A pro-ban politician has outraged manga fans by publicly exposing and then ridiculing a BL mangaka who put her name to an anti-ban petition sent to him.
BL mangaka Eiki Eiki, coincidentally the granddaughter of former PM Noboru Takeshita and the big sister of singer Daigo, apparently put her name to a petition opposing the recently passed restrictions on the sale of “unhealthy” anime and manga.
The petition was presented to LDP Tokyo metropolitan assemblyman Masatsugu Mihara, a vocal advocate of the ban, who of course completely ignored it, having previously dismissed all such opposition as “meaningless.”
However, rather than leave it at that he proceeded to all but identify Eiki by name on his site, ridiculing her and suggesting she should be careful what she writes lest her grandfather see it:
“I received a lot of objections to the revision, but what caught my eye was this next one.
A lady calling herself the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Takeshita wrote to me, and she writes manga so she didn’t want any increased censorship.
The last thing I said to her was ‘Would you show these extreme manga to your grandpa [the former PM]? Write your manga using your own judgement as to whether your grandpa would be angry.'”
His crude remarks to the mangaka and his exposure of her identity on his website soon caused outrage amongst manga fans, and before long his homepage, and the offending remarks, mysteriously disappeared.
When the previous rejected version of the ban was being criticised in June, he obliquely accused ban opponents of attacking his offices (naturally the entry has also since disappeared):
“I got a call saying my office had been done over. I hurried over there and there was a fist-sized hole in the front window, and lots of glass and a stone inside.
The police asked if I knew anything about it, but neither me nor my secretary had any idea.
However, I did have one doubt. When the revised youth health ordinance was being deliberated, I was for it and received a lot of letters, calls and comments on my homepage about it.
Lately it escalated and I’ve been getting a lot of meaningless objections saying ‘I won’t support the LDP any more.’
Withdrawing support is the most pressure anyone can apply to a politician, it doesn’t get much worse than that. Surely, it couldn’t have escalated further…
I’ve been a politician for 17 years now. This is the first sort of pressure of this sort I’ve seen. However, I will pursue righteousness. I absolutely will triumph in the end!!”
Critics point out that the “Sanya” area of Tokyo he reports the incident occurring in is already notoriously rough.
The message from ban proponents has consistently been that they will ignore any complaints or petitions, and even industry pleas for negotiation, all in the absence of any popular demand for a ban with national consequences – so much for Japanese democracy.
Oh wow, this guy is an asshole and seriously shouldn’t be in a position of power.
Man, where’s Akumetsu when you need him?
You know, under this new law, they can technically ban any video game aswell, exports and imports. That would include Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, etc.
That’s how badly worded that law is.
Great…and I was looking forward to Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
The revolution starting my ass. All I see is petitions being sent into politicians who outright ignore them all together.
1. They are sending them to the wrong people. Send them to supporters of the anime/manga industry. (Besides can’t a petition to remove the ban if there are enough signatures be put on the next public voting ballot?)
2. The Prime Minster and his party are doing nothing to stop Tokyo from getting arrogant. All they are doing is sitting around saying how “disappointing the Tokyo government is?”
3. Why doesn’t any expose the fact that Ishihara and gang are making real child porn legal to posses to the United nations? Maybe if the UN gets on PM Kan’s ass a bit or the like then, just maybe this ban may disappear faster.
Seriously do we need to call in foreign influence to fix this mess?
The Japanese simply don’t know how to demonstrate properly. It’s the truth.
Sure, they occasionally banner-protest against China or harass a lone gaijin in the streets, when they operate in groups, but that’s about all.
Whenever they are confronted with people who are situated higher in the hierarchy of society, they magically lose all their drive and common sense.
The Youth is useless in that regard.
This struggle can only be fought with the help of the industry, with people who have money and influence.
The old right wingers only answer to people who can potentially oppose them with monetary might.
They also give a s♥♥t about the voters, because the votes are a catastrophy in Japan, to put it mildly.
All of those ultras are regularly voted by an extremely small group of nationalists. The sad thing is that they only need that small, loyal group because vote participation is a joke.
I love Eiki Eiki~~~ Her manga isn’t even that explicit, but her best friend, Taisho Zaou, draws stuff thats a bit more “detailed” in some scenes, and sometimes they do joint doujinshi together. I can understand not wanting gramps to see that.