In about 18 hours, I will go on live with a panel of guest to discuss Tokyo’s new bill on NicoNico Douga: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv34395435
The broadcast will take place Sunday 14:00~17:00 on December 12th, Japan standard time.
I’ll be talking mostly in Japanese, but I would like to share some overseas input on this bill on the program.
If you have feedback you’d like me to share, please write to my email address.
dank_1972=at=yahoo.co.jp
Please replace the =at= with the @ symbol.
Make sure to read my recent blog posts. I don’t want be correcting people over and over about the bill.
– This is a Tokyo ordinance bill, so while it is not a national legislation, it will still have a profound impact because all publishers and anime companies are centered in Tokyo.
– This is not a ban, but it penalizes any publisher and producer of material that Tokyo considers to be harmful to minors. Unlike in the US, retailers have less responsibility, i.e. if a book they sell is marketed as a general audience by the publisher, but Tokyo deems it to be harmful, then it is the publisher’s responsibility to recall all the books.
– Tokyo already has the power to designate anything that is too sexually stimulating for minors OR too sadistic for minors OR too likely to cause criminal acts among minors OR cause suicide among minors as “harmful material”, and force such material to be treated as adult only material.
– This bill does not target simple nudity and panties showing up on the screen, but will make it more difficult to conduct social commentary on difficult issues of sex and relationships since fictional material must adhere to real life criminal codes AND not celebrate relationships between close relatives who can’t marry in real life, or their material may be considered harmful to minors.
– This bill does not target “hentai” (which is a term we don’t even use in Japan). All material already marketed as adults only is exempt, since those titles are considered to be inaccessible to minors.
– And please be polite. Strong words are fine but respect keeps channels of commination open.
Also KEEP IT SHORT! Try to be concise and direct, with a clear flow of logic. I can’t read on the air long pieces, let along translate them all in time for the broadcast tomorrow.
And if you could, write “Overseas input to Bill 156” in the subject line. That will make it easier for me recover any messages that gets mixed up with spam.
Please feel free to submit your opinions, but understand time might be limited and I might may not be able read all that many. Also note that since I have to translate the feedback into Japanese, I’ll give priority on feedback I get earlier, since I’ll have more timet to review the text.
If possible, please attach your name and where you are writing from.
You don’t have to write out your full name, a first name would be fine.
I’ll go over the feedback I already have gotten to see if I might be able to share some of those as well.
Dan Kanemitsu's Paper Trail 
This bill makes no sense and will only prevent and take away from creative freedom. Time and money should be better spent on other important political matters. The bill should not be passed! There are more harmful displays in real life than in comics or fictional material.
I wanted to say I am from Canada and my name is Leandra
So did it pass or what?
So, Dan.
How’d the panel go?
Dan firsto of all thanks for all the info. keep the hard work and fight hard, this crap should’n pass, never. i really think that even if the bill do not pass mangakas and anime studios should move away from Tokyo prefecture as protest against these stupid conservative politicians and boycot every TMG event from now on. this stupid witch hunt based on nothing should be stopped.
As an industry professional whose business relies solely on the licensing of new anime content for our domestic market, i am concerned about the impact this bill may have on an already struggling industry. I am also concerned about the harm the Governor’s conflict of interest with TIAF is having. I wonder if it will even be worth my while to visit next year’s market and event if 10 publishers have already decided to boycott it.
i’m sorry for the folowing question,
i know the fact of how vage is the proposed bill,
however could you explain me the term?;
“This bill does not target simple nudity and panties showing up on the screen”
the sentence means that so called “fanservice” anime as to love ru or yosuga no sora will be not affected?
This is BS, Why don’t they just admit it. They want to make a legal attack against the otaku culture. We line in 2010 and many sub cultures are still under attack from people who know little about it and only look at it’s dark side. If this passes i can guarantee that there will be organizations that will be willing to got to in a sense “war” over this matter
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A message from a Canadian otaku
This bill makes no sense.
Fictional work cannot portray fictional situations to minors because children will become criminals from watching a girl fall in love with her brother.
But hardcore porn where siblings have intercourse is completely unaffected.
Thank You for your hard work on gaining Infos Dan.
But I do feel that if this bill passes, they will corner the anime industry.
no evidence yet, but I do feel.
Hello, you can call me Mort. I’ll be both emailing this to you and leaving it in your comments.
The fact that this bill is exclusively aimed at games, anime and manga makes it clear that its a direct attack on the industries because of their non mainstream audience, something I find extremely offensive. Its not about “the children”, as they put it, its about attacking the industries they don’t particularly like. The man most responsible for backing the bill, I’m unsure of if he is a governor or a mayer, Shintaro Ishihara, has repeatedly insulted anime fans, as well as homosexuals and foreigners.
The U.S.A. had to suffer through something like this. A hack psycologist name Fredrik Wertham published a book where falsely accused American comic books of the same things anime and manga are being blame for now. This lead to a senate hearing that destroyed the comic book industry for over a decade.
I’m unsure of just what the bill means by “penalize”. I’m assuming a fine, or a special tax. Its very unclear what constitutes as harmful to minors and where the line is between material that will be penalized and material that isn’t. It is complete garbage. I feel sorry for the people that will be affected by this.
Sent in a message. Good luck and thank you, I hope this makes a difference.
ToLoveRu is safe then?
Thanks, heavens
It’s utterly ridiculous; not only is it a massive assault on freedom of speech, but it also damages several industries that employ a vast swath of the population (including secondary industries related to the production of anime, manga and video games, such as advertisers, retailers, etc) at a time when the economies of the world are struggling. On top of this, it stifles creativity due to it’s blanket nature on three mediums that are capable of great imagination and writing.
This is an incredibly irresponsible piece of legislation.
It’s hard for me to place any input into this sort of thing, because culture is much different Japan than it is here in the US. The closest piece of legislation I know of here is the Video Game Violence bill first proposed by Leland Yee in California. While a good majority would rather see content control at the government level, I think a greater majority of Americans believe that parental responsibility and education go further to educate youth in the dangers of media. I’m not familiar with how Japan perceives these sorts of things really, but bills like these are designed to be bent and broken to serve purposes only politicians can, and it will no doubt hurt the industry.
This bill will restrict both the manga-ka’s creativity as well as limit the options for manga publishing companies. If the target audience is smaller, then they won’t make as much money, therefore having no incentive to run with the material. What we consider to be a good series may never hit the market at all, much less be available to us overseas. It’s a bit depressing t0 think that such a vague bill will be passed at all. I thought politicians were smarter than that. Anime and manga have such a large following, and all they’re doing is stirring up the hornet’s nest. All of these people who have come to love them will not be happy about this. I suppose they best be prepared for lots of hate mail.
-Jordan from the United States
I can understand and support the potion that is against rape but the rest is totaly uncalled for
Can you ask why this specifically excludes all non-anime non-manga media, including that of junior idol DVDs?
That would be a pretty awesome thing to bring up.