80% of Japanese asked whether they support Tokyo’s manga ban report that they oppose it, and a further 81% consider it an attack on freedom of expression.
The survey, published by right-wing rag Sankei, asked 6,399 people (4,305 men and 2094 women) for their opinions on Tokyo’s Ishihara-led attack on manga.
When asked “do you agree that extreme depictions of sex should be restricted by the ordinance?”, 80% opposed the law.
Furthermore, 81% agreed when asked “do you think this law constitutes a restriction on freedom of expression?”
Some of the majority opinions from survey respondents:
“If writing manga which depicts illegal activity is against the law now, then it is not fair to apply the law without also banning all historical and yakuza manga. This is the worst law possible, sure to ruin Japan’s great manga culture. Manga should be free, it mustn’t be censored”
“The Tokyo government didn’t adequately discuss this with the publishing industry, yet passed a ban anyway – isn’t that strange? Also, I am not at all convinced by the Tokyo governor’s prejudiced statements.”
“There is no scientific basis for the notion that if you read sexually explicit manga it’ll turn you into a sex criminal, and there is a major issue with passing a ban with no basis in scientific fact.”
“This is only going to push young people’s access to sexual material underground, and that is sure to have an adverse effect on their healthy development.”
Here lies the problem: When the Japanese youth hate the government, they don’t vote. And the ones that DO vote are the old people and the youths they have brainwashed. And guess who they voted for? Ishihara!
If you’re living in a country where the majority – especially the vast majority – is against a law but the law is still kept in place against the wishes of the people, then you’re living under Tyranny.
As simple as that.
If you deny that, then you’re still living under tyranny (obviously) only with the added state of also living in denial.
I’m tired of Japanese whining about this ban just because they can’t get their rocks off to little girls. Any manga writer with any sort of talent can create good manga with attractive girls without having to resort to illegal activities. I don’t agree with having underage kids in sexual positions in the west, or in Japan. Pedophiles are trying to act like it’s an attack on “freedom of speech.” They don’t give a damn about that. They just want to jack off. Let’s be real here.
The only thing that makes sense is that if they were going to outlaw this they need to outlaw everything like it. Picking and choosing is stupid and DOES make it clear it’s an attack on specific groups of people. Now THAT I can’t agree with regardless of whether or I agree or disagree with the topic.
Government should be serving the people’s desires. If majority of people oppose a law and it still passes, then you’ve gotta get someone up there that knows what the people want.
Why do I have a feeling that people are just going to ignore this ban when it later becomes a law on July?
Because they are. The law was a TOTAL overstep of bounds, and I’ve found numerous Japanese constitution (their version of it) problems with this law.