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Ai Iijima Early life
In her autobiography Iijima describes a troubled early life. Ai Iijima was raped in her early teens, and had an abortion, She ran away from home as a teenager, later stating, “I hated my parents, to the point where I would rather be coached by bums to sleep in parks wrapped in newspaper blankets

Iijima’s adult video debut was in 1992, and she quickly became the top AV actress of the time, appearing in over 100 films. She became a hostess on the nighttime television program, Gilgamesh Night, where she became known as the “T-Back Queen,” for her practise of turning her rear to the camera, lifting her skirt and flashing her G-string, known in Japan as a “T-Back”

Ai Iijima Book “Platonic Sex”
In 2000 Iijima published Platonic Sex, a semi-autobiographical novel about a young girl who leaves home to escape her parents and ends up as an adult movie star. The book was a best-seller, selling over 1.7 million copies.By 2004, the book had been translated into many language

In 2001, Ai Iijima caused a media storm with the publication of her memoirs. The provocatively titled Platonic Sex received huge media exposure and went on to be a bestseller, shifting over a million copies. It tells of how ai iijima was raped while in her early teens, driven away from home by the pressure from her parents to excel at school, had an abortion, got involved in the euphemistically named “enjo kosai” (dating for money) and finally entered the porn business. The book was adapted into a four-hour TV series and even a mainstream movie. This all served to make ai iijima something of a heroine and role model for high school girls all over Japan.

Iijima Later Career
By 2002, Iijima had become a regular on several TV shows. With her pornographic past a decade away, Iijima was so well-known as a mainstream TV celebrity that many younger members of her audience were unaware that she had once been one of the top AV actresses. Ai Iijima is a famous TV celebrity in Japan. She has starred in TV shows such as “Gilgamesh Night” (1992-1995), “Magical Zuno Power” and “Start Dokiri”.

Retirement

Late in 2006, she took two weeks off from her position as panelist on the Sunday morning TV variety show, Sunday Japon. She later revealed in her blog that she was suffering from health problems, causing rumors of her possible retirement from show business to circulate in the press. In March 2007, when asked by the host of Sunday Japon whether rumors of her retirement were true, Iijima replied, “Yes, I have been wanting to quit for some time. I will announce my future plans next week.”

Ai Iijima’s retirement at the age of 34 brings an end to what has been called “one of the more remarkable careers in the cutthroat Japanese entertainment world.