PM Kan: “Transmitting Anime to the World is Important”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Dec 14, 2010 02:23 JST
- Tags: Censorship, DPJ, LDP, Politics, Shonen Jump, Shueisha, Tokyo, Tokyo Anime Fair
Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan has deplored the devastation Tokyo governor Ishihara has wrought on the Tokyo International Anime Fair, stressing the importance of spreading anime to the world and urging all sides to come to an accommodation even as Shueisha announced it will be blocking any Shonen Jump anime from appearing there.
The prime minister made the remarks in a recent post on his official blog:
“Another thing is the matter of Japan, the brand. Currently a great many people are raising concerns about the Tokyo International Anime Fair as it relates to the matter of youth welfare.
Raising children healthily is an important matter. But at the same time, transmitting Japanese anime to the world is also important.
I want to see the parties concerned endeavour to avoid causing the Tokyo International Anime Fair to be unable to be held in Tokyo.”
Presumably the comment is intended as both a warning to Ishihara (who has refused any sort of compromise with the publishing industry) not to abuse his position in a manner which will gut both Japan’s “soft power” and its economy and culture, and an exhortation to the Tokyo DPJ to reconsider their support of the law – they have pledged to support it, but the bill has not yet been fully signed into law.
There is unlikely to be any love lost between Kan and Ishihara – Kan is left-wing Democrat with a noted aversion to confrontation, whilst Ishihara is an abrasive populist on the far-right of the political spectrum, so much so that he felt compelled to start his own party of fellow senile geriatric right-wingers as the LDP apparently did not hate foreigners enough for his taste.
Kan’s approval rating is currently under 20% after his handling of the recent Senkaku affair, and it is expected he will not last much longer – thus it may simply be possible nobody will take any notice of him, particularly Ishihara, who actually made the accusation that “many[Democrats] are descendents of non-Japanese” and even urged people to physically attack Kan if he did not stand at a recent military parade.
That it is the likely cancellation of the Tokyo Anime Fair which elicited his comments seems a vindication of the industry’s belated decision to fight back – though an additional threat to cancel Comiket and emphasis on the crushing effect on the Akiba tourist trade are still unstruck targets.
The statements come just as Shueisha declared outright war on the event – their CEO announced that not only would none of their manga titles be appearing, they would be blocking any of the anime based on their titles from appearing as well.
Shueisha publishes Shonen Jump, which is of course the source of One Piece and Naruto, along with so many other internationally renowned anime titles.
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Hi to you all.
I just wanted to say some things:
First Sex, we all love it, no doubt about it Man or Woman. Feminism is just hypocrisy, they say seeing sex will injure the childs mind and future, SEX is natural and children should learn about sex, masturbation is natural... Basically sex is not a thing that should be hidden, but showed and explained...
Second Homosexuality, OMG they wanna ban this, i'm not against homosexuals or with them but, we are living in a modern world, hidding this from Kids will harm them, make them thinks that this is a thing to be feared and it a bad thing to be. This is another thing that should be shown and explained by the media in all sorts of ways.
Last Freedom of Art and Expression, we all have the right to express ourselfs freedom of speech, and art. Of course there are some kinds of expressions that might offend others depending of the Cultures, but if you are offended just ignor it or uses your freedom of speech to talk back, but the other person is not gonna change is mind if you are or not offended. Cencorship is the ultimate kind of racism even if among the same culture.
Bassically we live in a modern world, new ideas many diferent culteres that are similar but offenly are offended by one other. But we all have to coexist toghether. Children aren't to be protected from stuff that they should learn, and adults shouldn't be deprived of they're freedom, because some are offended when others are not.
Rate my comment From 0 to 10 XD
10 from me. :3 I agree with every single thing you wrote.
I'm just not sure if the idea of not educating kids about sex is feministic. I don't want to defend feminism because I don't like it as well but I'm not sure where it really comes from. But I agree that sex education is very important and portraying "physical love" in art shouldn't be considered harmful because sex is natural thing and it's important for kids to learn healthy attitude to their own bodies and sexuality.
@ Bruth
You, good sir, should be the one in charge of Tokyo, hell, in charge of Japan. Rarely does anyone post anything as open-minded and intelligent. I give you a 10, and if I could I would give you another. It's sad that people can't recognize that educating about a subject is what allows people to grow up healthy. Hiding things, banning things, calling opposing or different views evil, it's the worst kind of prejudice and is far too prevalent for my liking. Moralfags make me rage, the hypocrisy of these unhealthy adults even thinking to judge anything at all is disgusting.....ok, rage time over.
My bad, forgot to log in. ^
10 from me too. But I'm just a (smart?) otaku, go tell that to irresponsible parents and/or extreme right-wingers.
As for children education, I don't think it has anything to do with feminism. It's just that some people, when and only when they become parents, get so obsessed with protecting their children to forget connecting their brains. Children should be protected, hell sure, but not isolated from the world. They should learn what they don't know, not grow up fearing it.
@rena: OT, but your avatar went from good to better. I love Shigunyan <3
Screw the Prime Minister with a jackhammer, you can't even put your antique,hypocrite colleagues on a leash.
On a related note, banning stuff isn't gonna make devils grow halos. Just look at the Probation Era way back in the US for an example.
Prohibition..... Not Probation....
^
Yeah Prohibition,my bad.(lack of sleep here, >.<)and it did more harm than good.
oh never mind, its better to have a world with flaws, then a perfect, boring, uniform society. Like a communist country :P
We're going to have an underground anime market? Kick-ass I'll support it. You'll see stores are soon going to have a "Back-room" where an otaku would come and say "lets see the goods", then would have access to restricted materials.
Oh how exciting
Those are cool example that I never gave much thought. I guess it just goes to show you, easy-going, layback leaders are the best. Everyone has their habits both good and bad, and thats ok as long as they don't try to force it on society or have others try to "correct them", its the individual's choice. Well thats my line of thinking :)
so who is gonny be the Al Capone of manga/anime
any suggestions :D
how about Agnes chan:
should have tons of material to "support" their statements :D:D:D
Actually Angus Chan seems more like the Anime Ver. of the Ku Klux Klan. Being a hater and trying to recruit others to her cause. I'm surprised shes not burning Loli Merchandise.
or maybe I'm wrong >_>
Thing is, if it's gonna end up like the Prohibition-era, It would be really bad if something that would equate to the St. Valentine's Massacre would take place...
If you take a good look at history's finest leaders, they weren't that much of a good example due to their vices and habits.(e.g. Churchill was a cigar-maniac,Kennedy loves smokes and women.FDR likes the occasional drink or two) But hey, at least they're the very reason why you sleep on a bed and eat 3 times a day without having to worry much.While those leaders who caused nothing but grief and nightmares are those proclaiming to eradicate "evil-inducing" activities,yet you can look to history for their atrocious deeds(One of the best example for this is Adolf Hitler. He didn't drink,He wasn't a womanizer and he detests smoking so much he had it strictly banned....)
Yeah Giovi,
These men who allow "necessary evil" to exist instead of worse things yet are what we need again.
Cute, the vice and habits of Kennedy were: "smokes and women."?
Something society would consider outrageous and even worse than that would be drugs, right? Well he did them as much, if not more, than smokes and women. Look up info on Dr FeelGood/Miracle Max, without him he would have never been able to keep up with his work.
Not hard to figure out if he was the only president using them; the only reason people have no problem admitting some presidents were into smoking/women is because that's the visible tip of the iceberg, aka 10%. 90% of the rest of the bad shit is underwater, people don't learn about that from history classes.
About Adolf Hitler, he detested smoking indeed, but his army's soldiers weren't banned to smoke. Whether or not he was aware of that, I do not know. A lot of Germany's 15~20 y.o back in those days picked up smoking a while after they picked up their first gun.
What do you mean by "necessary evil"?
Hardly "colleagues", might as well say that Obama and Sarah Palin are "close friends". lol
The Tokyo governor is from the right, very conservative. The current PM is from the biggest left-oriented party in Japan.
Dude, He's the PM for crying out loud,He ain't some national mascot. He should just directly warn Ishihara's twisted zealousness instead of just giving out a blog post.
Even if they're from different political sides, they're in the same boat called the "government" and the same country called "Japan."
11:11,
Are a butthurt American trying to stuff in your country's government logic into topics which concern other countries just because I said something that "not all people posting here lives in the US?" I said he could have given a better example and not some racism-inducing law.
There's no point continuing this discussion when degenerates like you loom in the picture...
14:29,
Oh so you're not,but you're definitely a Grammar Nazi with that poor attitude.People could care less about how others type as long as the message is delivered.
Japan isn't a federal state. Tokyo does have it's own assembly apart from the diet but it's Kan's party that rules both Japan and Tokyo
he should have plenty of sway against the governor.
That's the USA, this is Japan we are talking about,Anon.Mind you that not everyone here is living in America.They have their own way of governing and thinking of how governing should be.As observers we are just compelled to discuss what is about and so on.So before you point out others being ignorant,think of this small thing: "NOT EVERYONE LIVES IN AMERICALAND."
The main point in his argument isn't "racism" you idiot.
It's:
"the federal government opposed but couldn't do anything about because of STATE'S RIGHTS? This is EXACTLY like that."
SO BEFORE YOU START SHOOTING OFF YOUR MOUTH, PLEASE THINK AGAIN.
5:25,
He could have given a better example.
US Federal Law does not equate to the current situation in Japan,Racism Issue does not equal Anime/Manga Ban.
So before you start shooting off your mouth,please think again.
@GraceUnderFire,I doubt much you say will go into his head
14:19,
"Is a butt hurt American." I'm not an American but bad grammar kills.
Constitutionally, yes.
But does he have the "balls"?
A blog post is one thing. True action is another.
The PM could really use this opportunity to cement his position as the head-honcho. I wonder what is keeping him up? It's not like he has much to lose anyway.
You're fucking retarded 4:29 was giving an example.
If you think the Prime Minister can simply do whatever he pleases then gooooooood for you!
Grace, your ignorance on the workings of "government" is sad. Remember when the Arizona governor passed the anti-immigration (and basically racist) law for profiling that the federal government opposed but couldn't do anything about because of STATE'S RIGHTS? This is EXACTLY like that.
LOLOLOLOL goverment didnt do shit because it is a FEDERAL LAW and how is it racist? since when were hispanics a race? anyone can get a super tan lol it is on the other hand profiling but hey what are YOU honestly going to do
Don't mix up lack of sleep with ignorance.
You can't stop old retarded ppl from trying, ban is the first thing they come up with to deal with this kinda matters and they wont stop unless someone burn them alive along with their archaic beliefs.
And where are the supporters for imaginary individual's rights to be tentacle raped to tears of joy I wonder.
You can't stop old retarded ppl from trying, ban is the first thing they come up with to deal with this kinda matters and they wont stop unless someone burn them alive along with their archaic beliefs.
And where are the supporters for imaginary individual's rights to be tentacle raped to tears of joy I wonder.
Tentacle rape, good thing i trained my Tentacruel pokemon, i knew it would come in handy one day. :3
I Always thought seppuku was an honored choice of death, to be able to die with their pride...
Tokyo, you are doing it wrong!
I know here in the US once there was a time no one knew anything about anime or Japan.
After anime became popular it became reason to learn Japanese, their culture, customs etc.
Anime made the younger generation want to know and learn more about another culture on their own.
Japan owes a lot to its anime industry.
You know: instead of shoving a big fat leek up Ishihara's ass, why don't we have Koizumi Itsuki come over to him and rape the living daylights out of him?
DPJ sucks and those hypocrites can just go to hell!
fucking a good portion of those same anime is going to be banned in 2011.. so wtf...
I really hope this ban won't be signed into law, even if it's only the smallest chance now.
Thanks to a dispute over some insignificant islands, racist, homophobic idiots like Ishihara are getting approval, and now the anime/manga/games industry is in trouble... it's like the butterfly effect or something.
Problem is, someone would have to program those robots, and that would be a person with their own opinions...
Even a robot with only a "Hello world!" program would make better decisions (read: less harm) than this lunatic insanity.
Seriously, what do they think will happen if Comiket and Akiba go down? I'm pretty sure all hell will break loose and so much shit will hit the fan they won't be able to fart because of it.
You really want to rob a an army of basement dwellers the one thing that's keeping them at bay form doing stupid things? This is so unbelievably stupid historians will deny this ever existed.
Actually, if computers/robots were to run our world out of 100% logic, I'm pretty sure sooner of later they'd deem us harmful to our planet. It'll be Judgement day Terminator style.
Well, looks like the children of Japan will have one less thing to care about. Konami pulled out. I'm not sure how big of a fanbase Yugioh has on this event but That's another demographic being affected. Then we have Conan, dear god. I think this event is going to hell. The only reason people would go is for the pokemanz.
Anonymous
08:11
otaku have an army bigger than the japanese military, im fairly certain a cu de ta could happen if they realize they have nothing left to live for, and may as well try something even if they die in the process.
We need logical robots to run our World tbh. Humans arent capable of it, everyone has flaws. Personal opinion will always factor into the decisions these imbeciles make.
Humanity will never be anywhere close to functional, good, enjoyable or perfect as long as humans remain in control.
@skriticos You and Megidola have the most epic collections of text ever. I know this is a bad time to be laughing, but your exchanges have made me LOL hard just now.
+1*10^999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999
@skriticos
Yup. Suicide rates will go up.
did someone say... KAMIKAZE!!!!
@OhYeah,Yugioh is a children's card game where adults play(YGO Abridged)
He's not a right wing nut, he is a self-righteous crusader for infamy and lunacy. He is best companion would be Sarah Palin, if not as a dutch wife. Oh wait he be he fell off the world instead of going right...
You propose we need a Heaven's Guard from Front Mission Evolved?
@13:31
You're letting your own libertard leanings ooze all over the place~
WTF does Sarah Palin have to do with this shit pile? The women who booted a REPUBLICAN politician out for Corruption no less! The fucker is being investigated now and action is taking place as I type! A women who INCREASED civilian benefits by giving more money earned by the Alaskan OIL PIPE LINES to all Alaskans? Leaving her office because of main SLIME media having a orgasmic target about every step she made that would've slammed the Alaskan government to a crawl?
Anime will die a pathetic withering death into obscurity by the end of the next decade if this slow~DELIBERATELY confusing law comes into effect. So soon I'll be off to ebay to buy so old Anime~~~~~~
I hope the bill passes, so when their country starts rotting, they'll know how fucking stupid they are.
Repeat after me: This is not only the DPJ's fault. The LDP and Ishihara's party are also just as much to blame (if not more so).
In fact, since Kan is the head of the DPJ and is speaking out AGAINST this bill, your blaming just the DPJ is ridiculous.
people are blaming the DPJ mostly because they were elected in a huge political shift in part BECAUSE they were supposed to be the party that countered the LDP's lunatic moralist minority party pandering.
yes, the LDP and Ishihara are most obviously at fault, but everyone's given up on any sense from them. they lose big and what did the LDP decide? obviously they need to sleep with the radical moralists even more! despite the fact that the moralist parties lost ground too. like i said, everyone's already given up on them.
the DPJ were supposed to stand against that stupidity, and for a while they did, hence this bill failing previously.
but steadily and surely the DPJ has become a bunch of spineless nitwits who at this point don't even have the balls to be a political opposition party anymore.
that's why people are blaming the DPJ.
they CAN stop this bill if they'd grow the spine to actually govern.
um... just because a person is the "leader" of a party doesnt mean they actually have any real influence...
seriously... did they even consider the impacts of signing such a thing into law? anime/manga in general is a very large part of the japanese economy, and doing such things would greatly hinder the ability for that industry to do well in the future... considering that Japan has been in a recession for the last 20+ years now... this is just plain suicide... are they TRYING to destroy their country and never get elected into office ever again? i guess thats what they want when they are stupid people that are unable to discern fact from fiction...
Once they pass this ban, this industry will become underground and they will not be able to monitor or earn money (tax/gdp) from this industry.
anyhow, what about it if otaku engineers and architects join forces to create Mobile Suits / Wanzers and show these Ironman (read: western) freaks what real exosuit warfare is all about.
Unless of course you get those Crysis nanosuits.
Itsuki doesn't deserve Ishihara. He deserves more than that.
@Bazzyrick You do have a point but those robots would be in your favor and of Otakus which is an opinion of a certain demographic. Not everyone on this planet, this is because no one thinks the same. Especially when it comes to subjective reasoning over social stigmas like these, that ironically people express objectively. Their opinions rule out yours in number of moralist conservatives who are in power, if you have a problem usurp them with yours or our solipsisms.
If this stupid ban lasts for even two weeks, we can see the demise of Japan sooner. Japan is going down because of these lame politicians. The only Japanese politician I respect right now is PM Kan. He has a good point. DPJ is obviously doing some conspiracy as of this moment.
Dear Mr Kan,
Please kick Ishihara's ass.
Sincerely,
Megidola
i bet he is under HEAVY guard right now. imagine the amount of death threats he is getting..
Nah,
Toss him into a pit of sex-deprived homosexuals
and watch him get his behymen owned if ever he still has one.
P.S.
Bring popcorn,chicken wings and drinks! ^^
ask Santa too
*writes his name in death note*
Ishita X anime
And no
Ishita isnt a typo
Guess no one would dare Ishihara to walk in the middle of Akihabara and see what kind of material he coerced the government into banning.
Then again,if he was to visit the district, A breaking news headline will stream across the globe: "Tokyo's Governor being tarred and feathered,LIVE!."
@GraceUnderFire I'd lose my appetite and throw up watching it probably all over Ishihara.
to bring that guy down for good
Ishihara will get bashed walking down Akihabara.
I agree with you. Someone as coward as Ishihara as a governor this world is really gone in the drain.
I think Ishira is scheming a grandiose plan with his party to the extent banning
Koizumi Itsuki prefers to blast a fumoffu at Ishihara's face
derp. Intelligent and practical response, exactly the sort of thing turds like Ishihara expect.
How the fuck are they hypocrites they are assholes but no where near what I would call a hypocrite
the guy that wants to ban manga for 'harming children' has reported written several erotica books
so yeah, hypocrits
Only in Japan.
Little child molesting dorks that make cartoons then jack off to them might sound "bad" but it's become their culture for sure.
While I agree about the raping part, why Koizumi Itsuki?
He might enjoy it?
Rapeface and all.
"Raising children healthily is an important matter."
-so annoying that because it's 2D it's for children
go watch some hentai and read some doujin
Yup, I don't get this "it could be harmful to children" attitude either. The shows are made for teens or adults, thus I fail to se a problem there.
And even if, I still don't understand why they consider sex as harmful. Of course TV show for teens shouldn't contain full frontal porn but I think that "protecting" children from sex all the time is no good. They demonize sex way too much for my tastes, comparing it to such wrong things as drugs and violence.
And even with drugs and violence, they can be divided to a lot of categories. Some are suitable for children, some for teens and some for adults.
If they were responsible parents and didn't let kids watch/read/play what they shouldn't, there would be no problem. But no, "this can be harmful for children so let's ban/censor it" is easier then to do something about their children themselves.
Because there aren't not many responsible parents these day. In my country parent rising their children by the magic box that was call Television. There won't have this problem in the first place if there are so many responsible parents.
Quoting Beer Money Inc:
"SCREW THE KIDS!"
Well at least SOMEONE like PM Kan is showing a bit of reason and common sense.
IMO, Fathers and mothers in Japan give worse behavior examples to their kids than those seen in anime and/or manga: The woman must walk 1 meter behind the husband when going to any social meeting; the mother must raise the children alone; the father is always right, even if he gets violent; if a dude is a manwh*re its ok, but girls must remain virgins, till marriage (HAHAHA); if u don't get good grades then you r doomed to be loser the rest of ur life; dont look at the eyes of tanned ppl or he is going to kidnap u(bring u with him) LOL??? (I once heard a jap mother saying this to her kid in front of me, during my vacations in Cancun, thinking that i didnt know jap, racism much??? o.0), ETC.
wtf are you talking about? those days has way long past. prostitution has ran rampant in tokyo, girls growing up to become more bitches, and people just chase after money. the day of the Yamato Nadeshiko is no more. And it's not to be completely blamed on anime/manga. the economy is to blame since it's so damn expensive living there. and why is it so expensive? because of fuckhead retard politicians making life shittier for everyone else but themselves. it's business as usual. these damn sellout politicians.
Anon 7:41 must have traveled into current year through some kind of split-second disturbance in time/space continuum from somewhere in the end of 19th century...
The Japanese are doomed. With the kind of society they've evolved into, no thanks to the long-lasting damage created by Meiji whores through the fabrication of 'bushido' code AND the relatively spontaneous economic growth they had during the second half of 20th century, they souls are now so enslaved by materialistic virtues that they'd do ANYTHING to keep up; and also enslaved by anyone who happens to be on top of their social status that they'd shove their own heads in a toilet bowl and dine on all the putrid shit in there if they're told to.
They're taught not to question the 'elder', even when their own moral values are so far at the end of the negative spectrum. They then suck it all up and take solace in pathetically temporary monetary values and discriminate those below them, who then proceed to do exactly the same. The chain goes on and on.
Now you know why the Japanese always create wonderful fictions: because their actual lives are so dreadful and devoid of meaning that they need to drown in fantasies they themselves create. Don't get me wrong: Americans and other nations have their own fuck-ups, but as far as popular developed nations go, the Japanese are the most pathetic.
You were in the middle of a police shootout with some bandits or assasins...
O RLY?
(7:41) Well, I as describing most parents in Japan, at least the ones i saw, which i blame the so d@mn stressed way of thinking of youth nowadays. Heck, my friend is so damn cool compared to their parents (his father is a d!ck), and its easy to relate his worries to them. He stayed in my city (Juarez, thnx gawt i went out of tht city after high school) 1 year learning spanish and he fell ill when he got a 89 mark degree, but he stayed totally cool and even got excited when we were in middle of a police shootout with some bandits/assasins (dunno if he was nervous, but he didnt fell ill, as i almost had a nervous breakdown). Now htat i think about it, thats how screwed up society is when its bored and stressed I SUPPOSE, and less anime just makes society more bored and stressed.
i know that sounds absurd to you, but that is japan.
every country always has something which look strange to strangers, especially when we talk about tradition etc.
the dawn is coming!
A dark dawn?
we will have our day this old man will burn to the ground! loli loli loli loli loli!
The dawn of war.
Suffer not the DPJ to live.
Yes! Way to go Shueisha!
DPJ Sucks and Ishihara
If I were the mayor of Osaka, I would be salivating and rubbing my hands with glee right now.
This is the perfect opportunity to put the kind of smackdown the Kansai people love on them. Tax breaks and incentives for every animation studio, retailer and publisher who moves to Osaka!
Laws about censorship are at 80% laws for help irresponsible parents who can't raise their children like they want or "correctly"!
just stop to fuck without condoms if you can't handle it!
Hey where's that good old "ASO TARO"?