The Yomiuri Online today reports that the Metropolitan Boueki Kaikan Taitou building in Asakusa, the site of several dozen small doujin events each year, has closed its doors to adult doujinshi – perhaps for good. The Yomiuri article cites investigation of the content sold at Abnormal Carnival as the reason prompting the closure (declaring it “judged as an unfit use of public space”), but apparently it’s not just ABC that is affected: Queen’s Coliseum II has been contacted, and we can assume that other near-term events have as well. This development has the potential to put a serious dampener on the niche doujin scene that had depended on the facility for space, and while other privately owned locations are no doubt available for rent it is unclear in what form such events will survive. I’ve sold there as a circle myself on two occasions and been there as an attendee many more, and I’m going to miss the place… we’ll be keeping a very close eye on this situation as it develops. Update: further details below:
Further investigation reveals that on October 16th, the Touhou-only Touhou Fuhai Komachi event staff were informed by the Boueki Kaikan facility that doujin with adult content would not be allowed to be sold on the premises. Why other events were not also notified at that time is unclear, but on that same day doujin news blog At-Mark Increment compiled a list of future doujin events currently scheduled to take place there and that would also ostensibly be affected by the ban; as can be seen, the list is rather extensive (though only perhaps a third will be substantially affected by the loss of adult content).
Pulling back from the alarmist / conspiracy theory tone a bit, it’s likely that this action is not connected to other recent censorship activity and is merely the result of some long overdue bureaucratic oversight of the use of public facilities. The Taitou building is owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and I don’t know many taxpayers who would be happy to have futanari doujin sold on the floor above a flower arranging seminar; that said, I hope an alternate private location can be found soon so us deviants can congregate without fear of eviction.
I was wondering when they would finally get around to this.
The biggest problem, in my opinion, is finding a place that will host the event and not gouge the people running in when it comes to cost.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
I wonder why they’ve suddenly decided Abnormal Carnival was an “unfit use of public space” after letting it go on for so long… Let’s hope the abnormal things find a new home soon.
According to the newspaper article it was a lack of oversight of prior events that let them slip through the cracks; apparently someone on the event facility staff just happened to visit the ABC site recently and discovered its content that way.
I agree that it was probably just a matter of time, alas.
Public oversights like this are common. e.g. In Singapore, adult materials deemed pornographic are banned. However, during a recent National Book Fair this year, a hot comics from USA entitled
‘How to Make Money Like a Porn Star’ was actually displayed openly and sold to anyone who can pay the cash. It was the hottest selling item of the book fair. By the time parents complained in the national newspaper forum pages, it was already sold out. BTW, the comic was actually passed by the national censorship board to be sold legally at the book fair as it was highly acclaimed. Apparently, the word ‘Porn’ in the title doesn’t ring a bell in the thick civil servants’ skulls that it means ‘pornographic’. What a joke. :D