An AV idol (AVアイドル, Ēbui aidoru, short for adult video idol) or AV actress (AV女優, Ēbui joyū) is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances vary widely, from suggestive softcore imagery to hardcore pornography. The industry is noted for having frequent turnovers; since the dawn of the AV industry in the early 1980s, hundreds of AV idols have debuted every year, with an average career span of about a year, appearing in five or ten videos during that time. Few notable AV idols have careers spanning longer than a decade, have a wide general public recognition, or make a significant impact on the industry in some other manner.