Stop Domestic Violence, Manga Style

Just to be clear:

Corporal Punishment (i.e. the use of physical force on a person as a serious form of discipline) is not the same as Domestic Violence unlike what some believe. Logically, whether the former was inevitable is completely up to the individual(s) at the scene. Sadly, victims of pain are more than likely prone to making shit up, therefore raising some bad press despite it being blatant lies.

Society sure has bred a generation of weak-willed people.

Japan is doing a fine job of reducing domestic violence. As we speak, the marriage rate is collapsing. Pretty soon there will be no more husbands to commit domestic violence, or raise a family for that matter. Good job Japan!

well i do prefer the manga approach, if you would see
the buses with pictures of battered women all around you would understand.
it was especially annoying since the women potrayed in
the ads were quite well educated and respectable memebers of society.
it made me wander how, if they are so well educated and have a good economical position, end up choosing a caveman/thug as a partner.

If the poster is about women being the victims of abuse, why does SHE look likes she's about to hurt someone?

They do it manga style because everything in Japan is done that way. They turned the aflac duck into an anime cat wearing a duck costume for god sakes... I loves Japan =D

am I the only one seeing Sakaki on the pic?

Oh come on. It's not like because of manga Your husband is going to use Kamekameha to DV you. But if that really happens..... Scary~

As in all countries in the world, there is a lot of domestic violence in Japan too. For anyone interested in the severe problems faced by victims of domestic violence in Japan check out this report in April this year from Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Tokyo on the women who are speaking out about the problem.

http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/japanese-women-hit-back-at-domestic-abuse-25-apr-09/17189639

Although the report is well done well researched it seems to imply at the end that nothing is going to chance for a long time about the problem of domestic violence in Japan.

Here, as in any other country in the world historically, there has been domestic violence in all types of societies, not in the least of course in societies and cultures that have taken a sexist ('paternalistic') view that women were not as equal as men and could be beaten and suffer abuse at the hands of their husbands.

Now, thanks to the work of volunteer women's groups and activist lawyers in Japan who have worked hard against this problem of violence against women and children in their homes, the Japanese government enacted the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims in 2001. This was the first official recognition by Japanese politicians and law makers in Japanese history that domestic violence is in fact a crime. As a first step it was an important recognition of the widespread problem of spousal violence against women in Japanese homes throughout Japan. However there was considerable criticism that the low financial fines on Japanese husbands who attack their wives and the limit of only 1 month long restraining orders on men who abused their wives and children did not go far enough to provide Japanese women with a credible degree of legal protection and safety from further violent attacks. The law was revised to some extent in 2004 but still met with criticism as not going far enough to protect the victims of domestic and also for not focusing on the men who are being violent toward their wives and children:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20041204f2.html

Amendments to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act were passed and became law in July 2007 but did not receive so much attention in the media as would have been desirable:

http://tokyocounseling.blog.com/4785391/

However more and more Japanese women are taking action in Japan and, like the women featured in the video above, are no longer to suffer without protest former generations have had to do without any effective legal protection. The following links are to articles on domestic violence and National Police Agency reports that have appeared in the media this year that show that modern Japanese women in 21st century Japan are standing up against violent husbands and using the existing laws to protect themselves and their children:

http://tokyocounseling.blog.com/4723531/

http://tokyocounseling.blog.com/4857497/

These brave women need and deserve stronger and even more effective legal protection for themselves and the children they are trying to protect from their own fathers hands. There needs also to be considerable public and national political will focused on providing Japanese wives and partners with safe emergency residences and legally protected abuse shelters. I think it is also of vital importance that serious decisions to provide and implement official funding to ensure that refuge and protection to all women who are suffering domestic violence of all forms.

Andrew Grimes
Tokyo Counseling Services

http://tokyocounseling.com/english/
http://tokyocounseling.com/jp/

http://counselingjapan.com/

My favourite poster still seems to be up on the Shinakansen platforms of Kyoto station. It depicts a schoolgirl, policewoman and policeman in an illustrated style. It's warning people not to take pictures of schoolgirls with their phones, but the best part is that the policewoman is just standing there looking pissed, whilst the policeman is speeding quickly towards the viewer holding the phone.

Sure, police are gender-friendly, but it's the men who do all the work still, yeah? Apparently so.

The illustration is to illustrate the problem...

I mean really, if you had to come home to that expression every night, you'd try and slap it off her face too.

...it claims 10.8% of married women are victims of “domestic violence,” but the results are based solely on a survey of women, with traditional and highly reprehensible “physical violence” lumped in together with the exceedingly ambiguous “psychological attacks” and “sexual demands.”

Abused women would be many times more likely to do the survey then unabused women. That, including the vague naming for these other supposedly related 'types of domestic violence', and I'm actually surprised that the figure was only 10.8%

If anything, this tells me DV must be quite low indeed.

WOAH GUYS. I WAS JUST ABOUT TO TAKE A SWING AT MY WOMAN WHEN I SAW THAT FACE. STOPPED ME DEAD IN MY TRACKS.

"男女共同参画推進本部"って所は左翼の影響力が半端ない
所なんだな。鳩山左派政権になって、勢いづいてるんだろ
う。

あーあと自民党が児童ポルノ法の成立に躍起になってるのは、主に北朝鮮系のUnderground moneyを潰す為。北朝鮮と
仲の良い民主党がこの法律に消極的だったのは、それが
理由なのさ。けど、先導されたオタ共が邪魔をして成立が
困難になってしまったんだけど。ここでも話題になっていた
事があったんで知らせておこう。

Domestic Violence against women is a major social problem in Japan. There is an article from the Japan Times, 7th November 2009, on the subject that is worth taking a look called "Speaking out about Domestic Violence":

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091107f1.html

A Cabinet Office survey released this year found that a quarter of all married women in Japan have experienced physical violence, and one in three has suffered verbal and psychological abuse.

Police handled 25,210 cases of domestic violence last year, up by 20 percent from 2007 and the largest number since surveys began in 2002. Activists say those statistics, and the 77 domestic homicides reported in 2008, are an underestimate.

"The issue is hidden because many women are too frightened or ashamed to speak out," explained Fumi Suzuki, a lawyer and director of the Chiba-based Allies Law Office, which gives legal advice to battered wives. "Partly because of that, spousal abuse has a very low profile in Japan."

Hey man, you don't know that the stats are made up. Perhaps they are, perhaps they aren't, and 10.8% isn't that high anyway; not high enough to be suspect. Anecdotally, I'd say it's lower than I expected.

Incidentally, men also get abused. Heck, it's close to 5% in the United States-- and that's of victims who actually bring it to light, so the actual value is likely quite higher, given that men are less likely to admit being victims. Why on Earth would Japan having a 10.8% DV rate be unbelievable to you?

It's a nice illustration though.

Eila Ilmatar Juutilanen.., is that you?

Stopping real violence with manga, sure thats better than stopping manga violence.

the expression surely grabs my attention...

I'd hit it.

A lot.

The manga picture is probably because no woman in Japan would actually stand up and model for this poster as the government probably wanted some beat up housewife photo.

It takes the guro out and makes it much simpler, and I feel it's more compelling.

Though I have to say, such a campaign would be much more useful in Africa. Judging from Sankaku's previous reports on herbivorous men and powerful pocket-money-pinching wives, I say the figures might be a bit exagerrated.

Well it makes sense that it's only asked by women, I mean, the ones who did it wouldn't admit it, or they wouldn't consider it violence.

Nevertheless, women tend to be more sensible for this stuff, so the facts may be a bit warped.

Ten out of a hundred of women get beat.
Seems reasonable for me, because 10 violent men out of 100 is quite logical.