I’ve come across two news pieces written in English about Bill 156, the anti-manga and anime bill.
http://news.ph.msn.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4520127
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gki-de1I98pzkhVt_AoDLyTUPEAw?docId=CNG.08de11db341f822637c427df96d6839a.711
These two are pretty similar, but I’m certain more such articles will pop up in the near future.
“Tokyo bill set to restrict ‘extreme sex’ manga” and “Japan has long been a major source of child pornography.” are completely false statements.
First, regarding the child pornography allegation.
Before Japan adopted child pornography laws in 1999, there was a lot of real life child pornography or to be more specific child sexual abuse material coming out of Japan, but since the law was enacted Japan’s participation in the production of child pornography sank like a rock.
As of 2009, the British watchdog organization Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reports Asia as a whole only hosts 7% of child sexual abuse material being supplied into the Internet.
http://www.iwf.org.uk/resources/trends#Location
North America is at 48% and Europe is at 44%.
This has consistently been the case.
According to the IWF, between 1996 to 2006 51% of servers that hosted child abuse images were located in the United States, 20% was in Russia, 7% was in Spain, and only 5% was located in Japan.
(Unfortunately the link I used for this when I did research in 2008 is currently invalid — http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.archive-2006.179.htm — but a quick search on Google will prove that the file did exist at one point. If anyone could provide me with the current where abouts of this file, I would appreciate it.)
What about consumers of child pornography?
For this we have the Italian watchdog organization Telefono Arcobaleno’s 2009 report.
http://www.telefonoarcobaleno.org/report2009-eng_web.pdf
Top 10 Nationality of Internet Paedophiles:
No.1 – USA at 22.3%
No.2 – Germany at 17.6%
No.3 – Great Britian at 6.5%
No.4 – Russia at 6.1%
No.5 – Italy at 5.0%
No.6 – France at 4.8%
No.7 – Canada at 3.0%
No.8 – Spain at 2.3%
No.9 – The Netherlands at 2.2%
No.10 – Sweden at 1.8%
What about Japan? They’re way down at 16th place with 1.5%.
This is important to keep in mind. While the supply of fictional depictions of youth engaged in sexual acts can be considered abundant in Japan, it does not constitute a majority of manga and anime, and it is also clear it has very little spill-over effect regarding real child pornography. In other words, the gateway argument (virtual child porn leads to real child porn) clearly appears to be false.
Regarding Japan’s laws over child pornography and why they don’t currently ban possession, read this: https://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/what-is-the-big-deal-with-child-pornography-in-japan/
Now back to the other quote: “Tokyo bill set to restrict ‘extreme sex’ manga”
Any readers of my blog would understand Bill 156 is a MORALITY issue, not a PORNOGRAPHY issue. It is a SUBJECT MATTER RESTRICTION!
I’m sorry being so rude in making that statement, but I am pretty tired of having to repeat, over and over and over, how people need to read the text of the bill and not relay what pundits say about it. Journalists should know better.
Extreme sex manga, i.e. manga that is sexually stimulating, is already subject to restriction. Bill 156 attempts to regulate anti-social and immoral depictions portrayal of sexual relationships that the authors of the bill believe could contribute to the delinquency of youth.
As you already know, 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.
Bill 156, essentially stipulates all sexual acts that would be illegal in real life OR sexual depictions between close relatives who could not legally get married to be treated as adult material if they are presented in “unjustifiably glorified or exaggerated manner.”
To see complete details of the bill, go here.
On the subject of minor’s access to adult material, both the publishing industry and animation industry has multiple layers of self-regulation, especially the publishing industry. For example, the industry already self regulates “border-line” type magazines in convenience stores by closing them with tape. Hard core erotica is generally self-regulated as being adult only titles. This holds true for both commercial publications as well as doujinshis.
The debate over Bill 156 was how far should the line be drawn, not if a line should be drawn regarding minor’s access.
Proponents of Bill 156 said there is too much borderline erotica and many works exist that, while may not be explicit, they still should be regulated because they could warp minor’s conception of what a “healthy sexuality” should be.
So, I call upon many English speakers of the my blog, try to make your voice heard in any way that you can, to try to break the perpetuation of the notion that Japan is a free for all when it comes to child pornography and erotic subjects in anime and manga and video games. But make sure to be polite!
Unless this misconception is fought effectively overseas, it will become a heavy weight that will burden Japan’s advocates who continue to fight so that manga and anime and video games can continue to be a free as possible and be as innovative and creative as possible.
While Bill 156 might not kill the industry, if this misconception gets out of hand, it will embolden advocates in Japan that would like to conduct outright bans and pre-censorship, and that could become a blow to creative freedom that might irreparably harm Japan’s proud and bold artistic communities of anime and manga and video game.
Please help to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Everything you need is included in the blog entries that I have written.
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Dan Kanemitsu's Paper Trail 
The most wide-spread misconception I see on a loth of anime forums is actually that this bill goes after fan-service and highschool comedy’s and such, which is obviously not true…
I can understand your reasoning in the last paragraph, but I do wonder: who are those advocates? Nobody is talking about outright bans. I don’t see how on earth you could ever get a mayority for that? I mean, the DPJ would never support it, and I have a hard time believing the LDP would, after all, they just went trough all this trouble to convince everyone they were not banning anything.
I answered this later on, but I’ll repeat it.
There are numerous ideologues in Japan who would like to regulate, isolate, censor and/or pre-censor any fiction that sexualizes minors and/or sexual depictions in fiction that some feel perpetuates discrimination or violence against women. Old school moralists would like to turn back the clock, while radical progressives want to legislate morality to purge discriminatory ideologies out of the minds of citizens.
Religion does play a part, but not as much as you might expect compared to the US and other Western nations.
An outright ban something some do have in their minds, and this was considered the first step toward that.
Just as alarming is the institutionalization of content regulation. Now certain topics are subject to governmental oversight, regardless of graphicness of the depiction. That in of itself scares me a lot.
Remember, human rights are never stripped away in one big sweep. They are chipped way, little by little.
Unfortunately, acknowledging that you know anything about any of the subjects discussed above is enough to destroy your social standing.
It’s a little like suggesting that maybe–just maybe–jihadis don’t eat babies every day: it’s a sure sign of being a terrorist sympathiser.
well, i think, sankaku complex is also a main reason, why many people think, it’s a ban article. few days ago i also thought, it’s something like a ban. but this burogu cleared my mind.
Looking for more information on Bill 156, I found an interesting article on Sankaku Complex. Sankaku isn’t the most reliable news source, though, so could you give some comment on these fragments?
…the law also includes “etc.” on the end of most of its examples, leaving it quite unclear, for example, whether the “improper glorification of illegal sexual activity, etc.” applies to only virtual sex crimes, or all crimes in general – presumably the interpretation adopted will be whichever is convenient to censors.
The generally expected form the law will take is that of a “amakudari” (a pervasive system of sinecures for retired bureaucrats) body which will inspect all anime, manga and games, with only those titles receiving approval as “healthy” able to be sold regularly in Tokyo shops – the rest will be relegated to the “adult corner.”
The law probably also spells the end of most late night anime in Tokyo (and by extension, everywhere else), which it would appear to ban under its distribution clause
There is also some doubt as to whether Comiket will be able to be held under the new regulations
Thanks Dan for the info. Of course these articles are full of lies and ignorance, someone should tell them to stop spreading false statements. Back to anime and manga i don’t know what to think about the matter. You know, i can’t trust politicians, they don’t care about people problems they care only of themselves and their moral.
But my worry is what happen to manga like Kiss x sis? Aki-sora? Or shows like Yosuga no sora? These kind of show are ecchi stories with a plot but not hentai, BL too, i’m wondering what’s happen if they go further and use this vague bill to limiting these works?
This bill souldn’t pass in the first place and instead to go only for anime, manga and vn they should go for something more real and more important for the japanese youth. DPJ should vote against this crap, this is an insult to true anime fans all around the world. -_-
There are a number of archived versions of that article you mentioned earlier here: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.archive-2006.179.htm
Thanks for the information.
That link seems to be broken due to the * character in the URL, though you can copy and paste it into your URL bar.
Thank for clearing some of that up, that tabloid blog which shall remain nameless has always been both sensationalist about anything that can ban lolicon or it’s subgenres. I was one of the many who is feeling tense over this issue.
@Mika-chan: well I have to admit I usually don’t watch those kind of shows, I eather watch hentai (which is not affected) or, usually, “normal” series like fullmetal alchemist, bleach, higschool of the dead, lucky star, k-on, evangelion, etc, which also won’t be affected (fan service is not covered by this bill).
Anyway, *if* they are covered, then they have to put an 18+ mark on the front of it and that’s it. (like a PEGI 18+ rating for video games.)
@Liam Zwitser
Actually the wording of the bill is INCREDIBLY vague:
“Any material that may be detrimental toward the healthy development of youth because of their capacity to be sexually stimulating, encourages cruelty, and/or may compel suicide or criminal behavior.”
‘Sexually stimulating’ could be interpreted to mean anything. Misato chugging a beer and then leaning forward while her boobs hang out of her shirt into the camera can be, under the terms of the law, deemed ‘sexually stimulating.’
What the matter will come down to is of course -who- is doing the interpretation. Obviously this will end up being the same 60+ politicians who created the bill and are pushing for it in the first place. Why would they take the effort of deliberately using such vague terminology if they’re not intending to use it to the full extent?
some people are saying the law can be used to target anything because it also has a clause about “sexually stimulating, violent etc.” but that is not a part of the new law. That clause has existed for years. The only new clause is the one about the overly glorified depictions of illegal sexual acts.
Also, the commitee that decides which publications are harmfull won’t change. (it will get some more resources on request of the DPJ tough, or atleast that seems to follow from what Dan wrote yesterday) So it is highly unlikely that anything that does not fall under the new clause will be affected if it is not already regulated, since the criteria for these products haven’t changed and the people reviewing them, are the same as well.
So yeah, stuff like Highschool of the Dead (which has fanservice, but that doesn’t fall under this definition), and offcourse series like fullmetal alchemist, bleach etc. (i.e. all the “mainstream” action/fantasy/sci-fi/highschool comedy etc. series) are not affected by this bill. Since for them, the criteria to be harmfull has been the same for years and doesn’t change.
Fanservice isn’t covered by the bill? Are you sure? Because wouldn’t that fall under the “sexual stimulation” parts of the bill?
If so then this would alleviate a good part of my fears; my big fears are that shows like Toaru Majutsu no Index will be 18+ -ed and they’ll die out or go down in quality from a reuction in profits. (due to minors being unable to buy them)
Although I’m afraid that Kruoko’s (my favorite character of Toaru Index) yuri outgoings will be hit by this, because it falls under homosexuality. (the series doesn’t show anything explicit beyond Kuroko trying to jump Mikoto while naked, but the vagueness of this law in some areas worries me)
I am afraid that this actually would cover those too, not directly, but by morality. That is what I am afraid of, It wouldn’t effect the manga or anime directly, but it would make the publisher, and the producers unstable.
The purpose of the bill is of course made a fear feel in the publishers. Hope all follow the example of Sueisha and continue to do what they want and fight the bill hard.
I believe the whole thing about rape is just thrown in to conceal the governor’s real agenda
Think about this, how many non-adult manga do you know glorifies crimes like rape?
Let’s read this one more time:
Bill 156, essentially stipulates all sexual acts that would be illegal in real life OR sexual depictions between close relatives who could not legally get married to be treated as adult material if they are presented in “unjustifiably glorified or exaggerated manner.”
What this really means is this:
The governor does not want any incest, yuri, boy’s love, teacher-student relationships in non-adult manga
Basically anything Clamp would find to be interesting
Dan has done a fantastic job on relating the contents and events surrounding the bill as well as deconstructing it, but I think someone really needs to do up a concise FAQ on the bill. The English speaking fandom response has from my experience been “I’m not a paedophile, so why do I care” or complete apathy. It’s really kind of depressing. As for the “will high school comedies we effected?” question, well with Shouko Takaku publicly saying that her publisher wouldn’t print her manga due to the school uniforms being present, well I don’t know if you can really rule out the possibility of publishers being overly cautious. Well at least initially until they feel out the authorities and see what they can get away with. It does seem the big loser in this bill will be manga for teenage girls.
Mainstream journalism and anime and manga don’t mix well. Jurnos don’t seem to get it or use it to poke fun and show “how weird those Japanese are”. Case in point; SBS’ Dateline programme from earlier this year; http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600507/n/Suspended-Animation From that show people would think that Late Night Anime is porn and anime studios are turning to porn to survive (giving the “RapeLay” game as evidence). And this is despite Toyoo Ashida and another head of a small animation company explaining exactly what was going on. You can lead a horse to water…
As for child porn and Japan, there has been a widening of the definition of child porn in many countries to include “non-photographic” depictions. And of course this means lolicon and Australia’s infamous laws where if someone looks like they’re under 18, that’s child porn, even though the person in the photo is over 18. Even so the whole “Japan has long been a major source of child pornography” argument is a complete myth, no matter how proponents try to swing the stats their way.
Also, a bit off topic, but the Internet Watch Foundation is not to be trusted; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation#Incidents Also stats on Child Porn, especially to do with the internet are almost always inaccurate or downright lies; http://libertus.net/censor/resources/statistics-laundering.html
A backup for the IWF link can be found at archive.org here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080428114202/http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.archive-2006.179.htm
@Liam- As far as I understand it, won’t anime like High School of the Dead (graphic violence and murder, immoral unnatural acts), Lucky Star (minors playing ero games), and so on fall under this law?
I’m really shocked it came to this in any case. A few years ago, weren’t otaku going more mainstream with shows like Densha Otoko? And now the government of Tokyo is essential singling them out?
I am not much of a business writer, so I would be grateful if people would write to them alot instead of me, since today is the d-day.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel as if there is anything that can be done.
It’s a damn shame I haven’t read this blog earlier, considering the fast pace the matters have been developing in Tokyo. Though, obviously me blogging in Finland, in Finnish, wouldn’t really affect outside pressure toward Japan, because Finland is also being pressured from outside instead of doing the pressuring on others.
Living in Europe, we have our own problem of “moralfaggotry” to deal with – that is moralism against fictional depictions of unacceptable behaviour directed toward fictional children. Proposition COM (2009) 135 which includes an EU-wide ban of lolicon-anime and lolicon-manga among many other things.
Sure, it’s a ban on pornography only where as Tokyo has already banned such as “immoral” if it’s explicit, even when it’s fictional. There however is the problem that Europe is actually about to criminalize it (not just control it’s sale) by equating it one-on-one to real child exploitation and distribution and possession of real child-pornography, and in fear of extremely harsh punishment the ban will undoubtedly affect sales of any TV-aired anime series with even mild amounts of fan-service related to under 18 aged characters. Neighbouring county, Sweden, has already had it’s first manga-related arrest of a manga-translator and is pending prosecution.
But I will nevertheless read the linked articles and see if I could make them into a short status report for Finnish readers. Thanks for straightening up some misconceptions, mistranslations and rumours that have been circulating on the English speaking parts of the Internet.
I have read this carefully. My main problem with it is that it is vague enough that the extremist politicians will come down on anime and manga such at Naruto and One Piece because it can be considered to “interfere with the healthy development of youth,” being violent and promoting anti-govenment sentiments.
Liam Zwitser:
I don’t think that’s the case since there’s nothing at all in the bill that precludes restricting fan service and judging from the fundamental, subjective criteria used, essentially an expansion of “is it what we deem healthy”, especially considering how Dan had mentioned earlier “OYAPS has stated specifically that even the manga adaptations of Tale of Genji will be subject to restriction if the sexual relationships are described in a “unjustifiable glorified manner” for something so relatively tame. I’m also concerned with how this will be used to implicitly force the moralization any such portrayals in certain ways i.e. “it’s ok to portray this as long as you show it’s bad for you” else, on the restricted list you go.
Here’s the thing about the “just label it 18+” — if creators and publishers decide to escape the restrictions with that route why not just go all hardcore? Why bother with more *moderate stuff* that highschoolers (i.e. 16, 17) can legally enjoy today that comprises most of the mainstream manga/anime biz, when it comes to usage of sexual themes and relationships if it’s considered risky? Publisher and retailers are punished for putting out “harmful material” where as they would not be if they published it as adult-only to begin with. In essence this just encourages a removal of middle ground i.e. either it’s “children safe” or it’s “adult-only”
And the idea of keeping minds of those under 18 moral, pure and chaste, all in the name of healthy development — for which the day they turn 18, the flood gates are open– actually leads to more problems. After all, you become more healthy when you are exposed to “dirt” and germs growing up, as you become acclimated and as your immune system learns how to deal with them :)
well… like everyone has already said… this bill should not pass… this ovbiously represent a direct attack to anime-manga fans around
this only shows how politicians say and impose whatever they want just for the simple fact that they don’t like something… I really can not undersatnd
how this was aproved taking in consideration just a few when the majority ovbiously will say no to this… i mean where’s the democracy they talk about?
I don’t think that this bill will bring anything good… especially in the economy and culture…
we already know when something is for minors and which things it doesn’t… so why all this problem
this problem this men are causing.. i can only think that they just want to put a leash in the freddom expression and creativity,
the youth will no change or is going to prevent they act violently just creating this bill… there mre issues out there wher young population is expose
that are more damaging … like i said before this is just a frontl attack to all the anime manga industries coming from just a few hypocrites
politicians that shoul be taking care of the real society problems instead of causing all this drama and potentially damage to this massive comunity of anime and manga…
I’m so glad junior idol DVDs are protected by this garbage.
Because that’s all what conservatives get their rocks off on.
I’m loving this blog. It provides information in a concise and detailed manner.
I thought it was some sort of anime ban or something.
So, I’m curious, is the blog owner Japanese or something? He needs to have a thurough amount of knowledge on the inner workings of the politics.
I’m Japanese and I’ve been translating anime and manga and video games for over 20 years. Politics is something everyone should be knowledgeable. You might not be interested in politics, but politics is ALWAYS interested in you.
That, sir, I have quoted the above for truth, a reminder that even people who are politically apathetic can have their lives be affected by politics and politicians’ decisions.
They passed that law for good now. Now it’s a war. To pass something so vague and pretty much ridiculous and also not tell the publishers and animation companies to even get a chance to scope it out in time…yeah it’s war now. I just pray they don’t let this go and we keep the fight going. Otherwise, alot of anime, manga and video games are screwed in the future.
>”(Unfortunately the link I used for this when I did research in 2008 is currently invalid — http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.archive-2006.179.htm — but a quick search on Google will prove that the file did exist at one point. If anyone could provide me with the current where abouts of this file, I would appreciate it.)”
Hello, it’s inside the internet wayback machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080428114202re_/www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.archive-2006.179.htm
>>Journalists should know better.
hahaaahahahaahhaah
Yes, I realize I am being somewhat naive, but it still doesn’t excuse them.
“Any manga, animation, or pictures (but not including real life pictures or footage)…that would be illegal in real life”
This sentence was much of a problem.
Because it makes the impression that they wanted directly to ban 2D – but 3D is OK.
Because if there aren’t laws against it they can make “stuff that would be illegal in real life” in a movie or a novel but not in an anime or manga – and that’s utter bullshit.
So theoretically they can make a 3D porn about rape (don’t know if they really can) but a manga (doujin) about rape would be banned ?
The question is:
If someone makes a hetai/doujin about rape (that would be illegal in real life) will it be banned or does it just need an 18+ tag and everything is OK ?
So what stuff will be banned and what stuff just needs an 18+ tag ?
Question 2:
is the bill targeted only on 2D or does it affect 3D too ?
I see publishers being less apt to publish material with sexual themes because those books will not be sellable to people under 18. Regrettable, that the golden age of manga may have slipped away….goodbye clamp.
The part about swimsuits, school uniforms (and thus pretty sure also miniskirts), “sexual implication” are just a tiny part of the whole picture that makes me read these restrictions and made me think “oh, its communism all over again”. Trust me on this, I am hungarian, I know every dirty thing you can think of about censorship and human/expression right restrictions.
You don’t see any good “school-years romance” or “handling growing up” themed media in the western world, especially USA and Europe, mostly because fears of public outcry based on morals.
I can see that coming to manga and anime now too, government will not allow depiction of 12-18 year olds experiencing their first love or perhaps even the Valentine’s Day theme soon enough. Perhaps these will not be banned per law but the publishers and writers will be scared/careful enough to avoid these altogether.
This can kill most of the genres, “K-ON”-like stories just because the protagonists are in school uniform and are underage, and look cute.
Other things like “Yosuga no Sora”, “Kiss X Sis”, “To Love-Ru”, or “Zero no Tsukaima” will have it hard if not impossible to be allowed and published.
Heck, even series like “Daa! Daa! Daa!” will be axed if this madness isn’t stopped in time.
As if western media isn’t already boring enough for the rest of the world, Japan should be proud of having real freedom of expression and mature enough media to be able to target every age of audience.
Greetings all – I’m Quen, a longtime contributor (article-writer) at Sankaku Complex, and though I try to stay away from reading any articles there that aren’t mine, I’ve gathered that Sankaku’s posts (written by someone else) regarding the issue are among the more widely read ones online.
Since I noticed at least one specific mention of SC in the comments above, I just wanted to mention something – Dan’s work is here top-notch material and most reliable, so I’d endorse anything he has written so far as being perfectly accurate.
I’d rather not go into details, but I would recommend Dan’s information here over that of the site I actually write for, so take as you will. ^^;
Well if worse comes to worse the big publishers like Square-Enix and Kodansha that have offices in the US and other countries could just move their operations here. Same with all of the companies that have major partnerships with companies like Funimation and Viz, they could use those outlets to turn their Anime, Manga and games into US exports instead of imports and have it set up how Funimation and Crunchyroll operate to where they can still be accessed and purchased in Japan through the internet instead of through a store front. Surely the big guys are crafty enough to exploit loopholes in this bill through means like these.
And if things really get bad they could just turn around and target their products at the US instead since they know we will buy them and have less vague censorship on those types of media.
I can understand your reasoning in the last paragraph, but I do wonder: who are those advocates
There are numerous ideologues in Japan who would like to regulate, isolate, censor and/or pre-censor any fiction that sexualizes minors and/or sexual depictions in fiction that some feel perpetuates discrimination or violence against women. Old school moralists would like to turn back the clock, while radical progressives want to legislate morality to purge discriminatory ideologies out of the minds of citizens.
Religion does play a part, but not as much as you might expect compared to the US and other Western nations.
It really infuriates me how many foreign journalists are so misinformed about laws in Japan and this bill and yet try to write about it anyway. They seem to not even realize that all the straight-up pornographic material is already restricted. I can’t even imagine where they’re getting this incorrect information.
So what can we do?
Me myself i have been annoyed with most of the anime/mangas coming out containing things such as moe, over loaded fanservice and lack of story.
As radical as this new bill seems i wouldn’t mind everything to continue as it has while waiting for the occasional anime that made me love anime in the first place.
I am mainly worried because this will effect Mazinkaiser SKL which is the first anime in ages that i have seen contain gore and acts of rape and violence and language and..
Berserk which i have been waiting sense 1997 to be remade and i am hoping will follow the manga directly also containing (acts) of rape and nudity and gore.
I don’t like rape and i think it’s alright that +18 rape games are banned…
But..
People have rights and this is over doing it..
At this rate innocent animes like the classic project ako will be effected for just showing to many panty shots because there jumping around and (showing to much)
And shonen jump will be placed in adult stores it’s just a nightmare…
I really don’t believe it will happen but it’s scary that it has came this far already…
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/01/07/tokyo-manga-massacre-begins/
Where can i sign a petition or something so this can’t continue.
Because i want these brilliant creators of these series to continue in peace and not feel like a criminal for releasing there imagination.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_109891299084659&ap=1
There’s a facebook group on this subject. It is absolutely ridiculous. Ignoring people’s opinions and taking away freedom of expression.
More people should join/ invite people to the group. Other social website users should create a group like this to spread the message of the dangers of this bill.
Going along with the claim that this could “warp children’s morality”, you know what else can do that too? Anything, because everything in our lives has a considerable influence on us. Just as global markets regulate games, books, music, movies, tv shows, etc., now Japan is attempting to try the same with material that is arguably a negative influence on children. If this is the case, why aren’t they trying to ban anything else that could be arguably bad, such as depictions of violence or improper attitudes? Frankly, this is a very simple issue; whose job is it to make sure children are healthy, and who can define what being healthy is? I know that as an American, I am allowed to play violent games that often depict drug usage, extreme gore, murder, rape, etc. and nobody objects because my parent consents. However, these have their own limits, are generally not staples of the game or activities I can openly pursue in-game, and they have had no such negative influence on my morality. If kids are really able to get 18+ material on their own, that is a flaw, but that doesn’t mean the government should ban anything remotely similar and bar access with no exceptions. There is an obvious problem with allowing a younger child to see disturbing content in the full that is already categorized as adult content, but seeing something that is in some way remotely sexual in non-adult manga is not going to influence them negatively, just as seeing a movie like the Green Hornet doesn’t encourage kids to have drunken parties, be promiscuous, and pursue lives of violence. I feel like the Tokyo government is blowing this all out of proportion and hurting their own economy at the same time.
I hope the ban of the anime, manga and video games aren’t gonna be banned in the future. What’s wrong with having anime, manga and video games being delivered to the United States?
if Bill 156 is fully passed into law, where will the anime/manga industry go to continue their freedom of artistic expression for it’s millions of fan in the US?
i hate to see certain types of anime (icluding hentai) be gone.
these are the first target of bill 156 ( from Weeky playboy)
Oku-sama wa Shogakusei (My Wife Is an Elementary Student)
By Seiji Matsuyama
Publisher: Akita Shoten
The story is set in the near future when the marriageable age was lowered in response to the declining birth rate. A 24-year-old man marries a 12-year-old girl in this gag comedy.
Reason for designation: Child rape
[Tokyo Vice Governor Naoki Inose had shown this manga on television as an example of which manga should be restricted.]
Aki Sora
By Masahiro Itosugi
Publisher: Akita Shoten
The “line-crossing” manga deals with the taboo relationship between a high school boy named Sora Aoi and his smart, athletic, “perfect” older sister Aki.
Reason for designation: Incest
[On April 21— one week after the government’s meeting with the industry organizations — Itosugi had revealed that there will be no more printings of volumes 1 and 3 of this manga .]
Lovers & Sharing (Kareshi Sharing)
By Yashi Natsuba
Publisher: Shobunkan
The story revolves around a girl whose boyfriend cheated on her with her twin sister. The girl gets enraged, but the twin sister then suggests “sharing” the boyfriend.
Reasons for designation: Rape, incest, group rape
Koibito 8-go (Lover No. 8)
By Makoto Ojiro
Publisher: Shonen Gahousha
A woman is attacked by a masked man, and a female magazine reporter, just one year into her job, goes all out to uncover the man’s identity in this “erotic and suspenseful story.”
Reason for designation: Rape
Hanamizawa Q-taro Jisenshu Hana-Hiyori
By Q-taro Hanamizawa
Publisher: Mediax
A collection of short stories personally selected by the author, seinen magazine manga creator Q-taro Hanamizawa. The stories are mostly light romantic comedies with some erotic scenes.
Reasons for designation: Sexual intercourse in school
Midori no Kisetsu (Blue-Green Season)
By Maako
Publisher: Moerl Publishing
A collection of short stories by a veteran bishojo manga creator whose work has appeared in manga magazines for “old men” such as Weekly Manga Times. Three of the eight stories have themes of incest.
Reasons for designation: Incest, sexual intercourse in school
I’m very sorry to be very slow to respond, but I’ve finally address the issue here: https://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/the-uneasy-ceasefire-of-2012-revised-tokyo-ordinances-current-status/
Will do Putting An important Hex About Someone Do the job?
I wish it did. I really wish it did.