Whether you’re a fan of loli or kyonyuu, futanari or shota, twins or tentacles, figures, anime, manga, or doujinshi, increased public scrutiny in Japan is affecting the nature of your hobby – right now. What follows is a reckoning of events that while superficially disconnected combine to show the changing face of otaku media, a landscape less colorful and varied in its delights and perversions than it once was, and one that may never be the quite same again.
A doujin author is arrested on indecency charges.
Effects:
- Increased censorship mandated on items sold via DLsite (source email from DLsite here)
A high school girl murders her father with an axe.
Effects:
A bureaucrat discovers the Abnormal Carnival event site and online catalog, and moves to close the event space to adult doujin conventions.
Effects:
- The resulting closure of the Tokyo Boueki Kaikan Taitou building to ero doujin events sparks national media coverage
- The Oota-ku Sangyou Plaza PiO institutes similar restrictions
- Shokusai (tentacle-themed doujin event) is canceled
- Abnormal Carnival (ABC; niche fetish themed doujin event) site content stripped, event future in question
- Futaket vs. ABC (Hentai Matsuri) site removed
- Future of Puniket (loli-themed doujin event) and Shota Scratch (shota-themed event) in question
- Future of Kyonyuuko (ample chest-themed doujin event) in question, may be forced to change name
- Future of Futaket (futanari-themed doujin event) in question
- Keimaishitei (brother-sister, twins themed doujin event) cancelled
A Japanese government survey finds via face to face interviews that an overwhelming majority supports the classification of 2D fictional loli manga as child pornography and that it should be prosecuted as such.
Effects:
- Nothing, yet
Applicants to Wonder Festival 2008 Winter receive official warning against the display of prurient material at the event.
Effects:
- This policy was apparently in place for WF 2007 Summer as well, and explains why some of the more graphic figures were hidden behind barriers or not on display at all. Whether it will effect the actual content of items being sold at the event has yet to be seen.
Taken in aggregate is all of this recent activity cause for alarm? In all honesty I don’t really know. Veteran doujin authors say that similar crackdowns in moments of intense scrutiny have happened before (though never to this extreme), and the community as a whole seems determined to circle the wagons, shrink into unobtrusiveness and weather the storm until the public has turned its attention elsewhere.
It may only be that a few events have to change their names, a few more nipples have to be covered and a few more people have to be carded at conventions, and things will otherwise return to normal. On the other hand this could be just the beginning of a witch hunt that will lead to serious curtailments of artistic expression, and result in a substantial diminishing of some of the features that make the otaku world so exotic and fascinating.
We’ll continue our close scrutiny of issues surrounding public reaction to fictional adult media in the future, and I’m personally determined to continue investigating the best course of action that we as concerned international fans can take in support of the art and artists we hold in high regard.
For further reading I recommend checking out the last editorial we published on doujinshi, obscenity, and freedom of speech.
Everytime you read something like this that may effect you, you wonder if it’s just business as usual and in due time it will pass or if this really is a sign of things to come. One hopes that it will all blow over and will simply become no more than an afterthought in the future. But with people here stateside and abroad always willing to try pointing a finger at something they may not necessarilly understand instead of trying to find the root of a problem, we will always be wondering whether the things we love today may be a distant memory in the future. Hopefully this will work out in the end, but if it doesn’t then I’ll just have to take it upon myself to get really good at dirty art so I can start the revolution.
My feelings on this particular issue are complicated, to say the least. I certainly cannot stand those people who blame the ills of society on manga, anime, or video games. The motivations for violent or indecent behavior are a complex confluence of interactions between disparate factors, and as such it is incorrect and misleading to pin the blame on 2D media.
On the other hand, I cannot stand those who disavow entirely the influence of 2D media on those selfsame actions. Again, in such instances as the recent string of murders in Japan (what HD refers to as “nice boat” incidents) or the Belgian “Kira” murder, 2D media was certainly not the only — or even the prime — motivation for murder, but at least in the latter case its presence within the contributing factors cannot be ignored by an objective observer.
Is free speech something worth preserving? Most certainly so, as it is the foundation of democratic government and a facilitator of creative expression.
It does, however, have its limits. At the simplest level, a good government (in the western tradition) exists to balance individual freedoms and the common good. As such, speech (or any other expression) that negatively impacts the good of the community is liable to have limits placed upon it. For example, falsely shouting fire in crowded theater is illegal (249 U.S. 47), and for good reason.
Obscenity is admittedly a more difficult standard to measure; in the United States, Justice Potter Steward famously noted that “I know it when I see it” (378 U.S. 184). On one hand, I believe that what one does or enjoys in private is his or her own business, but on the other hand I do believe that it is possible to go too far.
Given this, I believe that artists and advocates need to become actively involved in the public discussion and help frame the guidelines for production and distribution of potentially obscene materials, e.g. what constitutes the “red lines” or who it should be made available to, but then make sure to follow the resulting guidelines to the letter.
Such would, one hopes, create a better understanding of the issue within society as a whole as well as help protect certain niche flavors of 2D media that the mainstream may consider inappropriate. If clear guidelines are created through broad discourse and are strictly enforced by creators, when other incidents occur, it is far more likely that the public scrutiny will focus more on other contributing environmental factors or even reduce the potential for such incidents to emerge at all.
Just my 2¥
“Dateline: October 25, 2007
A Japanese government survey finds via face to face interviews that an overwhelming majority supports the classification of 2D fictional loli manga as child pornography and that it should be prosecuted as such.
Effects:
* Nothing, yet”
Thank goodness…
Shinsegumi wrote,”On the other hand, I cannot stand those who disavow entirely the influence of 2D media on those selfsame actions. … 2D media was certainly not the only — or even the prime — motivation for murder, but at least in the latter case its presence within the contributing factors cannot be ignored by an objective observer.”
I completely agree, however government defined “red lines” are ridiculous, you can never have a definition that is good enough.
The industry needs to self regulate and make a real effort not to expose their material to underage viewers (video-games included) *and* parents need to actually exert some control on what is appropriate for their children.
If we as a society do not re-invent a standard of “public decency” born of reasonable respect for each other in the public space, then the governments will impose a standard of mental decency that will criminalize even our private actions.
Yes, child pornogarphy is illegal and people should be prosecuted- BUT crap like Loli is, silly because the participents ARE NOT REAL……
They are fake- 2 demensional- bigs eyes, small mouth, small ass, what ever your fetish….
In the end there are people out there who want TOTAL CONTROL over what is illegal and what should be PERCIEVED as illegal. Despite the fact that the content contained in Loli or whatever is NOT REAL!!
It’s depressing because this is how it starts- the end of freedom of thought and expression.
Come for the fig reviews, stay for a hard look at the state of free expression in Japan.
(I can’t read enough Japanese to get the primary sources on this, so I’m just talking out of my ass.)
Larger society got a nice view of the seamier side of otaku culture and now they want the garbageman to come in and clean things up. This isn’t about freedom or safety or responsibility; it’s about propriety.
Shit will be bad for a while. The guys who like to beat off to little kids will have to slap some “all characters over 18″ stickers on their products. The public furor will die down and things will get back to however normal it ever gets.
Maybe.
You don’t have to live in Japan to see such things. Personal freedom is cut down in every country. By law its all democratic and personal freedom is the highest value, but every new law tells you what you don’t allowed to do! It is easy to prohibit something. To remove the prohibition is realy hard. It takes years to go back to the level it was before.
I think it is a bad thing when someone tries to say what you should do and what not. There have to be borders. But everyone sees things differently. You might love heavy metal but I don’t! If heavy metal music would be baned I might be happy but you would say that this is wrong. But this is happening in Japan at the moment. People try to say other people what is right and whats wrong. They don’t see that in all this years there was no problem with the situation. They try to use unrelated tragic incidents to force their thinking and moral onto others. “I doesn’t like those otaku crap at all! Now you see whats happened! We must keep people from becoming otakus!”
Law should prevent people from hurting other people. It should not tell what to like and what not!
I was wondering if some things couldnt be seen as overboard political cover versus actual harm done to anyone?
Since japan did have elections recently.
The funniest thing is people’s beliefs that removing lolicon from the market will see a drop in the number of pedophiles.
Pedophiles are pedophiles. The internet has a ten *billion* dollar (real) child pornography industry. Somehow I believe that if a pedophile, that is, you know, the people dangerous to children and the ones who support the exploitation of children through real child porn, will simply get the real deal and not some idealised and stylised drawings. They may have it on the side, but then again, many pedophiles have children of their own to support their habits. Getting rid of lolicon makes a statement, but in the end achieves nothing.
I’ve never believed in censorship, but I believe in restriction. It seems strange, but maybe it’s because of the collective society of Japan that you see these problems.
What I hate the most is that this will come back to bite us in the asses. The Japanese otaku community is pretty damn weak when it comes to sticking up for itself, and some stupid intrepid reporter or scholar looking to stir up shit will discover lolicon and equate anime and manga to pedophile material. So, I hope everyone enjoys pedo jokes.
If this happened in the West, it’d probably be much worse, but at least there’d be one crazy otaku activist nut or two dropping photocopied sheets of lolicon off some bridge in the city to make a statement. I mean, at least we’d go out having fun.
”Since japan did have elections recently.”
It started long before the elections. Furthermore the DPJ had more than enough ammunition with the whole pension shebang.
This isn’t about otaku versus the world, it’s only about otaku versus the government. After all, the source of this alleged persecution wasn’t from the grassroots level. To me, it all just seems like another case of the government needing some enemy to attack, and there’s always the fallback plan i.e. blame porn, violence, other stuff outside the current social norm. I doubt that this sort of persecution (witch-hunting a phantom threat to public morals) is new, nor unique to Japan.
So what do otaku do? Time to stop fapping and start thinking. I for one, am not caring too much yet and will continue sleeping.
Shingo, what are the effects of this crackdown on life-action porn? One would surmise that ife-action versions are more ‘realistic’ and therefore more likely to ‘influence the audience’.
The ‘benefits’ of virtual media comes in the form that it is possible to do things in them which would be impossible or illegal in life-action, simply because of the risks involved to the actors.
Given the mind-boggling variety of Japanese life-action porn cinema, up to and including more violent and misogynistic fetishes and bondage, it strikes me as incoherent that the virtual type would bear the brunt of the attacks. Especially since NO REAL PEOPLE WERE HURT, COERCED, OR OTHERWISE EXPLOITED in virtual porn, unlike in life-action cinema. At least not on screen, anyway.
I’m sad that hte japanese is cracking down on adult manga. They should leave it as it was. T_T Damn japanese government getting stricter. I just hope this doesn’t effect the adult manga industry too much.
Or maybe it’s about time everyone took some responsibility.
There’s always going to be a bunch of knuckleheads ruining good times for everybody. And people in the government needed to do SOMETHING less they want a bad reputation for being lazy and turning a blind eye.
Is it about “free speech?” I think it’s more about “highly paid crybabies.”
We must remember that Japan is one of those “burnt-out societies;” high unemployment, high drop-out rates from school, high suicide rate, everyone going to bars and anime to drown out their own collective misery.
And the real victim is creativity. I’ve been joking about the idea that “Japan is a country full of ideas, all done the wrong way.” But Hideaki Anno (of Evangelion fame) had it right when he said that the whole society is stagnated. They haven’t gone over the fact that they lost WWII.
Less shows and art about loli? (I, for one, am saddened that “Boku no Pico” had been de-fanged during its 3rd episode.) Less shows about highly-detailed murder? (When Kira Dies / Higurashi is my favorite show.)
I’d like to more shows where the male lead is hardworking and slightly successful as oppose to being either someone’s punching bag or nonexistent. But then again, I live in America (California). :(
So the question now will be: Will the Japanese anime industry start doing more shows that feature guys with spine? Or will they join with the rest of the moody otaku and go deeper into the dark of doing shows that end up being played between 1 and 6 in the morning?
[...] Hentai J-culture website Heisei Democracy presents a timeline of recent legal actions in Japan, leading to a climate of fear and censorship [...]
[...] as usual or the beginning of a witch hunt? Heisei Democracy rounds up recent efforts to suppress “indecent” materials in Japan. (Via ComiPress, via [...]
This really concerns me, since I was hoping to be in Japan next spring in time for the next Futaket… From this site I see that the dates are usually announced pretty early, but from what I read on here, the fact that there still isn’t a site up for Futaket 4 or a date mentioned anywhere could be a symptom of this growing problem…
Does anyone on here know whether Futaket is scheduled for next year at all and if so what dates?
>>Yuribou
Word was going around the circles at Sunshine Creation 37 on October 9th that the next Futaket had been scheduled for May 4th of next year, and would be widely announced soon (referenced by a poster at the Futaket BBS here).
However this was before the Taitou building crackdown, and seeing as Futaket has been held there for each of its first three (plus Hentai Matsuri) incarnations I’m guessing the May event is on hold, if not canceled altogether.
Aw crap. I shall wait for further news on the subject here ^_^
Thanks for the info
[...] of you that read Shingo’s rantings on Heisei Democracy may have read this particular post a couple of weeks ago. This concerned me. I mean, I have been vaguely following the Lolicon debate [...]
[...] we’ve seen new forms of media censorship and potential restrictive legislation in reaction to similar previous incidents. While I hope that [...]
[...] -source here [...]