The Taichung County Bureau of Health is in negotiations with a Japanese adult video star popular in Taiwan as part of a public health promotion drive, bureau officials said.
If the negotiations bear fruit, Akane Nagase, who has already featured in half a dozen adult videos, will be the spokeswoman of the bureau's upcoming anti-HIV campaign aimed at getting Taiwanese men to practice safe sex.
Nagase first attracted media attention last September amid reports that she was working as a China Airlines stewardess when she started appearing in adult videos. China Airlines has neither confirmed nor denied the claims.
She will be visiting Taiwan on a tour later in the year. The bureau hopes she can take some time while she is in the country to work on the campaign for a nominal fee, bureau personnel said.
Bureau director Chu Nain-feng (
"She wants to give back to society," Chu said. "The details of the project have yet to be settled, but I don't foresee any difficulties."
However, the decision has provoked a backlash from those who question whether it is appropriate to feature a porn star in a public health initiative sponsored by a government body.
"What is the message that the bureau is trying to spread? It's OK to do whatever as long as you wear a condom?" Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (
"We are taking a counterintuitive approach to fighting AIDS," said Tsai Wen-che (蔡文哲), head of the bureau's disease control division, in defense of the proposed plan.
"Our top priority is to get people to pay attention," Tsai said. "And judging from the amount of media attention the case has generated, we are having some success already."
"Are you serious? The health bureau?" Jim Oong (
Oong is the founder of Condom World (
"All efforts to promote safe sex should be encouraged." Oong said. "But the bureau's choice of a spokesperson is very controversial and will likely polarize society."
Oong said the decision reminded him of a previous plan by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to drive down HIV transmission by getting "betelnut beauties" to hand out condoms. The plan was nixed after generating widespread disapproval and derision.
Oong told the Taipei Times that if the authorities were serious about encouraging condom use, they should start by relaxing laws regulating the availability of condoms.
"Because condoms are still regulated as a medical instrument, a lot of channels for selling and promoting sales are curtailed," Oong said. "For instance, we are not allowed to sell condoms online."
"I think it's creative," said Tseng Chao-yuan (曾昭媛), general-secretary of the Awakening Foundation, an organization that promotes gender equality.
"A lot of women end up with AIDS because their husbands were unfaithful," Tseng said. "It only makes sense to direct the ads at men."
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