Tokyo Manga Ban Signs Into Law

[Dragonrider1227]

From Sankaku Complex

Tokyo’s manga ban has been signed into law after passing a final vote, and is set to come into effect in 2011, with Tokyo governor Ishihara crowing that “Japan still has some common sense left after all!”

The ban already passed a committee vote, and as expected also passed a final vote on the 15th – the law stipulates that “voluntary restraints” must begun in April of 2011, with the full force of the ban to come in July.

All the major parties supported the ban – the ruling DPJ (leftist) insisted on a “prudent application” rider but otherwise did nothing to oppose the law as they did with the previous bill.

The LDP (right-wing) proposed and supported the original and current version of the bill. Their usual coalition partners, the Koumeito (the political arm of a Buddhist cult), also supported the bill, leaving only small parties to the left of the DPJ to oppose it.

Once again the motives of the DPJ can only be guessed at – they have repeatedly blocked national bans on possession of child pornography (already illegal to distribute) on civil liberties grounds, opposed the previously rejected version of the bill because it was worded as a ban on “virtual child pornography,” and actually insisted the just passed Tokyo law remove a “duty not to possess [real] child pornography” clause.

However, when the current bill’s wording was changed to ban depictions “promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity” (effectively a vastly more far-reaching ban than previously) rather than “[virtual] sexual activity involving minors” (this version of the ban was clearly targeting loli manga) as in the current version, their previous opposition all but evaporated.

That the law explicitly excludes photographic material can probably be interpreted both as a specific attack on “otaku” culture and an effort to avoid antagonising Japan’s mass media, who obviously would not support any restrictions on themselves but are only too happy to support them on other industries.

The 10 publishers who have boycotted the Tokyo Anime Fair are angry at the treatment meted out to the industry by Ishihara and his cronies:

“The earlier bill was defeated with heavy opposition, and we are indignant that the bill should be resubmitted in so short a time.”

Kadokawa’s CEO has vowed opposition will continue, although just what publishers can do about it is not clear, particularly in light of their evident ineptitude in handling politicians.

Ishihara for his part is crowing over the industry’s defeat:

“It makes sense for this to have passed – Japan still has some common sense left after all!”

In interviews he merely laughed at the industry boycott:

“If they’re outraged about this then they shouldn’t come. They’ll come the next year, for sure.”

Veteran shoujo mangaka Machiko Satonaka speaks of complete betrayal at the hands of the politicians:

“There were representatives who promised us ‘we won’t resubmit the bill without consulting manga and anime producers,’ but they submitted it anyway, so I feel we were tricked. There are many issues with the ordinance, in particular the ‘improperly promote or glorify [sexual activity]‘ passage, and there is no way we can accept this.

In particular, I worry about the future for young mangaka – I hope they will persevere without the industry falling into decline.”

So basically,ecchi and violence is out in mainstream Manga and Anime.
Heck, if I'm reading this properly, Astro Boy may officially become inappropriate for kids. What with the 10 year old boy in his underwear all the time. To say nothing of Uran's constant panty shots...
That and other related articles can be found here
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/15/tokyo-manga-ban-signed-into-law/
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/13/tokyo-anime-manga-ban-passes/
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/17/ishihara-otaku-have-corrupt-dna/
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/08/ishihara-gays-are-genetically-defective-theyre-pitiful/

[Dr. Jerk]

I've been following this on Anime News Network for awhile. And I am still not sure whether all of the panic lately is justified or not. But I do know that it certainly has been causing quite a stir.

And it won't affect just manga, but it'll also affect anime and perhaps video games too. Ironically it won't affect real-life photographs, and I just have to ask "Why?" at that.

Now before the panic raises up in HERE, I must ask everyone to settle down and wait until Spring when the new law actually goes into place before panicking. <_<

[Black Rabbit]

;_; What the world?! I don't get this...?! Oh yeah, no panicking. =(

[The Tawashi Bus Hat]

Ah, then the doujinshi will become quite powerful indeed.

Yes indeed. (And digital publishing - I'm sure there are too many loopholes to count at this point, even before it's law.)

[Dr. Jerk]

Give it time, this will eventually start to regulate doujinshi too. <_<

But the opposing is growing quite a bit. A bunch of mangaka are even collaborating to create their own doujin that opposes this. They even said an English version will be available, and that the doujin can be shared freely.

[F-Man]

So basically,ecchi and violence is out in mainstream Manga and Anime.
Heck, if I'm reading this properly, Astro Boy may officially become inappropriate for kids. What with the 10 year old boy in his underwear all the time. To say nothing of Uran's constant panty shots...

Let's not overreact too much here... Not all ecchi and violence is "promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity", and Astro Boy and Uran... Well, it's not like they do pole dancing or anything! They were not designed to be sexually attractive, and they would still pass today no problem, even with the panty showing (a staple of comic characters all over the world) and funny butt guns.

[Dragonrider1227]

And it won't affect just manga, but it'll also affect anime and perhaps video games too. Ironically it won't affect real-life photographs, and I just have to ask "Why?" at that.

Don't you know? We have to censor the cartoons because cartoons are just for kids

[QUOTE=Dragonrider1227;116705]So basically,ecchi and violence is out in mainstream Manga and Anime.
Heck, if I'm reading this properly, Astro Boy may officially become inappropriate for kids. What with the 10 year old boy in his underwear all the time. To say nothing of Uran's constant panty shots...

Let's not overreact too much here... Not all ecchi and violence is "promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity", and Astro Boy and Uran... Well, it's not like they do pole dancing or anything! They were not designed to be sexually attractive, and they would still pass today no problem, even with the panty showing (a staple of comic characters all over the world) and funny butt guns.[/QUOTE]

Eh, I'm not putting anything past these overly moral idiots. I've already seen people claim Astro Boy promotes pedophilia because of his "dress code." Though they're small, they're LOUD about it.

[Dr. Jerk]

As I've said before in MSN, the bill is very regulate. We have no idea if the regulation will be optional or not, we don't know if it will be the government, the publishing company or the mangaka behind the works to regulate them, and we don't know if this will regulate old works or not.

I do agree that there is some overreaction, especially since we still don't know much about this thing.

If anything, just wait until the spring before panicking.

Edit: And yes I know cartoons do get censored. Please, I'm not stupid.

[Dragonrider1227]

I know you know that. I didn't mean to imply you're stupid or anything. I was being sarcastic and making fun of the people who think cartoons need to be censored because they're "just for kids."
Whatever they plan to do with this, it's already causing an uproar. So many Anime/Manga publishers have protested by boycotting Tokyo's upcoming Anime convention that it's been full out canceled and another upcoming convention may do the same. Once they see what this does to Japan's already fragile economy, I think we'll see a turn

[atoms_gf]

Let's not overreact too much here... Not all ecchi and violence is "promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity", and Astro Boy and Uran... Well, it's not like they do pole dancing or anything! They were not designed to be sexually attractive, and they would still pass today no problem, even with the panty showing (a staple of comic characters all over the world) and funny butt guns.

Eh, I'm not putting anything past these overly moral idiots. I've already seen people claim Astro Boy promotes pedophilia because of his "dress code." Though they're small, they're LOUD about it.

what????!!!!! there robots dont they get that?! also if they think there so smart they can try and come up with a dress code for astro that looks futeristic cool and cute and not "sexual" at all the same time i mean its not tezukas fault for doing bad imagery it was just popular at the time i mean seriously! hmy: they shouldnt take astro off the air just because of a few mini problems..