Over the years it has become popular for anime and manga (Japanese animated films and graphic novels) to depict children in horrible situations. Starting in July, Tokyo Metropolitan law will forbid the sale of any such work within city limits.
A typical, sexualized Anime girl. Note the schoolgirl uniform.
There are already strict restrictions across Japan regarding the sale and production of pornography (specifically the blurring of all penes), but now within Tokyo city limits, the restrictions have gotten much deeper. Works are no longer allowed to place children, or anyone dressed or presented as a child (such as a woman wearing a schoolgirl uniform) to be in situations which are sexual or violent.
The opposition complaint here is that this will essentially destroy the industry, as many of the most popular franchises deal with young girls overcoming horrible situations, like having machine guns mounted where their arms should be, or being raped by terrible tentacle monsters. The law doesn’t just require some blurring, like the pornography law—it’s subjective and situational, and it seems that writers will not be able to tell these stories at all, no matter how careful they are.
Many anime and Manga creators are railing against the restrictions, saying that it’s a restriction of their creativity. “The Tokyo Metropolitan law has definitely dealt a blow to the comics industry”, said Takayuki Nishitani, a spokesperson for Japanese publishers speaking to international news wire, IPS. “Many aspiring animation artists have stopped producing new works fearing they will become targets of the law.”
Other opponents cite the loss of jobs, and blow to the economy, as pop culture has become one of Japan’s biggest exports over the last few decades. Manga alone has a global readership, with some works being translated into dozens of languages, and the industry as a whole brings in almost $6b annually.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government feels that children are being exploited in these works, and that regulation is long overdue. “The popularity of animation has led to abuse by some illustrators and publishing houses with children depicted in violence and sex.” says Mika Sakurai, a government official who will be in charge of ensuring that the law is enforced. This enforcement will be carried out by committees who will watch/read every item that is to go up for sale to search for illegal portrayals—a massive task by any accounting.
The debate also ties into a long-standing issue of proper sex education, similar to the one which goes on in the US. While many feel that children should not be exposed to sex education for fear that it will cause experimentation, others feel that sex education is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and the spread of HIV, which is a larger problem in Japan than in most other developed nations.
“My work to prevent HIV infection among the youth has shown me how sex is taken lightly, almost as a game, among school children,” explains doctor Tsuneo Akaeda, an Obstetrician who frequents night clubs for young people, where he offers free, fast HIV tests to the patrons. “One of the main reasons for this is the way sexual relations are portrayed in public, which highlights only the physical enjoyment, leaving out the dangers of irresponsible behaviour.”
Others feel that because the schools refuse to educate children on the differences between healthy and unhealthy sexual behavior, the comics cannot take the blame alone for the problem of overly promiscuous high school students. “It is important to discuss this law against the background of Japanese culture that, unlike in the West, does not view sex only as a moral offence,” says Professor Yukari Fujimoto, a manga expert who specializes in girls’ manga.
The sales law may only take effect inside Tokyo, but that doesn’t mean that audiences in the rest of the world wont be affected. What we’re likely to see in the upcoming years is a lot of studios self-censoring, so as not to have to rely on non-Tokyo sales only. There will surely still be some studios which create this kind of work, but since most sales of first runs are still in Tokyo and only get translated and shipped around the world if they are successful there first, there will definitely be some impact.
This means we’ll likely, at the very least, see the number of school girl uniforms dropping off in the anime that we get in North America in the coming years. Of course, it may be awhile before we see that, since North American releases are between 2-5 years behind the releases in Tokyo.
Serial Experiments: Lain is a beautiful, thoughtful, classic anime.
We also don’t know where the line will be drawn. Sure, much of this stuff is smut, but would these new restrictions snuff out classics like Dragonball, Sailor Moon, Akira, Serial Experiments: Lain, etc.? These classic manga/anime franchises feature children in violent situations, and it would be a shame if they suffer alongside the myriad of titles which are simply excuses to gratuitously depict little girls getting raped by monsters.
This could be a good thing, however. I know the magical, violent school girl is a staple of the media (more so than the much-derided tentacle monster), but perhaps it’s time for the industry to move toward more noble pursuits. Unfortunately, this is all that many of the studios know how to do, so those studios might fold, rather than change. Only time will tell.
As of now, the restrictions only apply to anime and manga, as those media are seen as catering specifically to young people (a view that Japan unfortunately imported from the west over the last twenty years). Film and video games are not affected, so perhaps some of these studios will simply change media.
Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see how the anime/manga culture shifts due to the new restrictions.
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