What is the 'non-existent youth' problem, and how is it a problem? Summary
by
On Saturday, February 27, 2010, a post titled 'Extra No. 22: Full Text of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Youth Protection Ordinance Amendment Proposal' revealed that Tokyo is considering a proposed ordinance that would define fictional characters in manga, anime, games, and other media, including those not restricted to those 18+, as ' non-existent minors ' if they appear to be under 18, regardless of their stated age. This would conflate and regulate them with child pornography, which may involve actual victims. Not only sexual content, but also violent and cruel content would be prohibited, and this would affect both minors and adults.
The biggest problem is that someone, whose credibility is unclear, can arbitrarily decide what is OK and what is not. In other words, the biggest problem is that it allows for arbitrary application through broad interpretation. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a revival of the witch hunts of the Middle Ages and the prewar Peace Preservation Law. No matter how much the government says, 'We will not apply it in this way,' unless it clearly states that in the ordinance, it is nothing more than a verbal promise.
The reason why such an extreme statement has arisen is that the issue of 'non-existent minors' is not something that just started recently; it is a major problem that has been going on for over 50 years. In particular, manga was once on the brink of extinction as a result of 'arbitrary application based on broad interpretations' caused by incidents similar to this one.
So, for those who are wondering, 'What is the big deal, why is everyone making such a fuss, and what is the problem? ', I've put together a general overview of the problem along a certain timeline.
The first thing that got me started was this blog:
■Saturday, February 27, 2010
Extra No. 22: Full text of the proposed amendment to the Tokyo Youth Protection Ordinance: A monologue by an anonymous intellectual property policy watcher
It appears that not only were public comments from Tokyo residents ignored, but even those submitted by the Book Publishers Association, Magazine Publishers Association, and Japan Publishers Workers' Union (pdf) (it is likely that many other businesses and industries also submitted their opposition to these public comments). Furthermore, considering the scope of this ordinance and the current concentration of activity in Tokyo, the impact of this regulation of expression will undoubtedly extend to all industries related to expression, including not only manga, anime, and games, but also the entire publishing industry, magazine industry, idol industry, and film industry. In terms of internet regulation, all internet-related companies will be affected, and in terms of mobile phone regulation, given the uproar over the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' introduction of mobile phone filtering, there is a high possibility that all mobile phone carriers and content providers will once again suffer significant damage.
A scan of the full text of the proposed amendment to the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on the Healthy Development of Youths has been made available online.
The Prefectural Ordinance about young healthy upbringing (a reform bill) - 2010/2/24
The place where the phrase 'non-existent minor' is written looks like this.
There are a lot of issues, but the most problematic ones are:
(i) Anything that may arouse sexual feelings in young people, encourage cruelty, or induce suicide or crime, and may hinder the healthy development of young people.
(ii) Any material that involves a person who is recognized as being under the age of 18 (hereinafter referred to as a 'non-existent minor') based on the display or audio depiction of their age, clothing, belongings, grade, background, or other matters that evoke their age, and that inappropriately portrays the non-existent minor as a sexual object in a manner that allows the non-existent minor to be visually recognized in their pose engaging in sexual acts similar to sexual intercourse, thereby threatening to impair the development of a minor's ability to make sound judgments regarding sex and to impair the healthy growth of a minor;
In short, someone somewhere is making a subjective judgment, and if the graphics look like they're from a minor and the voice sounds like they're from a minor, they're out. The standard they use to decide is 'appearance,' and there are no clear standards like age, so it's a complete mess.
As you can see from the above, this 'non-existent teenager' is pretty messed up, so at first it was treated as a joke on 2channel with comments like 'there's no way this will pass,' and it ended up on 'Itai News.'
■February 27, 2010
51: Cooking heater (Chiba Prefecture): 2010/02/27 (Sat) 20:15:22.08 ID:3rhqEo/R
I always think that it's hard to distinguish between reality and fiction.
I think they're referring to these kinds of people.
171: Shrimp Roll (Ishikawa Prefecture): 2010/02/27(Sat) 20:21:01.27 ID:idNuz4cy
First of all, define what you mean by healthy, seriously.
349: Nippa (Toyama Prefecture): 2010/02/27 (Sat) 20:28:59.89 ID: OvXeVv6h
Thinking about it calmly, I want to know the definition of 18 years old or older.
What are you saying, you idiots?
368: Eraser (catv?): 2010/02/27(Sat) 20:29:37.52 ID:5mPWbmYk
Why regulate it when there are no victims?
The rationale for those in favor of regulation is, 'People might be inspired by pictures of young girls and rape real young girls,' right?
If so, give me the source
405: Mantle heater (Gunma Prefecture): 2010/02/27(Sat) 20:31:11.33 ID:uavnL0wq
Once such regulations are made, they are never relaxed.
Once it's made, it's over
524: Pen (Osaka Prefecture): 2010/02/27(Sat) 20:35:11.59 ID:EziztB6u
National distribution is based on Tokyo regulations, so if something is illegal in Tokyo, it's illegal throughout Japan.
It will be shut out of distribution, so it will no longer be sold in convenience stores or bookstores, let alone be sold online.
The only places you can buy it are online or at places like adult video specialty stores.
Sales will fall and more magazines will be discontinued.
868: Bait (Aichi Prefecture): 2010/02/27 (Sat) 20:48:52.64 ID:igl3fexm
Well, the people who proposed this ordinance
'Getting closer to an environment where young people can grow up healthily'
Do they really think that?
The next day, the following blog pointed out some possible problems in a fairly clear manner.
■ February 28th (Sunday)
The biggest problem here is the new provision in Article 7, Paragraph 2. The term 'non-existent minors' here essentially applies to all characters under the age of 18. The mere fact that a work featuring a character under the age of 18—i.e., a fictional character—having sex would be designated as unwholesome is a serious problem in terms of censorship of expression. This would likely apply to a significant number of currently serialized manga. Still, some may support the idea of restricting the exposure of sex scenes to minors (although this issue extends beyond minors, as discussed later), but this provision doesn't limit it to sex. This is because the definition of 'sexual acts similar to intercourse' is vague. In the extreme, any physical contact between a man and a woman, even a kiss, could be considered 'sexual acts similar to intercourse' and potentially subject to the definition of unwholesome. (As an aside, I thought the provision said 'body,' but it actually said 'posture.' This means that even if only the face is shown, if it's considered sexual acts similar to intercourse, it could be subject to the unwholesome provision.) Even more problematic is the vague definition of 'under 18.' This is because, based on someone's subjective opinion, a person can be judged to be under 18 even if they are not, such as 'something that is perceived as being under 18 years of age based on the display or audio depiction of age, clothing, belongings, grade, background, or other factors that suggest a person's age.' However, it seems impossible to objectively judge a character's age when it is not explicitly stated in a work of fiction (how many hundred years do elves live?). Incidentally, how would it be judged if the character was an aged child like in the works of Katsuhiro Otomo?
In other words, in addition to the problem of restricting expression, this provision is so broad in scope that it could be deemed unacceptable, regardless of the age displayed, if there is contact between a man and a woman.
Of course, there are people who decide whether something 'has the potential to hinder the development of healthy judgment regarding sexuality among young people and to hinder the healthy growth of young people,' so it's likely that not everything falls into this category. But do those people necessarily have the same subjective view of sexual depictions? Is there zero chance that there are people out there who would consider even mild depictions to be sexual? And is there no chance that such depictions could become so severe that they could destroy expression? The standards of those who decide what to regulate are not necessarily the same as your own, and they could be very different.
In the blog above, the author expresses concern over this current trend toward stricter regulations, comparing it to the 'Harmful Comics Movement' that took place 20 years ago. For more information about the Harmful Comics Movement from 20 years ago, please see the following page.
What happened to the 1990s harmful comics movement? - Timesteps
However, the movement continued to intensify, and it seemed as though manga other than those recommended by the government would disappear. I'm not exaggerating. That's how I felt at a time when I was still a child, so those who were watching this in real time may have seriously thought the same.
Well, there are various ways of thinking about what all this was about. However, while leaving zoning in place may have been a positive thing, it may have also left behind a number of negative legacies. Personally, I think that zoning is unavoidable, as some of these adult depictions are difficult for children to see, but I think that the radical movement has had a major impact on the creative community, making them completely distrustful of standards like zoning. It feels like this could lead to a movement to use zoning as a shield to restrict all media that adults watch.
Even today, when there is a movement to regulate things like comics, people are very nervous, likely because the excessive nightmare of that time is reliving memories. Recently, there has been discussion about amending the Child Pornography Law, and I think the reason there are so many people opposed to it is not because they are disregarding the people who have actually been victimized, but because many people believe that if we allow it even once, the strict regulations of that time will be gradually implemented, or even worse. (Actually, this issue is also very complex, and there are many aspects that cannot be explained simply in terms of freedom of expression, but that would take too long to discuss, so I'll save that for another time.) In fact, there are many examples of people who supported regulation at that time who are now influential politicians (regardless of party).
Upon further investigation, we find that this movement of 'Manga is outrageous, so we should all regulate it!' has been going on since 1955, and this battle has been going on for 55 years, right up until 2010.
This battle between 'people who want to draw manga and people who want to read manga' and 'people who don't want people to draw or read manga' can be glimpsed by reading snippets of the ' Bad Books Ban Movement ' that took place in 1955. For those who are only familiar with the current era, it is hard to believe.
A brief history of manga regulation in Japan
The 'Japan Association for the Protection of Children,' the 'Federation of Mothers' Associations,' and the 'PTA' launched a 'campaign to ban bad books.' Witch hunts were rampant, with manga being collected in schoolyards and burned. Despite movements such as the 'Book Selection System' and the 'Youth Protection and Development Bill,' the publishing industry and editors resisted criticism. This paved the way for the self-censorship that would later become common.
If you read other documents from that time, you will see that the persecution was so outrageous that people would gather manga books in schoolyards and set them on fire, and this type of persecution has continued in various forms and forms for the past 55 years.
It is said that there were also times when something called a 'white postbox' was installed.
Younger children may not know this, but there used to be a time when there were many 'white mailboxes' on street corners where people could throw away manga, and the works of artists like Tezuka Osamu and Fujiko Fujio that were collected there were burned as a warning to others.
That was only 20 or 30 years ago.
This is an image of an actual white mailbox. By installing these, they were able to banish 'bad books.'
origin
The campaign to ban bad books that began in the 1950s evolved into the 'Three No's Movement' (don't read, don't show, don't sell) in 1965. As part of this Three No's Movement, the Sugamo Mothers' Association created the earliest postbox, which was installed near the ticket gates (exits) of Sugamo Station on May 24, 1966 (Asahi Shimbun, May 25, 1966). In response to this, in September of the same year, the Tokyo Mothers' Association created 53 white postboxes, which were installed at stations throughout Tokyo under the guidance of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Juvenile Division (Yomiuri Shimbun, evening, September 20, 1966). It is believed that the white postboxes currently in existence nationwide are a result of this nationwide movement.
Promoter
Somewhat later, a police bureaucrat (Nihira Kunio, then head of the Juvenile Division of the Security Bureau of the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the National Police Agency) responded at the 80th Diet session that the installation of white mailboxes was promoted by the police, saying, 'There was a campaign called the White Post Box Campaign to prevent people from taking delinquent magazines home, which was actively promoted quite some time ago' (House of Representatives Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Committee, Education and Culture Administration, May 13, 1977).
By the way, they are still installed today, and the following website has a collection of images of white mailboxes from all over Japan.
White Post Photo Studio
Even though manga, games, and anime have become popular as 'Japan Cool,' the fact remains that not everyone accepts them.
Similar incidents to those days are actually repeated periodically, and clashes have occurred many times before, but it's no exaggeration to say that this is the first time that they have clashed since the widespread use of the internet. As you can see from the above page, manga has been facing these kinds of problems for a long time, and it's no exaggeration to say that the strength of Japan's content industry is inextricably linked to the history of this struggle. No matter how ridiculous the content of manga, it is only because of the desperate resistance of great manga artists and publishers of the past that it is allowed to exist.
In other words, now that the Internet has become widely used, we are finally able to see a glimpse of this ``previously invisible black box'' that reveals what happens when mutually incompatible values clash, and what kind of movements take advantage of such trends.
Now, going back in time to March, the proposed amendment to Tokyo's Youth Protection Ordinance, which originated from a 'non-existent minor,' was so absurd and unconstitutional that everyone thought, 'There's no way this will pass,' 'Are they stupid?' or 'It's got to be a joke,' but fears grew that it might actually pass through the assembly as it was. This led to the appearance of a compilation site run by
■Saturday, March 6th
Summary site on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Youth Healthy Development Ordinance Revision Issue
http://mitb.bufsiz.jp/
The next day, a summary in a mixi blog by Fujimoto Yukari, an associate professor in Meiji University's Department of Global Japanese Studies, revealed that the proponents of regulation who were trying to pass the proposed amendment to the Youth Protection Ordinance to include 'non-existent minors' were not joking or making a joke, but were 'serious,' causing a stir.The argument goes like this: there is a great risk that an ordinance with content that could lead to such regulation of expression will be passed quickly, like other cases, without sufficient deliberation, and so action must be taken.
■March 7, 2010 14:38
And with almost all publishing companies concentrated in Tokyo, the passage of this law will have the same effect as a national law.
Despite this, strangely enough, this issue is hardly being discussed seriously online, in my friends' diaries, or on message boards. Perhaps because the regulations are so ridiculous, there are a lot of half-joking comments, and people think, 'There's no way such a ridiculous regulation will pass.' For some reason, even on the Internet, apart from personal blogs and Itai News, no reliable general media (such as newspaper news) has covered this issue, and it hasn't been reported in the newspapers either, so I think everyone thinks it's a joke.
But, I repeat,
Given the current situation, this law will almost certainly pass!
The proposal was announced on February 24th, and Tokyo residents have until the 25th to voice their opinions (meaning they only have one day).
Questions are only permitted in the Diet on March 4th (representative questions) and 5th (general questions), and even then questions must be submitted several days in advance (meaning even Diet members only have about three days to consider them).
The most important step will be the review of the bills referred to us at 1:00 p.m. on the 18th, and a vote and decision will be made at the end of this month.
This issue was also discussed at the 'Emergency Meeting! What will happen to the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance?! - Regarding the issue of amending the Tokyo Metropolitan Youth Healthy Development Ordinance and the '
■2010-03-07
■ [Regulation] 'Emergency Meeting! What will happen to the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance?!' Part 1
-Tokyo is independent and does not receive any budgetary support from the national government, so its influence on other prefectures is enormous.
-It also seems that Tokyo has long had a strong tendency to pass new laws before the rest of the country.
・In fact, many prefectures want to enact similar ordinances, with Chiba at the forefront.
-If it passes in Tokyo, there is no doubt that it will spread rapidly throughout the country.
・Once the number of prefectures that pass the bill increases to a certain level, the national government will likely follow suit and take similar action.
Since the 'Youth Healthy Development Ordinance' contains many problems, such as child pornography laws, thought control, and simple possession restrictions, I don't think it can be contained within the framework of 'youth healthy development.' Rather, I can only think that there is a strong risk that the state will be able to regulate anything under the pretext of 'for the sake of young people,' as in China.
Furthermore, the following site also summarizes the matter of this meeting in bullet points and points out important points.
■2010/03/08 19:01
[The following is important]
6. Why is it that only manga and anime are criticized? Let's help people understand this!
Why is it that only manga and anime are criticized under the pretext of promoting the healthy development of young people?
Why is it that the same criticism is not directed at films and novels that young people would naturally be exposed to?
Try sending an email or letter to your lawmaker, giving specific examples.
The Governor's 'Season of the Sun' would be good,
Highly known, pornographic, and artistically acclaimed works are especially good.
From this point on, the issue of 'non-existent teenagers' began to attract increasing attention on Twitter, and became a big uproar.
Togetter - Summary 'Regarding the proposed revision of the Tokyo Youth Protection Ordinance (regulating 'non-existent youth')'
The next day, on March 9th, the Youth Development Ordinance amendment bill, which also touches on restrictions on the internet and mobile phones, was published in an article by ITmedia, one of the largest internet news media outlets, perhaps because they had been keeping an eye on it for some time or because they had received numerous requests to write about it.
■March 9, 2010 21:57
Particularly excellent is the last part of the second page, which asks for a comment from Junji Hotta, a non-fiction writer who used to be a manga editor, and which reads as follows:
The idea that dividing the world into black and white and erasing the dark will make things better is extremely dangerous. If there is a trend that has a negative influence on young people, it is not fiction, but reality itself. Rather than erasing unpleasant fictions without any verification, isn't it the way of a cultured country to work to improve the real world itself, no matter how roundabout it may be?
The current amendment bill seems more like a clear disdain for character expression than a lack of understanding of otaku culture. Originally, the god of manga, Tezuka Osamu, hoped that by having a medical doctorate, he would be able to calm prejudice against manga. Nagai Go has said that the backlash he received after his 'Harenchi Gakuen' (which began serialization in 1968) was so severe that he even felt his life was in danger.
After the collapse of the bubble economy and the lost decade, Japanese society lost all confidence in the business sector. Learning that character expression was being praised overseas, it began to celebrate it under the label of 'Cool Japan.' It seemed as though the prejudices and criticisms of the past had died down. However, in communities where people are entrenched in a particular ideology or have a narrow view of culture, we are painfully reminded that such old-fashioned prejudices still exist. It's like seeing Nessie swimming leisurely down the Tama River in broad daylight.
The next day, the first group to voice their opposition to the proposed revisions to the Tokyo Metropolitan Youth Healthy Development Ordinance, which introduced the concept of 'non-existent minors,' emerged. This was the National Doujinshi Sales Association, which is made up of many doujinshi sales organizations, including the Comic Market Preparation Committee , which runs Comic Market, which rents out the entire Tokyo Big Sight every August and December (the previous event, C77, attracted 510,000 visitors over three days).
■March 10, 2010
National Doujinshi Sales Association - Regarding the proposed revision of the 'Tokyo Youth Healthy Development Ordinance'
If this proposed revision passes, we can expect it to have a major impact on our doujin activities. The situation is dire, and in order to prevent this revision, we need to directly convey our voices to the members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.
Below are the contact details of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members and important points to note when sending your opinions. We urge the participating organizations of the liaison group and anyone interested in this issue to take concrete action.
Furthermore, the next day, Nikkei Business Online published a column making some very insightful points about the incident.
■March 11, 2010
It goes beyond discussion to know that child pornography is offensive to many people, and it's obvious when you see it. No one wants that kind of material in their school library.
However, when it comes to regulating it, a whole other set of troublesome issues arise, and that is the issue at hand.
Those opposed to regulation are not questioning the ethical basis of regulation, but rather worrying about the harm it may cause: Is using napalm to get rid of cockroaches an overreaction? Make no mistake about it.
Reading the minutes of the meeting of the expert committee of the Tokyo Youth Affairs Council, an organization attached to the Tokyo Governor, which submitted its opinion on the proposed revisions ( here ), one can see how the committee members gradually lost their composure as they spread out malicious child pornography materials on their desks as reference material.
If you are shown such things and discuss them under the assumption that even elementary school students can access them via the Internet or mobile phones, then naturally the discussion will become more extreme.
But just as in the real world, there is a considerable distance between what is 'attainable' and what is 'daring to step into.'
Even in the real world, elementary school students can visit Kabukicho, and if they buy a bus ticket (Pasmo?), they can even get off at Shinjuku 2-Chome. But that doesn't mean that anyone would say, 'Cleanse Kabukicho' or 'Burn down 2-Chome.' Huh? Governor Ishihara said that? Let me rephrase that. Unless they're extremely dumb, no one would think of erasing a real town because it's harmful to young people.
After all, there are already laws in place to prosecute clearly obscene materials.
Inventing new taboos that are too advanced for current implementation would not only be adding more to the problem, but would likely be a harmful measure.
'Since new types of perverted sexual desires that are not covered by current laws have appeared, we need to create new laws to punish them, otherwise the law will become a trap.'
Or so they might be thinking.
I think it's different.
The two points that are clearly stated and easy to understand are that 'napalm is used to exterminate cockroaches' and 'laws are already in place to prosecute clearly obscene material.' The writing is light, easy to read, and witty overall, and it also highlights the true nature of the problem.
Essentially, the tactic is always the same: they bring up one extreme example and say, 'There's something so extreme! According to my common sense, this is unpleasant! I can't stand it! The problem is that there are bad manga, bad games, and bad anime in the first place! We should censor and check everything before it's released into the world, and eradicate all but good manga, good games, and good anime! Everything else shouldn't even be allowed to exist in this world! Get out of my sight! If you can't get out of my sight, we'll ban it by law! We've all been taught that the law must be obeyed! Come on, obey it! I'll make it law, so you all can just disappear!'
The reason these major movements occur roughly every ten years is that the people who strongly advocated for regulating expression at the time (i.e., parents with young children) had children in elementary school, but as time passed, their children became high school and university students, and they no longer saw the point in regulating it, so the interest died down. And when the interest died down, a new generation came forward, and the cycle of 'Regulate it by law! It's unpleasant! I don't like it! Get it out of my sight right now...' was repeated.
And every time this cycle occurs, organizations like the National Police Agency, which wants to create an organization for regulating and checking expression and also wants to score some easy points, get involved and present extreme examples or plausible materials to those in favor of expression regulation, inciting them to say, 'We have to regulate!'
The reason why the National Police Agency was involved in this was made clear the following day in a blog post by former House of Representatives member Nobuto Hosaka.
■March 12, 2010
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Ordinance Accelerates Movement to 'Regulate Non-Existent Minors and Creative Works' - Nobuto Hosaka's Dokodoko Diary
In fact, the secretariat of the Youth Association is the Youth Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Youth and Public Safety Headquarters, and it was the same headquarters that drafted the proposed ordinance amendment. The chief and the head of the Youth Division are career officers of the National Police Agency, and are registered at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government via the Metropolitan Police Department. It appears as if the law enforcement agency has encroached on the administrative agency. It would be extremely dangerous to give such a department the authority it has as the proposed ordinance amendment remains.
The facts are unclear, but according to people involved, the Diet is not moving forward with the revision of the Child Pornography Law, so police bureaucrats in Tokyo are trying to get ahead of it, and there may also be a secret struggle between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which has jurisdiction over the industry, and the National Police Agency, which is seeking to expand its authority over the Internet regulations.If this is the case, then Tokyo's revision of the ordinance is indeed an impure plot.
It was also discovered that the
Recently, I've been receiving an increasing number of emails about the trouble the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Youth Ordinance is causing. I received a post in Dokodoko Diary from Mr. A, who has been conducting in-depth research on the issues of the 'Child Pornography Prohibition Law' and 'Restrictions on Expression.' Reading it, I learned that the scholar who led the debate on this issue in Tokyo had fabricated a story about me saying to Agnes Chan, 'Rie Miyazawa's photo book is artistic and beautiful. Are you still going to ban it?' and was left speechless when she responded, 'Do you really want to see photos of 15-16-year-olds that much?' and 'Can't you wait until she's 18?'
It is extremely cowardly to distort the facts and fabricate things that were never said when no one can refute them, but I have attached the minutes at the end, so please check them out.
The Tokyo Youth Issues Council, or 'Seishokyo' for short, is the group that coined the term 'non-existent youth' and drafted the proposed amendments to promote censorship of expression. However, the statements made by the council's members are quite awful, and they have repeatedly made mountainous problematic statements in the minutes of meetings and made them public, as detailed in the following page. They are so self-righteous that they have no problem with making such statements, and are so obsessive about purity that they believe they are right and that their common sense should be the common sense of the world.
'Otaku who oppose regulations are cognitively disabled' (Tokyo Youth Affairs Council) - 'List of anti-otaku Diet members' memo
First up is Nanako Ohba, director of the Birth Sense Research Institute.
Can't we mainstream the idea that fans of terrible manga have some kind of disability ?
No matter how you look at it, the fact that manga artists have sent countless protest emails to those who are trying to somehow impose legal restrictions is violence. It's violence of a level that doesn't even require any justification for legal restrictions .
If we are to let people who enjoy manga depicting sexual violence against children off the hook because it is an innate preference, just like gender identity disorder , then we need to mainstream the view that they have cognitive disabilities.
If we know that they have cognitive disabilities and are violent, we can refute the argument that we cannot impose legal restrictions without evidence .
They claim that sending protest emails is violence, that people who like manga are at risk of developing cognitive disabilities, and that they can regulate it legally without any evidence, ignoring what manga fans have to say. Incidentally, this is the case everywhere, not just in the quoted section.
Next is
It's not that young people should just not watch it, or that there won't be any victims because it's manga . Even though it's something that adults watch, there are many people who have committed crimes because of it. Anime culture and lolicon culture absolutely encourage sexual crimes . If we can't rely on self-censorship, we need to create a regulatory system.
For the sake of the magazine and book industry, proper regulation will also help weed out unscrupulous publishers. In order to preserve healthy publishers, a system that imposes penalties and eliminates increasingly unscrupulous publishers is also good for the industry.
In general, expressions that are misogynistic are strongly condemned. Images of fictional children being violated or sexually treated by adults are of course condemned because they deny the human rights and individuality of children. I cannot understand why it is acceptable to use fictional children . This is the same as misogyny.
I'm sure there are many detailed discussions, but why do we have to consider the opinions of those who disagree ? The question is whether to prioritize something unpleasant and dangerous to children or the public welfare. I think we should go with the latter . I just can't accept that something so obvious is denied and doesn't pass because of excessive consideration for minorities .
Other developed countries have regulations that take children's human rights into consideration. It's very strange that Japan is the only country that isn't promoting legal reforms. Regulations are so commonplace that there's no need to provide explanations or survey data to manga artists' associations . They should just speak out in a logical manner.
The above statements are not a collection of outrageous statements or fabrications; rather, a group of people who are serious and comfortable saying these things have come together to create this 'non-existent teenager.' The claim that 'anime culture absolutely encourages sexual crimes' is nothing more than a manifestation of this person's distorted thinking. When he says, 'Overconsideration of minorities has led to the denial of common sense and it is no longer accepted,' and 'Regulation is so commonplace that it doesn't even need explanation or research data,' the 'common sense' he refers to is his own; he wants to impose his values on everyone else. He even goes so far as to say, 'Why should I even consider those who disagree?' This seems like a dangerous ideology, but following the famous quote by
Next is the case of Ayako Uchiyama, a professor in the Department of Psychological Counseling, Faculty of Human Studies, Mejiro University.
Sexual depictions of fictitious children do not take into consideration the human rights of children. The very idea of sexualizing young children, who have a severe lack of understanding of sex, is extremely insensitive. Even if a manga sexualizes a fictitious child, it should not be depicted because there is a possibility that a real child could become like that .
The fact that this bill singles out people who engage in '
By now, you'll probably understand what I'm trying to say: simply racists who believe their own values are the only correct ones are trying to justify their actions by enacting laws and regulations, like a fox using the tiger's authority, to gain backing and exploit the Japanese virtue of 'following the rules.' The idea of 'following the rules because they're established' is only valid when following those rules benefits the majority of people. Rules, laws, and regulations should be what they are, not used for someone's emotional satisfaction. They certainly shouldn't be in the hands of fascists who spread extremist ideology that completely rejects differences in values, such as by claiming that their own views are the norm. The very act of trying to establish rules that could have a negative impact on the majority of people is criminal and unacceptable.
Returning to the topic, on March 12th, Kyodo News finally reported on the incident.
■2010/03/12 17:57
Tokyo Metropolitan Government proposes amending ordinance to curb unchecked child pornography in manga, but some critics disagree - 47NEWS
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the aim is to regulate child pornographic depictions in manga and anime, which are currently 'left unchecked,' and this is the first such attempt of its kind in the country.
Yukari Fujimoto, an associate professor at Meiji University, fears that 'determining what is healthy, such as whether someone is under 18, can be interpreted in an arbitrary manner.'
Furthermore, the Tokyo Federation of Regional Women's Organizations (Tokyo Chifuren), Professor Yasuo Hasebe of the University of Tokyo Graduate School, Internet education analyst Noriko Obana, Mobile Content Review and Operation Monitoring Organization (EMA), EC Network, Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA), Telecom Services Association (Telesakyo), Japan Internet Providers Association (JAIPA), Mobile Content Forum (MCF), and CANVAS have all expressed their opposition to the proposed amendment to the ordinance.
■2010/3/12 18:51
On the other hand, four items have been listed as minimum requirements that should be observed when expressing opinions.
1. The ordinance should prevent arbitrary interference by public authorities, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, with speech and activities of expression.
2. The ordinance should allow for private organizations and activities with diverse purposes and functions.
3. The ordinance should guarantee the right of users and businesses to choose from a variety of standards.
4. The ordinance should be revised within the scope of the Constitution, the Youth Internet Environment Improvement Act, and other laws.
Members opposed to the proposed ordinance amendments stated that cooperation between private organizations and the government, local governments, parents, schools, and communities is essential, and that if regulations such as ordinances are strengthened uniformly, it will stifle private initiatives and result in an imbalance. They also called for careful deliberation of the ordinance amendments, with the utmost respect for private, voluntary initiatives, and consideration of whether or not the ordinance amendments are necessary.
■March 12, 2010 19:32
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Promotes 'Youth Mobile Phone Use' and Strengthens Filtering: Proposed Amendment to Youth Development Ordinance (1/2) - ITmedia +D Mobile
Although the Tokyo Federation of Local Women's Associations has little connection with the Internet, the association agreed with the opinion paper because 'we have many elderly members who are aware of the atmosphere leading up to World War II. We believe that we want to protect freedom of expression and the secrecy of communications above all else,' according to Nagata Miki, deputy secretary-general of the Federation of Local Women's Associations.
The following Monday, March 15th, a 'Rally Against the Restrictions on Non-Existent Minors' will be held.
■March 15, 2010
■March 15, 2010 22:30
'Culture will perish' - Chiba Tetsuya, Nagai Go and others feel threatened by Tokyo ordinance on 'non-existent youth' - ITmedia News
A list of around 60 manga artists who oppose the amendment has also been distributed, including Mitsuru Adachi, Fujiko Fujio A, Rumiko Takahashi, Moto Hagio, and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, and 10 comic book publishers, including Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan, have also expressed their opposition.
Fujimoto pointed out, 'The metropolitan government seems to be saying that only works with extreme sexual content are subject to the ordinance, but when you look at the text of the law, that's not true.' While the current ordinance already contains provisions for unhealthy books, the proposed amendment adds a new provision for 'non-existent minors,' raising concerns that various works that portray minors' sexuality in a positive light could become subject to the ordinance.
Miyadai said, 'The naive theory that content depicting sexual acts among teenagers has a negative impact on young people has been academically denied,' and pointed out, 'The best thing to do is to control the context in which the content is received, such as who one watches it with.' He criticized, 'It is negligent to jump straight into second-best restrictions on expression without taking the best measures.'
The ordinance defines minors as those under 18, but in Japan, women can get married at 16, and 'nearly half of third-year high school students have had sexual experiences,' according to Miyadai. If works that positively portray sexual activity among high school students are targeted, it will have a significant chilling effect on expression. 'It will send a message to people who are acting normally that 'you are doing something wrong,' and the side effects will be significant,' says Miyadai.
'There seems to be an implicit assumption on the part of the regulators that they can distinguish between good manga and bad manga...' Morikawa pointed out that this way of thinking is flawed. He pointed out that an environment that tolerates diverse expressions is expanding the base of manga artists, such as the many cases in which manga artists who create doujinshi or manga depicting sexual acts between teenagers have won awards at the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Japan Media Arts Festival, and expressed concern that 'the side effects of the proposed amendments being passed have been barely considered.'
You can see more details of the comments below. Many of the reasons are fairly easy to understand.
■March 15, 2010 17:54
・Manga artist Satoshi Ogawa
To begin with, young people are sexually stimulated by anything they see. I once had unhealthy fantasies about Lucy and Ben, who appeared in my English textbook. Junior and senior high school students use all sorts of things as material for their fantasies. I don't want to see people's freedom of fantasy, and their freedom to share it, violated. It's wrong to punish this with the law.
When I was in elementary school, I was given emotional education through Nagai Sensei's Harenchi Gakuen and other programs. I think that children today should also be able to have that kind of experience.
Many other famous manga artists have also made statements, but the comments made by Associate Professor Morikawa Kaichiro of Meiji University are worth a read.
・Associate Professor Kaichiro Morikawa, Meiji University
For otaku and fujoshi, it is their code of honor and style to hide it. There is a custom that it is good to pretend to be an ordinary person. I understand that, but it is necessary to explain when appropriate. Perhaps neglecting to make an effort to explain has caused this.
In 2018, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced that it would make manga and anime a national export industry, but in the end, it only spent 67 million yen on a think tank to produce a report.
People who aren't familiar with manga seem to think that the issue is how to utilize Pokemon and other things in Akihabara. However, Akihabara is booming with doujinshi and erotica. There is an image that good manga can be separated from bad manga, and there is a notion that bad manga attracts bad people.
It is said that weeding out the bad guys would be good for exports. However, this would result in undermining the essential competitiveness. Competitiveness is based on the number of people participating in the sport. The wider the base of the pyramid, the higher the peak. This supports wealth.
Comiket is held twice a year, attracting 550,000 visitors over three days. Otaku are generally thought to be men, but 70% are women. The expressions are unique. Amateurs start writing manga by copying others and distribute them to like-minded people. The manga is basically erotic parody.
The protagonists of existing manga are often under the age of 18. It is only an estimate, but it is likely that 30% of all doujinshi published and 50% of the copies sold are erotic parodies of characters under the age of 18.
What exactly is it? Ayanami Rei is 14 years old. An artist who won the Japan Media Arts Festival from the Agency for Cultural Affairs also started out in erotic parody. After winning the award, he released an erotic parody featuring Ayanami Rei. Professionals also often write doujinshi.
This artist is very skilled and even makes prototypes for the figures. Some say that he should be prosecuted for copyright infringement, but these figures are sold at the official Evangelion store. There is a mutually dependent relationship. This is already established, so there is no need for the government to intervene.
If artists who create erotic works are labeled as unhealthy and are unable to explain this to their sponsors, it could destroy the relationship of mutual dependence.
When people think of erotic manga, they tend to think of erotic gekiga (dramatic comics) in the past. However, the creators who have created erotic versions of girls' manga have won awards such as the Media Grand Prize. In reality, the authors who have changed the trend of manga for women have made their commercial debut through erotic manga.
If erotic manga is deemed unhealthy and removed from the market, the pyramid structure will collapse.
An article listing more specific names and detailed information about the above is posted on the following page.
In short, it's a very obvious thing, but everything has positive and negative aspects, and it's impossible to remove only the negative aspects and leave only the positive ones, but people have deliberately picked out the most outrageous and repulsive things they don't like or dislike, shown them to everyone, and then raised the banner of victory by publicly accusing people who watch manga, games, and anime of being potential criminals.This has been the method up until now, but we should think that the time has come to show that such childish values no longer work.
The following questions and answers are also very helpful.
Q: It's just visuals, and no novels are included. Was there a logical explanation from Tokyo for not including print culture?
A: There is no rationality in limiting it to this range. When it comes to non-existence, it's visual. Novels have to be read, so it's a bit of a hassle, so if there's no coverage, that's it. Illustrations would be a problem.
Article 8, item 1 already includes books, films, etc., so it's not limited to visuals. Novels are already included. In addition, it has been added that the sexuality of people under the age of 18 must be portrayed in a positive way. This time, it will be the visuals that are particularly bad. For example, The Tale of Genji could be designated as unwholesome books.
Q: People involved in printing say that we shouldn't make a fuss, but what do you think?
A: Freedom of expression is eroded from its weakest points. If this can be regulated, then this too can be regulated, and so it spreads. Those who say such things are those who do not know history. Those in favor of regulation will never say that this is reassuring.
Q: Adult games have been self-regulated for years.
A: It would appear that efforts at self-regulation are no use. However, there are two types of self-regulation. Regulations that involve simply following orders, and regulations that involve thinking about the future. If people simply follow orders, they will be increasingly exploited. It will be no use for the recipients to just like or dislike things without any consideration. I would like to see efforts made to improve literacy in areas such as politics.
Even if we forcefully enact an unreasonable, absurd, and illogical ordinance, it will clearly be following the same path as apartheid (South Africa's racial discrimination policy that favored whites and forced blacks into poor conditions and segregated them; it also prohibited interracial marriage and punished interracial romantic relationships, and was called a 'crime against humanity' by the United Nations).
Coining up the new term 'non-existent minors' and regulating it for the sake of 'education,' 'children,' or 'a safe and healthy society' is not 'for the sake of education,' 'for the sake of children,' or 'for the sake of a safe and healthy society'; it is simply rejecting something that you dislike and cannot accept, and forcing it on others. Rather, 'protecting freedom of expression' is what protects society and the healthy development of young people; if there was no freedom of expression, we wouldn't be able to communicate or write anything online like this.
What kind of world do those who want to regulate dream of beyond their ideal of health?
The details of this press conference have been written about in various places, but the following is a good summary.
People Standing in Front of the Door of 'The Darkness of Expression Censorship' - Nobuto Hosaka's Where Do You Go Diary
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly building is located in one corner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Walking through the courtyard, I spotted a queue on the second floor. It turned out they were gathering for an emergency meeting because the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly General Affairs Committee was about to vote on the 'Youth Healthy Development Ordinance,' which would 'target works containing sexual content in the world of manga and anime that feature 'non-existent minors.'' A meeting titled 'Considering the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's March 15, 2010, Amendment to the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance and Regulation of 'Non-existent Minors'' (hosted by Fujimoto Yukari, representative of the Association for Considering the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance) was held in a conference room on the second floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly building just after 2:00 p.m.
The venue quickly ran out of chairs, and the standing room only became packed. The moderator, lawyer Takashi Yamaguchi, suddenly introduced the audience, saying, 'Mr. Hosaka, who lost in last year's general election but has worked hard on this issue, is here with us.' He then greeted the audience without any preparation. 'In the past, laws and ordinances have been discussed without any prior knowledge, and only become known to the general public right before a vote. With so many people gathered today, and with teachers in the creative field speaking out, raising this issue in society will have a positive impact. In particular, regulations on two-dimensional creative works (manga and anime) were also considered 'exempt' from the Diet's discussion of the Child Pornography Prohibition Act. It is wrong for Tokyo to shelve the Diet's discussion and rush ahead with an ordinance.'
Furthermore, there are scenes that give us a glimpse into why such a major issue is not reported in newspapers or on television.
At an event after the press conference, lawyer Yamaguchi said the following.
'At the press conference earlier, a Yomiuri reporter said that Professor Nagai's 'Harenchi Gakuen' would be okay even with this revision (laughter from the audience). The fact that such a statement can be made shows just how arbitrary the wording of the proposed revision can be. To be honest, as a lawyer, I can say with confidence that if this clause is followed exactly as it is, 'Harenchi Gakuen' somehow seems to fit (laughs). Professor Nagai, what do you think about that (laughter and applause from the audience)?'
The Yomiuri Shimbun article quoted the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's argument, stating that 'The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Youth and Public Safety Headquarters has countered that 'not all sexual depictions will be regulated, and distribution to adults will not be restricted,' and that this will not affect the creative activities of manga artists.' However, it did not include a single word of Yamaguchi's comments at the press conference in response to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's argument. [End]
I unintentionally demonstrated what 'arbitrary' really means. Without the Internet, these kinds of ordinances would have been enacted quietly, without anyone's knowledge, and then later heavily promoted, with 'This is banned! That is banned! Everything we don't like is banned!' This really shows how amazing the emergence of the Internet as a medium is. Ten, 20, or even 50 years ago, there was no way to stop those in power from running wild, and they were able to do crazy things without a second thought. If the Internet has any value, it's precisely because it has brought cases like this to light. If the Internet had been regulated, the truth would have remained hidden, and by the time it was fully understood, it would have been too late.
The value of the Internet lies precisely in its destruction of such nonsense. It's often said that the Internet is a medium of destruction, but what it's destroying is the very 'unreasonableness' of these 'non-existent teenagers.' Until now, this kind of unreasonableness, this low-level way of thinking that one's own values are correct and that anyone who deviates from them is treated as a criminal, has been rampant. But that will no longer be the case. This is because the Internet is now introducing 'truth,' which is not unreasonable. The strength of the Internet lies in the mixture of good and bad, and it certainly contains some 'truth,' which will become a powerful factor. In the world of the past, where unreasonableness prevails, bad money drives out good money. But the true value of the Internet lies in creating a world where truth ultimately triumphs. This battle is just beginning, and it's safe to say it will continue on and on.
Anyone who has studied world history knows that there has never been a time in world history up to the present day when the truth was not eventually revealed. In the very end, the truth is revealed. No matter how much it is hidden, lied about, or suppressed by unreasonable force, the 'truth' is powerful because it is what actually happened.
Returning to the topic, on the same day, Google, Microsoft, Rakuten, Mobage's DeNA, and Golf Digest Online expressed their opposition to the proposed amendment to the Youth Ordinance.
■March 15, 2010
Internet Business Innovation Research Consortium:: Opinion on the amendment of the 'Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on the Healthy Development of Youths'
■March 15, 2010
From this point on, more and more companies and organizations began to express their opposition. The next day, Kyoto Seika University, which has a manga department and an International Manga Research Center, released a statement of its position.
■March 16, 2010
1) The new concept of 'non-existent minors' proposed in this amendment bill is unclear and could be interpreted arbitrarily. Furthermore, there is weak evidence that sexual depictions of 'non-existent minors' are necessarily 'unwholesome,' which could lead to many works being labeled as 'unwholesome books' regardless of their content.
2) Judging from the minutes of the Tokyo Youth Issues Council and other sources, the process that led to this proposed amendment does not appear to have fully considered the opinions of those involved, including not only the creators themselves, but also those involved in publishing and experts. The essence of the problem concerns the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution, and we cannot help but feel deep concern that such restrictions are being implemented without sufficient evidence and discussion.
3) While this proposed amendment is an issue related to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's ordinance, Japanese publishers are concentrated in Tokyo, and many manga and anime-related events are also held there. Therefore, this amendment is not just an issue for Tokyo, but one that will affect expression throughout the country. We must not hastily enact an ordinance that will leave a lasting legacy of harm to Japan's expressive culture.
Furthermore, on the following day, Wednesday, March 17th, a series of statements of opposition were issued.
■March 17, 2010 19:35
Today, March 17th, the Comic 10 Society, consisting of ten companies - Akita Shoten, Kadokawa Shoten, Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, Shonen Gahosha, Shinchosha, Hakusensha, Futabasha, and LEED Publishing - decided to submit a letter of opposition to the proposed amendment to the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on the Healthy Development of Youth, which is currently being deliberated in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.
According to the Comic 10 Society, they decided to oppose the ordinance because they fear it could undermine freedom of expression. A petition of 900 manga artists and original manga authors also signed in support of the ordinance. The Comic 10 Society stated that it would take action if there are any further changes to the ordinance.
Meanwhile, Ohta Publishing independently collected signatures in opposition to the plan, and 917 manga artists and people involved in publishing also signed up. On March 16, Ohta Publishing's president and CEO, Satoshi Oka, sent a letter of opposition signatures to all 127 members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. The list of supporters is posted on Ohta Publishing's official website.
In addition, the Publishing Ethics Council, which is composed of the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, the Japan Book Publishers Association, the Japan Booksellers Association, and the Japan Booksellers Association, has issued a statement titled 'Urgent Opposition to the Proposed Amendment to the Tokyo Youth Ordinance.'
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper has published an article explaining what this means.
■March 17, 2010 23:39
The Publishing Ethics Council is made up of the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, the Japan Book Publishers Association, the Japan Book Distributors Association, and the Japan Booksellers Association. The council includes organizations across the industry, from publishers to distribution companies and bookstores, and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association says, 'This means the entire publishing industry is opposed to the bill.'
In other words, the entire publishing industry is opposed to this 'non-existent youth.' The movement continued on this day, and finally libraries also announced their views, expressing their strong opposition that 'it should be removed.'
■2010/03/17
The proposed ordinance also states that 'non-existent minors' can be targeted and that creative works such as comics can be restricted as unwholesome books (Article 7-2, etc.). This regulation has nothing to do with the legal interests protected by the Child Pornography Prohibition Act cited above, and is a regulation that the current Child Pornography Prohibition Act does not adopt in order to curb excessive regulation, and it should be deleted from the proposed ordinance.
6. The proposed ordinance adds a new criterion for designating unhealthy books as 'books that are likely to significantly impede the development of sound judgment regarding sexuality among young people' (Article 7-2, etc.).
The development of a child's capacity to judge gender is the primary responsibility of parents, not the government or the police. Article 18-1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states, 'States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child.' In keeping with this, the standard in question should be deleted.
Not only that, but opposition has also emerged from within the anime industry. This is extremely rare. Or rather, it's unprecedented.
■2010/03/17
Indeed, if we look at the proposed ordinance, we see that 'voice' is also subject to regulation, which could mean that all voice actors who can only be heard by people under the age of 18 would be eliminated.
Even the Japan Pen Club, which includes Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, has expressed its opposition.
■March 18, 2010
Major publishing industry organizations and comic book artists have expressed strong opposition to the proposed revision of the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance, currently being deliberated in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. The Japan Pen Club is also forced to express its concerns about this revision of the ordinance, which will strengthen restrictions on expression. While the restrictions under the Youth Ordinance will directly restrict sales and viewing by minors, it is clear that they will have an impact on expression as a whole.
It goes without saying that when it comes to sensitive matters such as sexual expression, which are perceived differently by each individual, it is preferable to avoid legal restrictions and censorship by the state or government as much as possible and instead deal with the issue through voluntary self-regulation by artists, publishers, etc.
To date, the current ordinance revision has not been subject to sufficient public debate, and one cannot help but feel that it has been rushed given the seriousness of the strengthening of regulations on expression. It goes without saying that it is undesirable to restrict expressive behavior using a neologism like 'non-existent minors,' which leaves room for arbitrary judgment. Furthermore, regarding the internet regulations included in the proposed revision, it is far from being the result of vigorous debate and a reasonable consensus being reached on the involvement of public authorities in filtering standards.
Looking at history, restrictions on expression cannot eliminate the risk of arbitrary application or broad interpretation, and there is a risk that they could cause serious harm to freedom of expression and, ultimately, to the very foundations of democracy. The Japan PEN Club strongly opposes this ordinance revision, which comes without any convincing explanation as to why restrictions on expression must be strengthened now, and urges local governments and political parties planning similar revisions to conduct calm, careful, and thorough consideration in an open forum.
Perhaps pressured by these developments or perhaps in an attempt to calm things down, on Thursday, March 18th, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government published online its interpretation of the proposed ordinance regarding 'non-existent minors.'
It is a complete and utter bluff of excuses, and is unbearable to read, and I don't know who wrote it or where it came from, but frankly, it is incoherent. For example, the explanation of 'non-existent teenagers' goes like this:
This provision is intended to limit the settings of works to those that clearly indicate that the characters are under 18 years of age, based on explicit and objective ① indication or ② audio description (dialogue, narration) regarding age, grade, uniform (clothing), school bag (possessions), depiction of school (background), etc., and is as restrictive as possible, taking into consideration freedom of expression.
Despite the lack of such explicit and objective evidence, people cannot be targeted simply for subjective reasons such as 'looking young' or 'having a childish voice,' and arbitrary application is impossible.
(For example, even if a character appears to be a young child, if the character is set as '18 years old or older,' this does not apply.)
Furthermore, the unhealthy book designation system and self-regulation system, which aim to restrict access to young people, do not restrict authors, and creative activities, publishing, and distribution to adults are free, so criticisms that they 'lead to censorship and oppression' and 'will lead to the decline of the manga and anime industry' are unfounded.
Interpretations can change depending on the times and the people involved. That's why they're codifying the ordinance so that people can't change it however they want. They call it an 'explanation of the interpretation,' but it's essentially just a verbal promise. Even if they were to deviate from this interpretation, no one involved in Tokyo's absurd amendment would be thrown in jail or held accountable. In other words, they're evading the urge to say whatever they want, irresponsibly. The answer is, ' Why don't they clearly state the above content in the text? ' By leaving ample room for interpretation, their intention to operate the ordinance however they want is clear. This is undoubtedly an abuse of power. As with the PSE issue and the amendment to the Swords and Firearms Act , it's commonplace for them to say things that differ significantly from what they actually do before the ordinance is enacted, and it's an extremely irresponsible situation.
The world is vast and complex, and there is no such thing as a 'normal person.' Therefore, we must minimize the areas in which people can make arbitrary judgments. This is what laws and ordinances are all about.
Despite the fierce anti-regulation movement, how can the Tokyo Youth Affairs Council, which coined the term 'non-existent youth' and drafted a proposed amendment to promote expression regulation, remain calm? The reason is that the pro-regulation group is backed by the National Police Agency and other organizations, making it politically overwhelmingly powerful, and they believe that it would be better to restrict all sorts of things through all sorts of expansive interpretations, leading to a situation that would take Japan back to prewar times. This has been pointed out in many places, but the following page provides a clear explanation.
The true identity of the police bureaucrats who are forcing the 'non-existent minors' regulation - 'Anti-otaku Diet Members List' Memo
[Continued deliberation] Proposal to amend the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on the Healthy Development of Youths [The battle is not over]: Attorney Takashi Yamaguchi speaks
The last time the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Youth Healthy Development Ordinance was revised was in 2004. In fact, after the 2004 revision, the department in charge of the Youth Ordinance was transferred from the Bureau of Life and Culture to the newly established Youth and Public Safety Headquarters. Youth issues were no longer addressed as a welfare response, but as a security issue based on enforcement. That's right, the unhealthy books system was changed from a system based on consideration of the welfare of young people to one based on enforcement against those who disrupt public order. The Youth and Public Safety Headquarters and the Youth Division within the headquarters employ staff seconded from the National Police Agency. They are the driving force behind the creation of this 'revision' proposal.
What this means is that 'all expression should be subject to prior censorship,' and the bill is moving in the direction of establishing a 'retirement organization' of former police officers to censor a huge amount of expression. Easy-to-understand examples include adult videos and pachinko parlors. They are willing to ignore the rights and opinions of the masses for their own benefit. This is not a conspiracy theory, but something that is actually happening, and GIGAZINE will be publishing a separate interview article about this part of the police's reality.
To begin with, expressing something that shouldn't be done in real life is fundamental to expressive activity, and no matter how hard we try to restrict it, it cannot be deleted as long as we are human. Also, and this is truly 'obvious,' but if humans don't have sex, they will perish. The three fundamental human needs are food, sleep, and sex, and we are wired to feel a sense of crisis when each of these is threatened. If we don't eat, we will die; if we don't sleep, we will die; and if we don't have sex and have children, humanity itself will perish. You could even say that this is for the survival of the human species itself, but how on earth do the extremely small number of people with abnormally clean values who shamelessly submit amendments like this 'non-existent teenager' and deny sexuality educate their children about sex?
Furthermore, Japanese content has developed precisely because people have been able to depict 'living' and 'dying,' with 'living' being sexual and 'dying' being violent and cruel.
The actual acts of all of these are already subject to criminal regulation, and there is no point in further restricting expression. It's simply a matter of likes and dislikes, a physiological aversion. At its core, people don't want others to accept something because they can't accept it themselves, and it's nothing but harmful to try to equate personal aversion with the public interest. They simply bring up the most extreme examples and seek agreement, saying, 'Look, here it is! I haven't read any other examples, but I'm sure it's like this! It's unacceptable, isn't it?' in order to justify their personal obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The biggest problem with this ordinance is that it allows the metropolitan government to independently 'determine what constitutes acceptable expression.' This is likely due to a strong desire to exclude anything that does not align with their values, simplistically threatening that 'opposition to regulation' equates to 'labeling someone as a pervert.' Unfortunately, this means that so-called zoning and self-censorship do not fundamentally solve the problem. To take an extreme example, a recent online case is the sale of 18+ products on Amazon, where access to the product page requires a confirmation button. This essentially creates zoning by placing them 'on the other side.' However, as can be seen in ' Togetter - Summary: Midnight Debate on the 'Non-Existent Minority' Issue ,' it is also true that there are people who cannot tolerate their very existence.
If we think about GIGAZINE's past articles, it should be very easy to understand if we think about a ' roasted pig .' Whether a roasted pig is disgusting or delicious is a 'problem for the recipient,' and is by no means a problem with the roasted pig itself. The fears of both those in favor of regulation and those opposed to regulation are, in the extreme, completely off the mark.
Those who support regulation essentially just want to 'keep it away from us,' failing to recognize that it's a matter of personal preference, instead believing it to be a 'public issue.' Frankly, it's akin to a cult. They're simply using children as a cover to enforce their own preferences, and unless we educate these people, we'll have to fight forever. Pro-regulation and pro-regulation supporters can introduce and withdraw bills as many times as they like, simply resubmitting them even if they're rejected. Meanwhile, for anti-regulation supporters, once a bill passes, it's 'over' or 'the end.' This is the kind of dress that awaits regulation . Taking all of this into consideration, simple zoning or self-regulation won't solve the problem. In other words, nothing can be done unless we do something about the 'pro-regulation and pro-regulation' groups. Conversely, pushing for regulation won't alleviate their anxieties. This is because, as we didn't discuss this time, pushing for regulation ultimately leads to the restriction of 'inner freedom.' If we look at world history, we can see that humans are like beasts who, once they gain power and begin to run wild as a group, quickly want to infringe on people's inner freedom.
So what should we do?
The only solution is 'education.' More fundamental things about sex, violence, politics, the law, the internet, in short, 'the two sides of this world' and 'the world's true nature' should be properly taught in compulsory education at school. By doing so, students will develop the awareness that manga, games, and anime are just pictures, in other words, fictional creations, and not reality. A fundamental solution will take time and be troublesome, so trying to quickly make what is merely a personal wish to make these things disappear from sight a reality by making them public rules or 'ordinances' is absurd and an abuse of power.
Now that we're in the 21st century, rather than focusing on such fruitless 'non-existent youth,' I think we should spend more time on finding a fundamental solution from the perspective of 'education' for the sake of public welfare.
・Bonus (The uncut, full-color complete version is now available online)
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