Japan: The Comics Code authority was a GOOD idea!

[Majin Gojira]

Anime News Network

The full Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly approved the government's revised bill to amend the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance on Wednesday afternoon.

The current ordinance already prevents the sale and renting of "harmful publications" — materials that are "sexually stimulating, encourages cruelty, and/or may compel suicide or criminal behavior" to people under the age of 18. Bill 156 would require the industry to also regulate "manga, anime, and other images (except for real-life photography)" that "unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate" certain sexual or pseudo sexual acts. Another section of the revised bill would allow the government to directly regulate the above images if the depicted acts are also "considered to be excessively disrupting of social order" such as rape.

The assembly also approved a non-binding supplemental resolution urging newly designated harmful publications to be carefully regulated, with the work's merits based on artistic, social, and other criteria to be taken into account in the evaluation process.

The voluntary self-regulation clauses will go into effect on April 1 of next year, and the restrictions on sales and renting will go into effect on July 1.

Posted without comment beyond the title and this: Information is still forthcoming as to its contents, but it's a strange little bill.

[Ghost Rider]

The Comics Code Authority is small beans compared to this monstrocity, but the difference was said stupidity was enforced. This bill is even more vague and far reaching, but the Japanese never enforced anything and threw these laws out to pacify people.

So given the Japanese penchant for simply bribing, finding the dumbest loopholes(no nipple means it's not a breasticle!!!), or just simple apathy? Life goes as normal, with maybe some small company getting reprimanded for not submitting to the monthly bribe and thus having their studio devoured by a larger studio.

If enforced? Lots of funny stories if they cannot agree upon what does what.

[Mutant Headcrab]

Two things:

1. This bill applies to Tokyo only. Everywhere else is business as usual.

2. The Japanese only have two ratings that boil down to Everyone or 18+.

In the grand scheme of things, this really won't do anything. Anime porno, violent video games, and other Japanese weirdness will still reach the target audience.

[Archaic`]

1. Tokyo isn't exactly a small audience. It's widely expected that the Tokyo standard would become the de-facto national standard, with all material from the major publishers being made so as to comply with it. Imagine the Texas textbook situation and apply it to this, and you've got the right idea.

2. And this law is going to slam a lot of stuff that most people would agree is for children into that 18+ bracket. A number of Japanese lawyers (both working for the industry and independent) say it is worded such that it could be used to censor any work of fiction which contains a depiction of a crime or unlawful death or violence, which includes essentially any anime, manga and games with any kind of action content. That's regardless of if the heroes are trying to stop the crime or defeat the villians who committed it. That pretty much eliminates any shounen major manga I can think of off the top of my head.

When you consider that...
a) The guy behind the bill, Ishihara Shintarō, is a published author whose works contain graphic depictions of schoolgirl gang-rape
b) His statements about his reasoning for the bill include gems like “It’s not just about children. We’ve got homosexuals casually appearing even on television. Japan has become far too untamed. I’ll go forward with [this bill] with a sense of mission in heart.” The ban’s mention of “rape and other sexual acts which violate societal norms” means any depiction of homosexuality, regardless of if there's sex or not, is going to be made illegal.
c) The bill targets only anime and manga, and specifically excludes any other media.

It's pretty clear that the bill is a load of crock. The thing is worded so vaguely (no law should include the "etc" at the end of any description) that you'd be hard to find a single anime or manga series out there right now which wouldn't get hit by this.

[Ford Prefect]

1. This bill applies to Tokyo only. Everywhere else is business as usual.

A majority of anime studios are based in Tokyo. More importantly, production costs, including the expense of getting it aired, are only really possible to make back through merchandising particularly DVD sales, and if something simply cannot be released in Tokyo, which is the market for anime and manga, it is fairly unlikely to be profitable. Studios won't bother putting money into a project if there's a serious risk that they'll be shot down in Tokyo.

This depends on how 156 is enforced, but theoretically it can cover pretty much anything. There's a pretty strong indication that it's mostly targeted at boys love stuff, and there's a fairly specific part relating to incest (it will allow depictions of incest where the two parties could legally get married). Ishida is notorious for his opinions on people who can't have children having said that 'old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin', and like Archaic says he's an outspoken homophobe.

[Bakustra]

Didn't Ishihara also claim that if there was a natural disaster in Tokyo, that all the guest and migrant workers would attack the emergency services or something? I mean, being openly pro-eugenics is crazy enough. Oh, nationalist politicians, you make the rockin' world go round...

[Ford Prefect]

He reckons that Nanking is just propaganda, too.

[Archaic`]

2. The Japanese only have two ratings that boil down to Everyone or 18+.

In the grand scheme of things, this really won't do anything. Anime porno, violent video games, and other Japanese weirdness will still reach the target audience.

Going back to this point just quickly, here’s a quote from ANN forum posting by user Cryssoberyl, who summarises quite well why de-facto throwing everything into that 18+ bracket is a huge problem in the Japanese market.

The people whose reaction is “this is just an age restriction, slap an 18+ sticker on and call it a day” do not understand how the distinction works in Japan and how it affects the marketability of a product.

In Japan, there is only “general audience” and “adults only”, and “adults only” works are, for most distributors, untouchable. Those 18+ stickers you want might as well be nuclear radiation warnings.

In Japan, “adults only” anime is not shown on TV. On any channel. Ever. No matter how violent or racy it may have seemed to you, no anime ever shown on Japanese television was officially designated as 18+.

In Japan, “adults only” manga are not sold in most book stores (both online and brick-and-mortar). As has been stated, 18+ manga works are almost always produced as magazines and anthologies, almost never as stand-alone tankoubon.

The results from this should be obvious. The marketability, and thus profitability, of “adults only” works are extremely limited. Publishing companies will not risk time, money, and effort on creating works that may be judged as such, and thus have their profit potential destroyed by the inaccessibility that comes with it. They will be forced to restrict themselves to works that they can safely market within the “general audience” sphere.

This is not an age restriction. It is censorship by way of enforceable lack of profitability – either you toe the line, or they make your stuff unsellable.

[AniThyng]

Two things:

1. This bill applies to Tokyo only. Everywhere else is business as usual.

2. The Japanese only have two ratings that boil down to Everyone or 18+.

In the grand scheme of things, this really won't do anything. Anime porno, violent video games, and other Japanese weirdness will still reach the target audience.

If the only thing anime fans cared about was anime porno*, yeah the law affects no one since it's ALREADY 18+, but it's telling when appearently this law would result in censorship that exceeds even the harsh standards of the Malaysian censor board... (mind, I can imagine some M'sian lawmakers are already salivating at the chance to push a similar law into parliament and cite "even the Japanese are doing it!")

*mind you, I think people ranting about how this would also affect lolicon are drastically overplaying their hand, but extending the law to the point that even Shakugan no Shana looks dodgy is just absurd.

@Archaic: where would light novels such as Shakugan no Shana and Haruhi fall under this law?

[hongi]

He reckons that Nanking is just propaganda, too.

Man what a dick. And he's the governor of Tokyo?

[Ford Prefect]

@Archaic: where would light novels such as Shakugan no Shana and Haruhi fall under this law?

Novels are explicitly excluded. Possibly because Ishihara is also a massive hypocrite in addition to a total loon; a couple of his novels include some pretty outrageous depictions of rape that would never fly under this law.

[AniThyng]

@Archaic: where would light novels such as Shakugan no Shana and Haruhi fall under this law?

Novels are explicitly excluded. Possibly because Ishihara is also a massive hypocrite in addition to a total loon; a couple of his novels include some pretty outrageous depictions of rape that would never fly under this law.

Yeah I know Novels are explicitly excluded, but Light Novels tend to have manga-sque artwork inside and all.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure that is a rare form of hypocrisy - for english novels at least all sorts of depictions of things are allowed that would be outright banned were they in a visual medium. Just off the top of my head, I cannot imagine say, the pedophile scenes in the Let the Right One In novel making it to a screen depiction (and they didn't, not even in the Swedish movie. I'm sure its a practical given in the American version given how amazingly prudish america appearently is). Rape scenes of various levels of depiction regularly make it to print and sold in mainstream bookstores (Bio of Space Tyrant anyone?)where they would be glossed over or outright censored out in a visual medium.

[Ritterin Sophia]

He reckons that Nanking is just propaganda, too.

And that women who can no longer menstruate should kill themselves for being a waste of resources.

[Darksider]

And that women who can no longer menstruate should kill themselves for being a waste of resources.

Seriously? He's on public record as having said that? I can understand people in Japan not giving a shit about his views on Nanking, since nationalist revisionism is practically their national fucking pastime, but I can't believe he'd be elected after saying something like that.

[Archaic`]

That's a quote from an interview he did with women's magazine Shukan Josei in a 2001 interview. He was first elected as Governor of Tokyo in 1999, but he's certainly had to face several elections since then, so even if it has hurt his votes, it hasn't been enough.

I would have to dispute what you're saying there about "nationalist revisionism". The people who have strong views on that are a minority. A vocal minority to be sure, but a minority. The vast majority of people who are actually aware of the incident acknowledge it for what it was. Those numbers are shockingly low to be sure, but that's a reflection of their education, not a reflection of any intent on their own part to revise history. When presented with the facts about it, they're as horrified by it as anyone else would be.

[hongi]

People should be criticising the government's aversion to repayments for war crimes like comfort women and the controversy over school textbooks, not the Japanese people as a whole, who seem to me to be repentant.

[Archaic`]

To be fair to the Japanese Government on this one....the comfort women issue has been dealt with multiple times, and then people seem to ignore what they've done, pretend it never happened, and ask for more. For that matter, the Japanese government have repeatedly made apologies for all their war crimes, yet constantly you hear statements that they've never apologised. Specifically with regards to the comfort woman issue, they've gone beyond their legal responsibilities, which had been extinguished by the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. It's not the fault of the Japanese covernment that after they gave the South Korean government the money for compensation (for the South Koreans to distribute) that none of it actually went directly to the South Korean citizens.

[Molyneux]

To be fair to the Japanese Government on this one....the comfort women issue has been dealt with multiple times, and then people seem to ignore what they've done, pretend it never happened, and ask for more. For that matter, the Japanese government have repeatedly made apologies for all their war crimes, yet constantly you hear statements that they've never apologised. Specifically with regards to the comfort woman issue, they've gone beyond their legal responsibilities, which had been extinguished by the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. It's not the fault of the Japanese covernment that after they gave the South Korean government the money for compensation (for the South Koreans to distribute) that none of it actually went directly to the South Korean citizens.

Could you actually back that up? I have indeed heard it said that the Japanese government has never apologized for or acknowledged the comfort women or other war crimes, and have yet to see evidence to the contrary.

[Archaic`]

Could you actually back that up? I have indeed heard it said that the Japanese government has never apologized for or acknowledged the comfort women or other war crimes, and have yet to see evidence to the contrary.

Here's one from August 4, 1993.

Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono
on the result of the study on the issue of "comfort women"

The Government of Japan has been conducting a study on the issue of wartime "comfort women" since December 1991. I wish to announce the findings as a result of that study.

As a result of the study which indicates that comfort stations were operated in extensive areas for long periods, it is apparent that there existed a great number of comfort women. Comfort stations were operated in response to the request of the military authorities of the day. The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women. The recruitment of the comfort women was conducted mainly by private recruiters who acted in response to the request of the military. The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments. They lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere.

As to the origin of those comfort women who were transferred to the war areas, excluding those from Japan, those from the Korean Peninsula accounted for a large part. The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule in those days, and their recruitment, transfer, control, etc., were conducted generally against their will, through coaxing, coercion, etc.

Undeniably, this was an act, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, that severely injured the honor and dignity of many women. The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.

It is incumbent upon us, the Government of Japan, to continue to consider seriously, while listening to the views of learned circles, how best we can express this sentiment.

We shall face squarely the historical facts as described above instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history. We hereby reiterated our firm determination never to repeat the same mistake by forever engraving such issues in our memories through the study and teaching of history.

As actions have been brought to court in Japan and interests have been shown in this issue outside Japan, the Government of Japan shall continue to pay full attention to this matter, including private researched related thereto.

Following that statement, the Japanese government established the Asian Women’s Fund to distribute additional compensation money directly to former comfort women. That organisation ceased activities in 2007 after concluding that it had done all it could to locate and pay those willing to accept compensation.

There's a Wikipedia article which includes a number of additional apologies made by Japan, though it's by no means a complete list. The most prominent one has to be by Tomiichi Murayama, then Prime Minister of Japan, on August 15, 1995, which every government since has reiterated as being the official national position of Japan in regards to their wartime aggression.

"During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensnare the Japanese people in a fateful crisis, and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology. Allow me also to express my feelings of profound mourning for all victims, both at home and abroad, of that history."

[montypython]

That's a quote from an interview he did with women's magazine Shukan Josei in a 2001 interview. He was first elected as Governor of Tokyo in 1999, but he's certainly had to face several elections since then, so even if it has hurt his votes, it hasn't been enough.

I would have to dispute what you're saying there about "nationalist revisionism". The people who have strong views on that are a minority. A vocal minority to be sure, but a minority. The vast majority of people who are actually aware of the incident acknowledge it for what it was. Those numbers are shockingly low to be sure, but that's a reflection of their education, not a reflection of any intent on their own part to revise history. When presented with the facts about it, they're as horrified by it as anyone else would be.

The denizens of Sankaku Complex tend to jive with the nationalist revisionists even more than the average Japanese on the street, but then again they're the apologists for that sort of thing.

[Havok]

Didn't see it mentioned, but FYI The Comics Code was self imposed by comic book companies out of fear of government regulation. It was not government regulation.

[Molyneux]

*snip for space*

That made for interesting reading - thank you very much for the sources.

[hongi]

For that matter, the Japanese government have repeatedly made apologies for all their war crimes, yet constantly you hear statements that they've never apologised.

Why? Is it just ignorance (I hold up my hand here)? Anti-Japanese sentiment?

[Archaic`]

There's certainly some level of ignorance outside of the groups directly involved in it. Of those directly involved, there's not a lot of ignorance anymore, and some of the South Koreans in particular have started to focus a bit more on their government and its responsibilities from the treaty they signed with Japan back in 1965 (since the South Korean government itself was the one who insisted on compensation be given directly to them to be redistributed, whereas the Japanese preferred to give it directly to the people they had wronged). Of those still focusing on Japan, it's usually more to do with anti-Japanese sentiment (which you can't exactly blame them for, given what was done to them) and a desire to humiliate Japan. There may also be a measure of greed involved too. A number of families of former comfort women are pushing to try and get compensation, even when the former comfort woman herself is long dead. There's also a fair number of living former comfort women who also rejected the compensation offered by the AWF on the basis that they didn't consider it enough.

[mr friendly guy]

I am sure historical revisionism in Japanese text books also have something to do with it. While Japan does apologise for some things, I find it hard to believe they can apologise for things they deny ever happening? And no, making vague allusions to WWII can't cut it when you still deny specific events, because this just indicates to me you acknowledge wrong done for everything else but these incidents.