36 replies to this topic

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

So, it turns out that the Japanese government is supposed to be voting sometime today on a bill that would regulate illustrated works that are "considered to be excessively disrupting of social order".

More information here.

At first, the bill sounds like it would crack down on the kiddie porno mangas out there (which would be nice), but a quick look at the bill would show that it would only really effect mainstream anime and manga, which is in no need of censorship in the first place. And really the government deciding what is and isn't acceptable in art is a dangerous arena anyway. This seems to be handing too much power to the government and wouldn't fix any real issues. It would also ban such wonderful films as Paprika, AKIRA, Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell... in fact, I think most of the anime and manga made in the past would be effected by this bill.

I guess we can only wait and see what happens.

[Kaotix]

Banning anime? I fail to see the problem with that.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Banning anime? I fail to see the problem with that.

Oh, you.

Actually, this would mean that if the bill passed there would be more anime like Yu-Gi-Oh, PokeMon, Bakugan, or any other 25-minute animated commercials for trading cards they air on American television. You know, the stuff that even anime fans don't really like.

That, and it's infringement on freedom of expression and things like that.

[Bakuda]

I didnt get the feeling that they're trying to ban anime. It seems that their focus is more on hentai than anything else. The article stated that they want to regulate media that "glorifies or exagerates certain sexual acts", in other words, sex for the sake of sex. What I really want to know is what they mean my "regulate". Do they want to ban such media or just make it harder for it to get into the hands of minors?

[Ratty Randnums]

I didnt get the feeling that they're trying to ban anime. It seems that their focus is more on hentai than anything else. The article stated that they want to regulate media that "glorifies or exagerates certain sexual acts", in other words, sex for the sake of sex.

No they do want to choke out specifically anime and manga- this bill won't affect film or books. I saw news about this linked on another board a few days ago and here are the highlights of the article I read linked, though it should be noted that that article was on what is apparently some sort of hentai news site-

...Masaki Ito, a DPJ Tokyo assemblyman, reports all the cliques in his party are in agreement that will support the Tokyo government’s efforts to restrict the sale of manga, anime and games featuring fictional sex crimes:

"We will support it, with the addition of a supplementary resolution [...] which requests the prudent application of the law."

Naturally, there is no objective standard for what is “prudent application” of a restriction on the sale of “harmful literature,” and no legal process or independent assessment of what should be banned.

Doubtless governor Ishihara would now be delighted to see the pesky manga industry disappear completely; indeed, it could only help sales of his own rape novels, which are exempted from any sort of restriction, along with films – so conspicuous an exemption that many cannot help but conclude the law is aimed solely at persecuting the anime, manga and game industries.

....

Ito goes on to politely explain how much public opposition to the bill his party has received, and how he will be ignoring it all completely:

"We’ve received lots of mail about this. I haven’t had a chance to read it all, but I’ve seen much of it. Maybe we haven’t fully addressed your concerns, but I am grateful you have displayed such passion towards the Tokyo metropolitan government."

It would appear the Democrats will support the ban despite unanimous opposition from mangaka and publishers, a petition with 150,000 signatures opposing the law and what appears to be overwhelmingly negative public opinion – Japanese democracy at its finest.

(Emphasis Mine)

And a ban for Tokyo, which will effectively be a ban for the rest of the country since Tokyo is like the biggest market I believe, apparently passed it's first vote yesterday according to a later article (from that same hentai news site it should be noted) someone linked.

Tokyo’s ban on anime, manga and games featuring “virtual crimes” or which are “likely to interfere with the healthy development of youth” has passed after the DPJ agreed to support it.

The DPJ’s only addition to the critical portion of the law was a short rider which requests “prudent application of the law in light of any artistic, social, scientific or satirical merits the work might express” – it does not however add any legal obligation to consider these, or establish any clear or independently enforced criteria for judging whether a work can be declared “harmful” or not.

Even more bizarrely, the final draft actually removed a passage that imposed “a duty not to possess [photographic] child pornography” on Tokyo residents, whilst leaving the section banning erotic manga and anime (and explicitly excluding photographic materials) all but unchanged – that the bill is intended exclusively as an “anti-otaku” law seems to be beyond doubt.

It is very difficult to objectively assess the scope of the law – along with vague and subjective terms like “interfere with the healthy development of youth,” 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.

Similarly, the ban’s mention of “rape and other sexual acts which violate societal norms” seems inevitably to point to a ban on depictions of homosexuality, considering who was behind the law.

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 most immediate and direct effect of the law will almost certainly be to see ecchi manga such as To Love-Ru, bishoujo titles such as Champion Red and most BL manga, as well as any seinen manga with especially mature themes, banned from general sales – presumably most will then be cancelled due to a lack of suitable magazine or tankobon distribution channels, with a few perhaps being resurrected as 18+ ero-manga.

As has already been seen, publishers will also likely be purging future anime, manga and games of any content liable to fall foul of the law, and removing older titles from distribution.

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; given the vague wording of the current season alone it seems Ore no Imouto, Panty & Stocking, Yosuga, Sora no Otoshimono, Milky Holmes and others would all fall foul of its various stipulations.

There is also some doubt as to whether Comiket will be able to be held under the new regulations – if not, its cancellation or removal to another prefecture seems likely, although a lack of sufficiently large spaces may severely complicate this.

The law is expected to be signed into law on the 15th after an additional vote and then come into effect in July of 2011, so with magazine, tankobon, anime and game release schedules being what they are, it seems likely its effects will be felt much sooner; in a genuinely democratic state there might be scope to overturn it before then, but from what has been seen so far it seems unlikely publishers have the guts or savvy to do anything about it.

(Emphasis mine)

Just, what the fuck? Especially at not banning that actual photographed porn. I would have thought that was already illegal, or at the very least that it would be a higher priority than banning comics with it. Shits messed up captain.
And making the law vaguely worded so the censors can deny public distribution of a comic because it "glorifies criminal acts" or probably homosexuality.
All while giving books and movies a free pass.

[chief]

Yeah this is kinda weird. If they were to crack down on the whole kiddie porn in manga, like Freaky said, would be nice. That stuffs not mainstream by big companies but its still published material and.. Yeah shouldn't be. But cracking down on some of the more adult orientated main stream stuff seems kinda bad. At least in my opinion. Companies will be scared to create works that portray a scene of violence and/or nudity. You know, stuff you see all the time in normal movies and TV shows.

[John Roberts]

Just think about all those poor voice actresses that moan and squeak and scream who will lose their jobs if hentai is banned.



Actually, this reminds me of the little Internet censorship my government is trying to get up and running. "We promise to ban all kiddie porn on the internet in Australia!" Sounds good, right? Who would argue about that? What they forget to mention, like some bit of fine print no one ever reads, they want to go ahead and ban any and all other websites that they're not 'pleased' with. There's nothing quite like the "We're saving your children" tactic to get people on your side - and then do the other REAL thing you wanted to do in the first place that people would not agree with.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

So, the bill has officially passed in Tokyo, Japan.

This can't be good at all. Especially since I was eagerly awaiting for the sequels to this film, and it sounds like this is gonna crack down on anything that displays any sexual or violent act in animation. I can expect every other great anime director to have their hands tied behind their back now. I don't think even some of Miyazaki's films would pass under such scrutiny. (Princess Mononoke, for one, might be considered too violent.)

Actually, this reminds me of the little Internet censorship my government is trying to get up and running. "We promise to ban all kiddie porn on the internet in Australia!" Sounds good, right? Who would argue about that? What they forget to mention, like some bit of fine print no one ever reads, they want to go ahead and ban any and all other websites that they're not 'pleased' with. There's nothing quite like the "We're saving your children" tactic to get people on your side - and then do the other REAL thing you wanted to do in the first place that people would not agree with.

Well, Americans got into Iraq simply because someone muttered "9/11" and "weapons of mass destruction" in the same speech. It's amazing what associating two utterly unrelated things will do to people's political decisions.

[Robthe1st]

As a anime fan of myself: this is truely a sad day for me.

Great! Just great! Now, they're going to make sort of a PG rating. Come on!!!!! These japanese whose control the goverment... a buch of socialist!!!

[chief]

Wait... Whats wrong with Socialism and how is that even connected?

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Socialism in theory sounds great at times. But it's nature is more easily corrupted depending on who's running it than capitalism would be; not that capitalism isn't plagued with corruption either... but either way it's got nothing to do with this bill (that I can see, anyway).

Also, reading this bill, it uses the word "regulate" a lot rather than outright "censor" or "ban". So the way I understand the bill now, a lot of the effects might just be putting stricter age restrictions on the Japanese viewers when it comes to anime and manga. A.K.A., listing the more envelope pushing animes into the 18+ category. Basically, it'd be like before the 80's when there was no PG-13 rating. The movies were either G, PG, R, or "X" (later changed to NC-17). It's wasn't until Steven Spielberg started making his Indiana Jones movies when he started suggesting a middle ground between PG and R. So PG-13 was created, but wasn't implemented on an Indiana Jones movie until Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Anyway, all that to say: The Japanese basically took away their equivalent of the PG-13 and/or R rating within terms of age restrictions to the theaters for anime and for selling anime or manga, leaving only the equivalents of G, PG, and NC-17 restriction for admittance into theaters or purchases. It would effect who sees films like Evangelion (the remakes have been given mostly a PG-13 rating by the MPAA), but would not anything that would be considered our pushier R ratings or any NC-17 rating. The material will still not be stronger or weaker that they were originally, but less people would be admitted to see it unless they were 18 year of age or older. The bill is still biased in that it only targets anime and manga rather than also including live-action film and written literature.

I doubt this effects foreign distribution of anime or manga. In America we still base all films, even foreign films screened in the States, according to the ratings given by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). So whereas a film may be restricted to a wider audience in Japan, a film might still be given a PG-13 rating in America, therefore widening that age group for American audiences.

This could mean that the poor Japanese viewers under 18 may need to just wait for the American release of the film and purchase the American release of the film on either DVD pr Blu-Ray via the internet, which would just screw up their economy even more than it is now... but it would be doable.

So, yeah. For us on the international market (or the "not Japanese" market), nothing may change. I don't know if studios would make films any differently because of the age restrictions. I would imagine they might, since there are few things more powerful in an economy than a teenager spending his parent's money, and now a lot of those teenagers can't watch this stuff anymore. But a lot of the Japanese studios know they make a lot of sales in foreign countries anyway, so I don't know either way. We'll just have to wait and see.

[Bakuda]

thats what i understood the bill to be...just stricter rules on making sure "inappropriate" media is labled adult and placed within an adult section in the stores away from the general merchandice. Like freaky said, i doubt this will affect the foreign market. I cant see the government pulling an all-out ban on anime and manga, its too huge of a market and theres too much money to be made to just pull it.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Haha! This is getting plain ridiculous...

[Vampfox]

I have a feeling that this will be overturned sooner or later.
A lot of publishers in Japan are very uphappy with this, and are already looking to challenge the bill.
This is a long way from being over.

[RedAuthar]

It's like prohibition, except for anime and manga. It won't last.

[chief]

I want my alcohol and boobs dammit!

[RedAuthar]

You would.

[Bakuda]

It's like prohibition, except for anime and manga. It won't last.

Again, there's too much money to be made...it won't last. Coincidentally, as I was typing this the tv said the goverment wants to regulate what goes on youtube.

Update: Just watched the story...apparently theres a bill in congress that'll give the government more liberties to crack down on illegal pirating on the net.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

It's like prohibition, except for anime and manga. It won't last.

Again, there's too much money to be made...it won't last. Coincidentally, as I was typing this the tv said the goverment wants to regulate what goes on youtube.

Update: Just watched the story...apparently theres a bill in congress that'll give the government more liberties to crack down on illegal pirating on the net.

It's like, how?... why?... What?

I mean, how are they gonna track that? And is YouTube regulation really gonna help in the fight against piracy?

[RedAuthar]

Great. Not like they don't try to already. I hate them.