The Japanese Diet is set to hear a petition for legislation which would effectively ban the vast majority of eroge and adult anime (and probably, by extension, adult manga, though this is not stated), as the petitioning party is particularly het up about portrayals of minority age females.
Apparently there are some products where all portrayed are over 18, but I suspect the proportion is rather slim. I provide a translation of the petition:
A Petition for the Enactment of Regulation on the Manufacture and Sale of Bishojo Adult Anime Magazines, and Bishojo Adult Anime Simulation Games
Our towns overflow with adult anime magazines and games which often depict elementary school girls, and the minds of the youths who are seduced by these games are unwittingly destroyed; they lose their very humanity, there are already incidents of young maidens being plucked from the streets and murdered. Since it is plain that our society has now become one where young girls are placed in great peril, the issue of free expression is a thing of the past. To curb these profit seeking companies with no conception of social morals, to restrict the creation of products which place young girls in peril, there is a pressing need for penal regulations and the accompanying laws.
We wish to see enacted laws restricting the manufacture and sale of bishojo adult anime magazines, and bishojo adult anime simulation games.
“Bishojo adult anime magazines” is their phrase; I’m not sure if they intend a specific meaning for it (eg. TECH GIAN type magazines), or if it applies to all of these pernicious mind poisoning manga (eg. including Megastore too). Their vocabulary sounds a bit crusty, but this might be expected from these kind of elements.
Since this is a just a petition it has, presumably, nil chance of being accepted – I would think any such action would have to come at cabinet level at any rate, and would face huge legal and constitutional barriers, to say nothing of the practical issues. This likely just represents the fantasy of some domestic moralist groups, along with similar international anti-freedom of expression groups. Nothing to worry about then? Via NekoAreBurogu.
Psshaw! These circus clowns over in Japan couldn’t even keep a Prime Minister in office for more than a year without SOMEONE committing suicide over the inability to run government.
I know that our government here in the US sucks even more. But our financial loses and such are of more importance to worry about than some anti-porn moral groups’ concerns. (The homosexual pedophile Mark Foley had been removed like the garbage he is. Case closed for a while.)
Just as long as the ladies are of legal age; pornography is not gonna go anywhere anytime soon. And it’s best not to push for its disappearance.