Possible Japanese Censorship Law
Things like this piss me off. Japanese National Police Agency’s New Law against “Manga, Anime, Game Expression”
Today, I got an email from a Japanese creator, letting us know about the new law currently being discussed to be applied by Japanese National Police Agency. This is a law to restrict expression of Manga, Anime, Game, that are:
# Image that show sexual expression of characters that appears to be under 18.
(Ex: The character does not have under hair, or character appears to be an under 18 school age child.)
# Image that show characters appears or seems to be under age, that are engaging in sexual act weather or not if genital part is censored.
My thoughts after the jump.
First of all, I hate lolicon art. I absolutely hate them. But I am firmly against this form of censorship.
Child porn is bad because it harms children, but what harm can drawings do? It is absolutely true to say that many pedophiles probably like to view lolicon material, but that’s not what turned them into pedophiles in the first place. They are pedophiles because they are mentally fucked-up, not because of some pornographic drawings.
Correlation does NOT equal causation.
Millions of people play video games. Some of them are serial killers.
Millions of people watch television. Some of them are serial killers.
Millions of people eat ice-cream. Some of them are serial killers.
Just because serial killers play violent video games, watch television and enjoy ice-cream doesn’t make any of those things the cause of their violent nature.
Similarly, just because pedophiles read loli manga doesn’t mean that loli manga turns normal well-adjusted people into child molesters. It may seem very logical to conclude that a person who enjoys loli material will naturally turn into a pedophile, but there is simply nothing to support that hypothesis.
As such, those who advocate censorship have no justication for censorship other than the fact that they hate lolicon art.
Well, I hate lolicon art too. But then again, I also hate a lot of other things that people like to do. I hate idiots who want to censor everything that is different from themselves, for example. There are people who hate homosexuality. There are people who hate Christianity. But as long as they do no harm to anyone, who are we to enforce our preference upon others?
The rights of the minority must be protected, unless harm is done to the rest of society. When the majority seeks to enforce its views on the minority without justification beyond a matter of preference, then those people are no better than Adolf Hitler.
In conclusion, let the stupid lolicons fap to their loli-pr0n and shut the fuck up.
That said, if anyone can produce any convincing evidence that lolicon art is responsible for causing people (who are not already pedophiles) to molest children, then go ahead and ban the thing. Good luck though, the fundamentalist nutcases in America are still having a tough time doing the exact same thing for violent video games.
Either way it doesn’t concern me. Lolicon is crap.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Let me start by stating some facts.
1. Paedophilia is a psychological disorder that falls under the same classification as homosexuality. It is incurable.
If a person is a paedophile, it’s not because they chose to be that way, nor is it something they can change. It may or may not be triggered by consumed media. The key word here is “triggered.” It was there to start with, and may come to surface in a person’s mind reguardless of their consumption of relevant media.
2. A person is responsible for the decisions they make.
If a person molests a child, they are responsible for their choice of actions. Claiming that the viewing of lolicon art influenced their decision is certianly not impossible, however, does that mean the blame should be shifted from the person who made the choice to the lolicon art? Self control is something that needs to be taught to every individual as they grow.
A lack of self control does not mean the media that that influenced their behaviour is responsible for that person’s actions.
Speaking from experience on this last point:
Sexual urges can be triggered by nearly anything. Be it a girl in a bathing suit, a clothing catelog or lolicon art. When faced with sexual urges, a person has to make a choice. That person can relieve the sexual urges or supress them. If they choose to relieve that sexual urge, it can be done through many ways. Most of those ways are legal. Masturbation or sexual activity with a consenting adult are legal. Sexual activity with a child, or rape of a person of any age are illegal. Not once when looking at lolicon, or any other form of pornography have I ever felt the only way to relieve my sexual urges was to commit a crime. Through the use of legal pornography, lolicon or otherwise, I can simply fantasize and masturbate.
Supressing urges only causes them to resurge stronger the next time stimuli is faced.
Human beings are perfectly capable of seperating fantasy from reality. In the cases where a person cannot seperate reality from fantasy, how can it be said their fantasy wasn’t triggered by some otherwise “harmless” and legal stimuli, such as going to the beach?
I ramble, but to sum it up. I find there is no supporting evidence that lolicon art is to blame for child molestation. If there is a cause, it is much deeper rooted, such as the inability to seperate reality from fantasy, or the inability to control oneself. If the true problems are these, no amount of censoring will fix the problem, as there is always some kind of stimuli that one can use.
September 4th, 2006 at 7:11 am
Just great! Ban lolicon! Ban violence in TV and games! Ban porn! Ban pornographic and violent music! Ban adult literature! Ban violent literature! Ban TV, games and books! Then ban pictures and music! Why not ban art altogether? Finally ban emotions! Anybody knows the movie Equilibrium? It’s great! And the society there is just ideal! I would LOVE to have that sort of life! Really! (
September 4th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Oh, we also forgot to mention, that ALL men are potentially dangerou, because we have penises. Do you know how many women were raped with men who had penises? I bet the total number would come very close to 100%. I bet men who have no penis have no urge to rape someone…so, the bottom line is, cut of the dick and you will save the children :o)
BTW. Was it Bush legislative, taht tends to support such activities as telling kids that condom is not safe? Sure, sexual absitenency is a much better unwanted pregnancy and STD spread prevention, but it operates on the assumption that everyone will keep it. Unfortunately, it is not in a human nature to do that. So, instead of helping stop the spread of STDs, less people in US now use condoms, paradoxically spreading the STDs more than ever (same goes with unwanted pregnancy).
Now, why do I say that? Way to hell is paved with good intentions. No ban has ever solved any problem and censorship the least of all.
November 15th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I’ve little political understanding because im still a minor, i’ve learned some stuff that might help, ok…
Right now, you are talking about America, Japan is Japan, no matter how much other cultures blend with it, first thing about Japan is that they are very cultural, contracting to sexual acts, (prostitutes..porn stars).. there is to basically commiting social and moral suicide. That person most likely will never get in a meaningful relationship…harsh? yes… (but the Japanese are harsh, they used to murder little Korean kids because they get too lazy to help them out of a dug up grave. I’m not saying all Japanese are bad though… ) Social standards of teens in Japan and America are also different.
Japan= Does not engage in sexual actions until after marriage, (therefore making more porn, because they have to wait till after marriage), they do not get a boyfriend or girlfriend unless they are seriously in love. (thats why couples can fight foever and never break up)
America= Engages in sexual action as minors, sex becomes a (too) normal thing, girlfriend, boyfriend relationship for OWN reputation
Contrasting, the Japanese are in a sense much less perverted than Americans.
Now… ill try to explain this law…
Americans are majorly influenced on movies and t.v. shows, that usually inculde violence and sex. Children want to grow up, it’s their nature, so they act what they see. And what they see is commercials with half-naked women posing for a shampoo ad, sitcoms that goes, ‘meet, date, sex, breakup’
Worse, they are watching people around their own age doing this.
BASICALLY, the media screws up the American mind.
Now.. Japan doesn’t want that, they want children to grow up like this, so they set examples using whatever things they have, anime, games, manga. I kinda think they are using romance to substitute sex… so… they want to keep up their social standards, and make it so kids dont think its ok to have sex before marriage, (for a non-christian country, they think rather christian like)
IN SUMMARY, anime, manga, and games are what the kids of Japan are watching, reading or playing. This law is an attempt to declare sex an action for married couples and they want to prevent kids from misunderstanding it.
March 17th, 2007 at 12:25 am
:) I’m totally against banning things up, It’s just like a result of a parent(s) who is in desperate position and can’t think of other ways to solve their own problems. Causing havoc is their selfish way of doing things to get what they wanted which is most likely (revenge). “this has a deep meaning”
Those people who think highly of themselves and can’t tolerate other behaviors and misconcepting those behaviors as “wierd/not normal” are selfish. They might as well think of themselves as wierd.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
While i’m not really someone who can say that they support lolicon, i can understand, from what ive read, the psychology behind it. People who are interested in Lolicon outside of pedophillic intent (ie people who read but otherwise have no attraction to children) are essentially very insecure people. From my experiences with communities that are sometimes lolicon centric (anyone “wHo LIeks mudkips!!1!” will know instantly what im talking about) the user bases are typically basement dwellers or people sans life. I think the most dissapointing aspect of this kind of news is not so much an issue of censorship, but more a sense of annoyance that the problem will never be solved. I think its safe to say( judging from previous posts) pedos will be pedos, doesnt matter what they access.
Lolicon is more an extension of power through loyalty/dominance. The wish for a docile, childlike partner that will be always with them ( as the fantasy goes). Anyone who is thoroughly intimidated by women as i assume most lolicons are, might relate to that notion. Instead of trying to ban shit uselessly they need to start addressing the sickness not the symptoms.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:28 am
To let you know, there is a clear difference between child pornography and lolicon. There is also a clear difference between pedophiles who like lolicon, and those who are not pedophiles and like lolicon.
Simply put, lolicon should not have a relation to real life child pornography or actually liking young children.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 am
What?! You hate lolicon? But you like Yuki…I always thought Yuki was loli. But then again, my definition of lolicon is broadly-encompassing.