the Bushido idea.
JI: Do you have plans to sell abroad?
GT: We're already started to sell in the US. We set up a company there three years ago and we're sending two people over there this year as staffers. Americans are used to straight intercourse--just like their steaks, big and bland. I want to sell them high-quality Kobe Beef. American porn goes straight from the screen to the crotch. We stimulate the imagination. This may not work in Texas, but we'll start in white collar areas like San Francisco and New York.
JI: What has been the impact of technology on this business?
GT: The best thing about the last five years is Digital Video Discs. DVD currently accounts for about 70 or 80 percent of our products. In two years VHS will be gone. DVD is cheaper to mass produce. A 180-minute VHS tape that used to cost [yen] 500 can be made on DVD for about [yen] 250 and even [yen] 200. The discs are smaller than tapes so you can store them, they're better quality, and you can put lots of extras on them. The viewer can become the director, so men with fetishes will be able to focus on breasts or other parts of the body.
So far, the Internet has had little impact on us because the quality is bad. You can see naked women all over the place now, so people are searching for quality sex products. But it will become important, there's no doubt about that. We're looking now at the costs of broadband. We reckon we can deliver adult movies directly to homes for [yen] 2,500 a pop.
JI: What do you say to people who hate this industry?
GT: I think we have to make people trust this industry. People who work in adult video have very loose morals, to tell you the truth. They have affairs, multiple sex partners. I don't. I'm married with kids. None of my managers interfere with the women. If we show people we're serious like this we'll be accepted. And if we make money we'll give some of it away to charities.
We also have to pay taxes, lots of taxes! This will be our biggest contribution, I think. The problem is people in this industry are afraid of the authorities, which is why they stay in the shadows. If the cops stop us, this industry will go back to the dark ages.
RELATED ARTICLE: The one-man show.
Rio Yasuda is what they call a hamedori, or a one-man porn director, one of hundreds that supply the voracious porn industry with material. Yasuda writes and edits stories and shoots and acts in his own videos before selling them to magazines, satellite companies like SkyPerfecTV and Paradise TV and, increasingly, Webcasters. The 35-year-old does three shoots a week with women hired from modeling agencies, a job he claims is not as easy as it looks. "I can't to do it anymore without Viagra, and it blocks my nose, makes my heart go too fast and gives me a headache." The compensation is revenue of [yen] 1.2 million a month, about half of which comes from growing Internet sales.
FOR ME, AT LEAST, adult magazines are stuck in the past. They're in terrible shape. People can find free porn photographs on the Net so they wonder why they should pay for it. The only adult publications that are selling well now are weekly-type magazines called jitsuwa, or true-life stories, which are actually full of lies. But they sell for about [yen] 300 to [yen] 400, cheaper than glossy magazines, and they're quite full of material so they're good value for money.
The influence of convenience stores is also very important for magazine sales. You used to be able to get adult publications in small book stores, but they're all nearly gone now and the bigger stores won't stock them. That leaves the family stores. but they're really strict about what they sell and they are really powerful now.
Adult video is a little better because most have long term relationships with retailers for a certain number of releases, and this hasn't really changed. But the Internet will definitely hurt video sales too.
I'm focusing on the Net, on Web streaming. I make half my income from Net sales now, and it's growing. Most Net firms still can't make money, but they will someday. Credit card sales will become more popular. Magazines won't die, but they will become a niche industry. The bigger picture is that there will just be so much more of this stuff around, the market will get much tougher.
The porn satellite boss
Porn barons probably don't get more affable than Michiyuki Matsunaga, the 56-year-old president of 24-hour sex channel Paradise TV. A self-confessed family man, Matsunaga positions photos of his children and grandchildren on his office desk beside images of his company's Bacchanalian shenanigans in the four-story building that houses his company in West ShinjuKu.
An award-winning documentary filmmaker before trying his hand with satellite porn after the airwaves were liberalized in the late 90s, Matsunaga now claims revenue of over [yen] 100 million a month in subscription fees from cable and satellite operators and love hotels in Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii and elsewhere.
During our interview a television monitor in the corner of the room shows a semi-naked woman pottering around her small apartment "somewhere in Tokyo." "She's an ordinary housewife," says Matsunaga. "We pay her [yen] 30,000 to [yen] 40,000 a day to have a fixed camera on her all the time.
"I worked in the sales department of a company called Tsuburaya (makers of Ultraman) for 10 years. When I was there I learned that the big issue was copyright. You could merchandize Ultraman all over the place, sell abroad, repeat broadcast. They haven't made Ultraman in years, but it still makes money.
"When the broadcast market was deregulated I decided to go into business, but licenses were hard to get. The qualifications were tough, and you needed a lot of capital to start up. We finally got our license in 1998, but we had no programs and no money left, so I decided to make something that is cheap and which few others will touch--adult entertainment.
What do we make? Anything that sells. Naked English lessons, people having sex in front of a panel of judges, housewives, young guys, old men. It's all a bit of harmless fun, but people do the stupidest things in this business!
Our strength is that we own all the rights to our shows and we broadcast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We employ 80 people, up from 15 at the start. Our big customer is SkyPerfecTV. We earn up to [yen] 85 million a month from selling to them. About another [yen] 20 million comes from cable TV and love hotels, and we sell video-on-demand to Hawaii.
We market products over the Interact in English, Russian, Korean and Japanese. We have 10,000 subscribers a month paying [yen] 2,000 each, and we have also started to sell short clips to keitai companies. The Net is becoming a bigger part of our business, but it's still comparatively small.
RELATED ARTICLE: The star of the show.
One of Japan's highest-earning adult actresses and probably its most famous until she retired a few months ago, Maria Yumeno turns up in a West Shinjuku coffee shop rife with salarymen. She wears a short and glittering gold dress that barely covers her ample assets and brings male faces swiveling in our direction.
"JAPANESE MEN LOVE BIG breasts," she says, popping out a bare breast for closer inspection. "You're going red," she adds. "That's cute, but why are you embarrassed?
"I'm just playing a role, like a movie actress," she continues, slipping the wayward breast back into its gold pouch "When I step out the door, a switch goes on in my head and I become Maria Yumeno, the pore star who loves sex. It's not the real me. I designed and made her and now I act her. I know who I really am. She's like my best friend. If I didn't keep her separate from myself, I'd go crazy."
Like many in the sex industry, Yumeno has a published profile that is entirely bogus. The 24-year-old from Tokyo is in fact a 30-year-old from Yamaguchi who worked as a graphic designer after leaving school. The fact that she didn't begin her movie career until she was in her mid 20s--making her older and smarter than many of her counterparts--and that she still looks about 19 helps explain her career longevity.
Since (literally) bursting onto the scene in 1998, Maria has made over 60 movies, many with titles that play on the supposed erotic pleasures of her manga-like 37-inch bust and skinny girl's body. Walk into any big video rental store and you'll find Maria staring out of the covers of The Wild Bust, My Neighbor's Sister Has a G-Cup, The Busty Slave and the classic Give Me Endless F * * *.
It's just a role, but does it make her uncomfortable to have millions of men obsessed with her?
"Not at all," Yumeno says. "If they don't enjoy my movies, I'm not doing my job properly. The older they are, the harder I have to work, but that's okay. That's what I'm paid to do."
The cliches for why people work in the porn industry--childhood trauma and abuse, low self-esteem and absent fathers--are quite often true. Maria's father disappeared when she was a child and she says many women work in the industry precisely because they hate men and think porn is one way of symbolically controlling them. But don't underestimate the draw of porn's quick money and the passport out of a life of drudgery in a gray corporate bunker.
Top AV stars earn up to [yen] 3 million a movie, but they have a very limited shelf life--and their price goes down, not up. Most of the men, on the other hand, are willing to work for [yen] 100,000 or less. Machiki Katsumi, general manager of adult filmmaker V&R Planning Co., claims actresses can earn enormous sums of money in what is probably the only industry in Japan that pays women four or five times what men earn.
"A single shoot pays about [yen] 200,000," says Katsumi. "Some women like to work straight through, say for 20 days, when they can earn as much as [yen] 4 million. Some are obviously in financial trouble. But more important is the rise of part-time working culture. A lot of people just want to work for short periods and earn as much money as they can."
Most women are recruited by the ubiquitous scoots around Tokyo's large stations (Yumeno was scouted in Shibuya), but some walk through the door after seeing profiles of sex workers in easily available magazines like Tinkle and Bustier. Many of the smarter women recruit managers, sometimes from unusual places. "We had a girl come in here one day with her mother," claims Hiroyuki Tsunoda, president of Media Station Co. Women who last longest often carve out niches for themselves and earn a semi-loyal following.
"My specialty is breaking down the defenses of guys who are really straight-laced and having sex with them, but I've also done violent stuff, getting raped by three guys, that sort of thing," Yumeno says with a smile. "As soon as the director shouts 'cut!,' the guys completely change, start asking me if I'm all right. It's just a role. I don't hate men. Most of them are good to me, but they're weak."
Lots of men think women work in porn because they like sex.
"That's because we're good at our jobs. We make them think that. If they don't think that, we've failed."
The worst thing about the job, according to Yumeno, is "keeping a boyfriend. First of all, finding a guy who doesn't get jealous. Some men say they don't care and understand it's just a job, but most get jealous afterward. If I don't tell them who I am, someone will tell them or they'll check out my past, but I'm not interested in that sort of man anyway. There are few guys who are strong enough to stay around."
Yumeno has never hung around with her fellow actresses, most of whom she calls "stupid. I like people who are strong, who know themselves, like writers and artists. I like traveling. I've been all over Europe. I love art."
So what happens to porn actresses when they retire? Yumeno is trying to find out by transforming herself into an "all-round entertainer," venturing into singing, acting in variety programs, drama shows, movies and even webcasting (see www.yumenomaria.tv).
Her advice for aspiring actresses?
"If you really want to do it, then try it. But if you're half-hearted about it, forget it. Work in a Seven-Eleven."
* DAVID McNEIL (Sexy and Smart, page 58) is a Tokyo-based freelance writer from Ireland whose writing is carried by the London Independent, The Irish Times and the South China Morning Post. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology and spent five years university teaching in the UK before moving to Tokyo in 2000. "I personally find porn boring and have all the usual moral objections to commodifying sex, but I'm fascinated by the motivations of the characters who work in the industry."
This figure does not include "virtual sex"--Japan's huge sales of adult magazines, rentals and sales of porn videos and DVDs and the burgeoning market for Internet porn. And let's not forget receipts from the country's 40,000-odd love hotels.
Put together, the buying and selling of sex and related services in the world's second largest economy is worth more than the GDP of many smaller countries.
As the sex business expands along with the service sector it becomes increasingly integrated into the mainstream economy, earning billions for blue-chip firms like NTT and increasingly becoming a source of direct and indirect tax revenue for the government.
Why does this industry seem immune to the problems that have kept Japan on the economic disaster pages of the world's newspapers for over a decade? The truth is: It isn't.
As a stroll around the licentious pink heart of Tokyo's sex industry, Kabukicho, or the "soaplands" district of Yoshiwara confirms, many operators of sex clubs and massage parlors have resorted to the same deflationary price-cutting approaches practiced by other businesses.
More noticeable than the stagnation and decline of some areas of the sex trade, however, are the vitality and innovation that characterize the industry as a whole. Despite its murky image and legal problems, thousands of new businesses have sprung up in the last five years, offering all the eye popping lechery that money can buy.
The older ranks of industry veterans have been swelled by thousands of younger entrepreneurs and casualties from the mainstream economy who are transforming the selling of sex using new technology. Many of them are voraciously ambitious.
Some commentators are now using the once grubby sex trade as a stick to poke in the eye of Japan's arthritic political class. As Dacapo weekly magazine declared in May of this year: "Structural reform has been progressing rapidly in this [sex] industry exactly because the reform-driver has not been Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration. If he wants to know what reform is about, this is where he should be looking."
Winners and Losers
So who are the winners and losers in Japan's sex services industry? At the top of the list of losers are brick-and-mortar businesses like brothels, soaplands and strip clubs, which have seen collective revenues slump by over a third since the mid 80s, says Kadokura.
Stuck with high overheads (particularly for utilities), prices in these outlets are mostly fixed and are driving away male clientele, who have less disposable income than in the past. The price of a single visit to a soapland outlet (staffed by naked prostitutes offering soapy massages) is about [yen] 60,000--a price that is out of reach for most salarymen.
Strip clubs too are seen as expensive and old hat, and many exotic dancers are under pressure to broaden their appeal, says Tomomi Sawaguchi, who recently formed Japan's first union for sex workers. "The number of customers has fallen, so managers will ask some women to perform extra services on the cheap. I've seen foreign women having sex for as little as [yen] 1,000."
Rushing to fill the gap are the thousands of "fashion (sex) massage" outlets that sprang up nationwide in the 90s. With faster turnaround and cheaper labor costs (many are run and staffed by heavily exploited foreign workers), they offer sessions for as little as [yen] 10,000--keeping their services within range of the average male worker.
Sex message joins an increasingly long list of exotically titled innovations including imekura (image clubs), sumata (crotch play--an everything-but sex service designed to get around regulations banning intercourse in outlets) and "delivery health," or deliheru, a pizza-like business that dispatches a prostitute directly to your door for about [yen] 20,000 to [yen] 30,000.
"The life span of popular services used to be 22 years in the high economic growth era, but now it's less than three years," says analyst Takuro Morinaga of UFJ Research. "Firms are working harder to come up with innovations designed to add value to their services."
Many of these services flirt with the limits of the law and exploit mobile phone technology to do it. Prostitution, for example, is prohibited under the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956, helping to explain the huge growth of delivery health. Now a [yen] 461 billion annual business, says Kadokura, delivery health firms hook up working women with paying men by advertising on utility poles in most city neighbor hoods, using only a keitai number. What happens next takes place in the privacy of the client's home and is therefore out of reach of the law.
Many of the women have never met the people they work for. "They call me on my keitai, I get picked up by a driver and delivered to the client's house," says 26-year-old Jun, who works in the Hachioji area. "Afterwards I send them their cut by bank transfer and pocket the rest."
With operating as easy as that, the delivery health business has attracted thousands of budding entrepreneurs. Under the revised Entertainment Establishment Control Law of April 1999, companies must register these services, which provides some idea of how fast they have grown. National Police Agency figures show the number of businesses that "send out female companions" soared from 2,684 in 1999 to 12,251 by the end of 2002.
The sex business has also been a boon to cable, satellite and telecom companies. Consider the fee a mobile phone company pockets every time a user finds his way to a telephone sex business, which often advertises with mass calls to thousands of numbers. The female operators of de-ai businesses are then paid by the minute to keep men on the other end of the line, often by hinting at the possibility of sex.
"I worked in a nice, clean office in Shibuya. Everyone looked like salarymen and office ladies," says Narumi, who spent a year temping at a de-ai firm. "My job was to get men to talk for as long as I could by playing along with their fantasies. Sometimes they ran up bills of [yen] 10,000 to [yen] 20,000."
Other sex services such as telephone clubs terikura and even enjo kosai (or compensated dating) also rake in billions of yen for the telecom firms.
Official data on this sort of business is hard to come by, but in 2001 DoCoMo said that revenue from "non-official sites" was [yen] 250 million--practically all derived from adult and de-ai sites, according to Giles Richter of Mobile Media Japan.
Satellite companies and cable firms, many of which are involved with local governments, are reluctant to divulge revenues from porn, but content and equipment providers say it is significant. "They might not tell you, but people in the industry recognize that the real profits initially are in adult content," says Lincoln Owens, who is director of Asia-Pacific sales at SeaChange International Inc., the largest seller of video servers in the world.
"Pay-TV firms became big in the US by selling adult TV to hotels and other outlets, and they're now tire front-runners in cable. In Japan, one of the few cable and broadband content providers able to make money has 40,000 subscribers to streaming porn, and half the content on pay-per-view satellite is adult."
The impact of the Net
The other big losers in the recession have been adult content publishers and videogaphers. Sales of glossy adult magazines have been in steep decline for some time, falling by over 15 percent last year alone, according to the All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher's and Editor's Association.
Apart from the ever-shrinking average male budget, the main culprit is the Internet, which not only offers billions of free bytes for the curious surfer but often comes uncensored, a novelty for many in Japan where a mosaic-like effect called bokashi blocks out the sex organs.
"The Net has hit us hard," says Go Wada, editor of an adult magazine with Tatsumi Press in Tokyo. "Older guys have stayed with us but the youngsters have all drifted off to cyberspace."
Hiroyuki Tsunoda, president of one of Japan's biggest adult entertainment firms, Media Station Co. Ltd., which releases 15 titles a month under the brand Uchu Keikaku, also admits Net freebies have taken a big chunk out of his business, along with mobile phones, which have eaten up the disposable income of younger customers. "People have a lot more options now, and they can look at uncensored porn from US servers. We estimate video rentals are down by half compared to what they were 10 years ago."
These difficulties bring a rare industry call for government help from Tsunoda. "The government should be doing more to stop uncensored material," he says. "They should realize that this is just another industry and that illegal porn from abroad is hurting us."
Other industry insiders, however, such as Ganri Takahashi of Soft On Demand, say the problem is not falling demand but the failure of firms like Media Station to change quickly enough. "There has been an explosion in the number of genres, so it's no good just churning out the cute-girl-older-guy formula," he says. "If the industry offers imaginative quality products, customers will stay with us."
Most large adult video makers are dealing with the threat from cyberspace by moving online themselves. Media Station's Tsunoda says that about 7 percent of the firm's income currently comes from the Net, and this is likely to grow. "Profit is high because we've already shot the movie. Internet sales are an extra."
Machiki Katsumi of V&R Planning Co. Ltd., another large erotic-video maker, agrees. "About ten percent of our income now comes from the Internet, but there's no question that this will be a crucial part of this business in the near future, once people discover how to make real money from it. The problem at the moment is people will not yet pay for something they can get for free."
The Internet is only one of a raft of new delivery methods that is transforming the industry and leaving video in the technological dustbin. Most adult firms are phasing out VHS for DVD, and many sell directly to satellite and cable companies. All agree that broadband will be hugely important for the industry.
"Until now, people who consumed porn had to find somewhere to keep it," says V&R's Katsumi. "Most didn't want wives or children to find it. The Internet conveniently solved this problem because you don't have an actual product lying around anywhere. Once the quality improves, and it takes less time to access and download the stuff, it will take off."
RELATED ARTICLE: The Ray Kroc of adult video.
Ganari Takahashi is the telegenic president of Soft on Demand, one of Japan's fastest growing porn companies. Now in its eighth year of business, SOD has grown from a company with six employees to a staff of 180 and profits of [yen] 1.5 billion on sales of [yen] 7.8 billion. SOD currently releases 1,000 titles on DVD and video a year. You might think Takahashi would be happy, but far from it. Takahashi wants to destroy the competition, transform adult entertainment in Japan into a mainstream business, open up the market for women and become the "McDonald's of adult entertainment."
JI: HOW'S BUSINESS?
GT: Great. We're aiming for market share by dropping prices, increasing our titles and smashing our rivals--it's the McDonald's formula. Years ago there were about 400 car markers in Japan. Now all that's left is Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda. There are currently about 1,000 adult-film companies. I'd like to make this into 100. The remaining 900 release garbage and fool customers.
We should be aiming higher in this industry. Look at Titanic. It cost $2 billion, but you could buy the video for [yen] 3,000. Why should adult videos, which are much cheaper to make, cost [yen] 4,000! We aim to make high-quality products and sell to a much bigger market, allowing us to cut costs and still make expensive products. Even after paying taxes we're still left with over [yen] 700 or [yen] 800 million in profits--that gives us the power to remove the small makers and sellers. That's our strategy.
JI: Those are ambitious plans. How will you achieve them?
GT: We want to create a relationship of trust between adult entertainment and its customers. Right now, guys buy three videos in the hope that one will be good. I want to become the Sony of adult entertainment, a byword for quality. People should rely on us.
I also want to sell to women. We need to create outlets where women won't feel embarrassed about buying porn. If we create an industry like Universal Pictures with big stars, women will definitely buy.
We have to create an industry where people are not just viewing adult material furtively in their rooms but where customers, women included, regularly buy our products. We should sell in convenience stores. If we stay hidden we'll never become part of mainstream culture, but if we make it a cool industry with attractive stars all out in the open, women will come to us. Japanese women don't think for themselves; they change their opinions based on what everyone around them is thinking.
JI: How about investment?
GT: I want to list the firm, but the nature of our business causes problems. The stock market authorities wanted us to cut our adult products to under 20 percent. They eventually agreed to 50 percent, but I don't think there's anything wrong with adult entertainment so I told them no and that's where it stands. We're now thinking of the Nasdaq. Within two or three years, I think we'll have a good chance of listing.
JI: Has the recession had an impact on business?
GT: We're like Eskimos. In Hawaii, if the temperature drops 10 degrees people complain that the weather is freezing. But native Alaskans are used to the cold. In this industry, we've always been out in the cold, so we have no expectations that the economy is going to get better or worse, or that the government is going to help us out.
People who would never think of doing something like this if the economy were good are coming into the business--I know because I'm one of them. If I had succeeded elsewhere, I wouldn't have started making adult videos.
That said, the recession and the rush of people into the business are helping to slash prices. Seven years ago the retail price of an average adult video was about [yen] 10,000. Now it's down to about [yen] 2,500. The cost of making a video seven years ago was about [yen] 2 million, now it's about [yen] 5.5 million.
JI: Is it easy to find "talent" for your products?
GT: Yes, and it's getting easier, because the morals of Japanese women are falling. There used to be an education system here that taught women that this sort of thing was wrong.
JI: Do you take any responsibility for this?
GT: We're all to blame, yes. Parents are teaching their children the wrong values. We lost the war to America and now we are losing to American values. Have fun whatever else you do--that idea comes from America, and that's why the number of hedonists is on the rise in this country. I would like to return Japan to its Bushido past, when people worked not for themselves but for their country, their firm, their family and parents. That was the Bushido idea.
JI: Do you have plans to sell abroad?
GT: We're already started to sell in the US. We set up a company there three years ago and we're sending two people over there this year as staffers. Americans are used to straight intercourse--just like their steaks, big and bland. I want to sell them high-quality Kobe Beef. American porn goes straight from the screen to the crotch. We stimulate the imagination. This may not work in Texas, but we'll start in white collar areas like San Francisco and New York.
JI: What has been the impact of technology on this business?
GT: The best thing about the last five years is Digital Video Discs. DVD currently accounts for about 70 or 80 percent of our products. In two years VHS will be gone. DVD is cheaper to mass produce. A 180-minute VHS tape that used to cost [yen] 500 can be made on DVD for about [yen] 250 and even [yen] 200. The discs are smaller than tapes so you can store them, they're better quality, and you can put lots of extras on them. The viewer can become the director, so men with fetishes will be able to focus on breasts or other parts of the body.
So far, the Internet has had little impact on us because the quality is bad. You can see naked women all over the place now, so people are searching for quality sex products. But it will become important, there's no doubt about that. We're looking now at the costs of broadband. We reckon we can deliver adult movies directly to homes for [yen] 2,500 a pop.
JI: What do you say to people who hate this industry?
GT: I think we have to make people trust this industry. People who work in adult video have very loose morals, to tell you the truth. They have affairs, multiple sex partners. I don't. I'm married with kids. None of my managers interfere with the women. If we show people we're serious like this we'll be accepted. And if we make money we'll give some of it away to charities.
We also have to pay taxes, lots of taxes! This will be our biggest contribution, I think. The problem is people in this industry are afraid of the authorities, which is why they stay in the shadows. If the cops stop us, this industry will go back to the dark ages.
RELATED ARTICLE: The one-man show.
Rio Yasuda is what they call a hamedori, or a one-man porn director, one of hundreds that supply the voracious porn industry with material. Yasuda writes and edits stories and shoots and acts in his own videos before selling them to magazines, satellite companies like SkyPerfecTV and Paradise TV and, increasingly, Webcasters. The 35-year-old does three shoots a week with women hired from modeling agencies, a job he claims is not as easy as it looks. "I can't to do it anymore without Viagra, and it blocks my nose, makes my heart go too fast and gives me a headache." The compensation is revenue of [yen] 1.2 million a month, about half of which comes from growing Internet sales.
FOR ME, AT LEAST, adult magazines are stuck in the past. They're in terrible shape. People can find free porn photographs on the Net so they wonder why they should pay for it. The only adult publications that are selling well now are weekly-type magazines called jitsuwa, or true-life stories, which are actually full of lies. But they sell for about [yen] 300 to [yen] 400, cheaper than glossy magazines, and they're quite full of material so they're good value for money.
The influence of convenience stores is also very important for magazine sales. You used to be able to get adult publications in small book stores, but they're all nearly gone now and the bigger stores won't stock them. That leaves the family stores. but they're really strict about what they sell and they are really powerful now.
Adult video is a little better because most have long term relationships with retailers for a certain number of releases, and this hasn't really changed. But the Internet will definitely hurt video sales too.
I'm focusing on the Net, on Web streaming. I make half my income from Net sales now, and it's growing. Most Net firms still can't make money, but they will someday. Credit card sales will become more popular. Magazines won't die, but they will become a niche industry. The bigger picture is that there will just be so much more of this stuff around, the market will get much tougher.
The porn satellite boss
Porn barons probably don't get more affable than Michiyuki Matsunaga, the 56-year-old president of 24-hour sex channel Paradise TV. A self-confessed family man, Matsunaga positions photos of his children and grandchildren on his office desk beside images of his company's Bacchanalian shenanigans in the four-story building that houses his company in West ShinjuKu.
An award-winning documentary filmmaker before trying his hand with satellite porn after the airwaves were liberalized in the late 90s, Matsunaga now claims revenue of over [yen] 100 million a month in subscription fees from cable and satellite operators and love hotels in Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii and elsewhere.
During our interview a television monitor in the corner of the room shows a semi-naked woman pottering around her small apartment "somewhere in Tokyo." "She's an ordinary housewife," says Matsunaga. "We pay her [yen] 30,000 to [yen] 40,000 a day to have a fixed camera on her all the time.
"I worked in the sales department of a company called Tsuburaya (makers of Ultraman) for 10 years. When I was there I learned that the big issue was copyright. You could merchandize Ultraman all over the place, sell abroad, repeat broadcast. They haven't made Ultraman in years, but it still makes money.
"When the broadcast market was deregulated I decided to go into business, but licenses were hard to get. The qualifications were tough, and you needed a lot of capital to start up. We finally got our license in 1998, but we had no programs and no money left, so I decided to make something that is cheap and which few others will touch--adult entertainment.
What do we make? Anything that sells. Naked English lessons, people having sex in front of a panel of judges, housewives, young guys, old men. It's all a bit of harmless fun, but people do the stupidest things in this business!
Our strength is that we own all the rights to our shows and we broadcast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We employ 80 people, up from 15 at the start. Our big customer is SkyPerfecTV. We earn up to [yen] 85 million a month from selling to them. About another [yen] 20 million comes from cable TV and love hotels, and we sell video-on-demand to Hawaii.
We market products over the Interact in English, Russian, Korean and Japanese. We have 10,000 subscribers a month paying [yen] 2,000 each, and we have also started to sell short clips to keitai companies. The Net is becoming a bigger part of our business, but it's still comparatively small.
RELATED ARTICLE: The star of the show.
One of Japan's highest-earning adult actresses and probably its most famous until she retired a few months ago, Maria Yumeno turns up in a West Shinjuku coffee shop rife with salarymen. She wears a short and glittering gold dress that barely covers her ample assets and brings male faces swiveling in our direction.
"JAPANESE MEN LOVE BIG breasts," she says, popping out a bare breast for closer inspection. "You're going red," she adds. "That's cute, but why are you embarrassed?
"I'm just playing a role, like a movie actress," she continues, slipping the wayward breast back into its gold pouch "When I step out the door, a switch goes on in my head and I become Maria Yumeno, the pore star who loves sex. It's not the real me. I designed and made her and now I act her. I know who I really am. She's like my best friend. If I didn't keep her separate from myself, I'd go crazy."
Like many in the sex industry, Yumeno has a published profile that is entirely bogus. The 24-year-old from Tokyo is in fact a 30-year-old from Yamaguchi who worked as a graphic designer after leaving school. The fact that she didn't begin her movie career until she was in her mid 20s--making her older and smarter than many of her counterparts--and that she still looks about 19 helps explain her career longevity.
Since (literally) bursting onto the scene in 1998, Maria has made over 60 movies, many with titles that play on the supposed erotic pleasures of her manga-like 37-inch bust and skinny girl's body. Walk into any big video rental store and you'll find Maria staring out of the covers of The Wild Bust, My Neighbor's Sister Has a G-Cup, The Busty Slave and the classic Give Me Endless F * * *.
It's just a role, but does it make her uncomfortable to have millions of men obsessed with her?
"Not at all," Yumeno says. "If they don't enjoy my movies, I'm not doing my job properly. The older they are, the harder I have to work, but that's okay. That's what I'm paid to do."
The cliches for why people work in the porn industry--childhood trauma and abuse, low self-esteem and absent fathers--are quite often true. Maria's father disappeared when she was a child and she says many women work in the industry precisely because they hate men and think porn is one way of symbolically controlling them. But don't underestimate the draw of porn's quick money and the passport out of a life of drudgery in a gray corporate bunker.
Top AV stars earn up to [yen] 3 million a movie, but they have a very limited shelf life--and their price goes down, not up. Most of the men, on the other hand, are willing to work for [yen] 100,000 or less. Machiki Katsumi, general manager of adult filmmaker V&R Planning Co., claims actresses can earn enormous sums of money in what is probably the only industry in Japan that pays women four or five times what men earn.
"A single shoot pays about [yen] 200,000," says Katsumi. "Some women like to work straight through, say for 20 days, when they can earn as much as [yen] 4 million. Some are obviously in financial trouble. But more important is the rise of part-time working culture. A lot of people just want to work for short periods and earn as much money as they can."
Most women are recruited by the ubiquitous scoots around Tokyo's large stations (Yumeno was scouted in Shibuya), but some walk through the door after seeing profiles of sex workers in easily available magazines like Tinkle and Bustier. Many of the smarter women recruit managers, sometimes from unusual places. "We had a girl come in here one day with her mother," claims Hiroyuki Tsunoda, president of Media Station Co. Women who last longest often carve out niches for themselves and earn a semi-loyal following.
"My specialty is breaking down the defenses of guys who are really straight-laced and having sex with them, but I've also done violent stuff, getting raped by three guys, that sort of thing," Yumeno says with a smile. "As soon as the director shouts 'cut!,' the guys completely change, start asking me if I'm all right. It's just a role. I don't hate men. Most of them are good to me, but they're weak."
Lots of men think women work in porn because they like sex.
"That's because we're good at our jobs. We make them think that. If they don't think that, we've failed."
The worst thing about the job, according to Yumeno, is "keeping a boyfriend. First of all, finding a guy who doesn't get jealous. Some men say they don't care and understand it's just a job, but most get jealous afterward. If I don't tell them who I am, someone will tell them or they'll check out my past, but I'm not interested in that sort of man anyway. There are few guys who are strong enough to stay around."
Yumeno has never hung around with her fellow actresses, most of whom she calls "stupid. I like people who are strong, who know themselves, like writers and artists. I like traveling. I've been all over Europe. I love art."
So what happens to porn actresses when they retire? Yumeno is trying to find out by transforming herself into an "all-round entertainer," venturing into singing, acting in variety programs, drama shows, movies and even webcasting (see www.yumenomaria.tv).
Her advice for aspiring actresses?
"If you really want to do it, then try it. But if you're half-hearted about it, forget it. Work in a Seven-Eleven."
* DAVID McNEIL (Sexy and Smart, page 58) is a Tokyo-based freelance writer from Ireland whose writing is carried by the London Independent, The Irish Times and the South China Morning Post. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology and spent five years university teaching in the UK before moving to Tokyo in 2000. "I personally find porn boring and have all the usual moral objections to commodifying sex, but I'm fascinated by the motivations of the characters who work in the industry."
COPYRIGHT 2003 Japan Inc. Communications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
David McNeil "Sexy and smart: one sector that won't be left behind: Japan's massive sex industry has shifted from bricks-and-mortar deflation to Internet elation - Industry Overview". Japan, Inc.. FindArticles.com. 02 Jun, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NTN/is_47/ai_108722615/
COPYRIGHT 2003 Japan Inc. Communications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
Source: http://findarticles.com
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