Feminist Group: “Japan Must Ban Adult Games”

A US-based international feminist “human rights” group, Equality Now, is demanding the Japanese government ban adult games (and manga and anime by extension) which “promote violence against women,” and violate the human rights of women.

They demand Japan institute a ban on material “promoting” r**e and “Loli-Con” sex:

“Japanese companies are making massive profits from an industry based on violence towards women and girls, and ‘lolicon’ child pornography is becoming a huge market.

Why doesn’t the Japanese government step in to ban the distribution of products promoting rape?”

The group’s outrage stems from finding out about the recent Amazon Rapelay fiasco, where UK politicians and mass media with nothing better to do found out about the game being sold in the UK and US.

The game itself, a 3D chikan simulator released in 2006, features a fantasy scenario in which the player can sexually enslave a mother and her daughter, impregnating them and forcing them to have abortions if desired. A free demo is available here.

The game did not attract much attention in Japan, being fairly staid, but  several distributors exported the game (in its original Japanese domestic version), and it became available in such bastions of tolerance and liberty as the UK and USA.

Amazon quickly ceased distribution of the title in all its regional operations, including Japan. Amazon.co.jp continues to stock other “rape simulators.”

Not content with seeing the west rid of this insidious plague, the group now wishes to force its views on what should be publishable onto Japan.

The group cites the dubious “research” produced by Japan’s tellingly named “Anti Pornography and Prostitution Research Group” to support its slanderous claims that Japan is nation where women live in abject subjugation under the power of male perverts.

The group is attempting to mobilise its global membership of some 30,000 to pressure the Japanese government into introducing strict censorship, and in the process abrogate its constitutional guarantee of free speech.

Equality Now describes itself as a group which “works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure,” an indirect way of saying they have their members bombard public officials and private individuals with angry letters. It appears actually assisting such women directly is not something they care to involve themselves with.

It usually concerns itself with “discrimination against women”,  legalising abortion, reducing domestic violence and female genital mutilation; pressuring sovereign states into curbing freedom of expression appears to be a new sideline.

You can read their lengthy screed against the evils of Japanese pornography here. It starts with a breathless review of the perversions offered by the game, and then goes on to make a circuitous argument that Japan has an obligation to ban such material based on UN anti-discrimination conventions to which it is a party.

They go so far as to provide pre-written letters of objection (in English) with which to harass the game developers, distributors and Japanese politicians.

The publisher of Rapelay tells the interfering group to mind their own business in no uncertain terms: “This product is intended for domestic distribution and was approved by Japanese regulators. We won’t accept this sort of criticism from overseas groups.”

Via Yomiuri.

With violence towards women and girls far less common in Japan than in the USA or Europe, it would appear it is they who should be following the example of Japan…