Japan's oldest "love doll" manufacturer wants to strip the sex toys of their seedy image and encourage people to see them as works of art instead.

"Even now there is still a stigma," said Junpei Oguchi, a representative for Tokyo-based sex doll maker Orient Industry, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with a three-week exhibition showing the evolution of its dolls that drew over 10,000 visitors.

"But at our exhibition there were lots of men and women visitors --- more women than men, in fact," he said. "There were young and old, men and women, a really wide range of people. I think people came because they had heard the reputation of how beautiful our dolls are. We want to get rid of the stigma."

Orient Industry was founded in 1977 by former sex shop owner Hideo Tsuchiya, who noticed that customers who had bought inflatable latex sex dolls from his store were returning to complain of punctures. Tsuchiya sold his shop and used the money to set up his own business with the aim of manufacturing a more durable product.

Orient Industry, which is based in Tokyo's Ueno district and has a factory in Katsushika Ward, now employs 26 workers including makeup artists and face sculptors, many of whom are art school graduates.