Censorship – are the Japanese finally cracking down on hentai culture?
Posted on | December 1, 2007 | 7 Comments |
| Handcuffed girls to show the imprisonment of hentai freedom…
In the beginning, there were woodblock prints. Then there was manga and last came the fan doujinshi. From there evolved Comiket and the whole artistic-cum-entrepreneurial shebang that we know and love today. Regular readers will know that I am a great advocate of doujinshi in general and that I have made one of my life goals to attend at least one comic market event.
It has surprised me since I was last in Akihabara how real and in-your-face the fan drawn pornography culture is. Sure you can walk through London and find the odd few stores round Wardour Street with the flashing neon “XXX” sign and promises of “Girls Girls Girls!” but inevitably there is a certain aura surrounding these establishments. The nagging feeling that within the shelves lined with merchandise are being perused by such shady characters who wouldn’t look out of place at a meeting of the Secret society of Teachers Against Youtube. In distinct contrast to its Eastern cousin, although they are both big businesses financially, most of the money changes hands behind closed doors or on the interweb in exchange for suspisiously unlabelled brown paper packages (occasionally tied up with string)
However far we as British people have come from our stereotypical prudish, “stiff upper lip” image that most Americans would love to think we still embody, you would have to look long and hard to find a celebration of all things adult on such a scale as Comiket. It is exhilarating to things that there a celebrations of adult material and fetishism on such a grand scale. I have always been of the philosophy that it is terrible that such normal activities as sex and non-harmful fetishism are sidelined to the extent that the only part they play in everyday life is on the dusty top shelf of a petrol station shop. Oh and over half of the internet of course. But that’s not everyday life…
What is perhaps most intriguing about this part of Japanese life is the dichotomy it creates. On one side, the highly disciplined, strictly trained samurai-esque glorification of human mentality from which spring martial arts master, world class scientists and eighty year old weathered grandmothers who do a darn good job of cleaning those stubborn stains off train platforms. On the other, the Akiba doujin culture of fan made smut sold in such unbelievable quantities to crowds of baying fans on the scale of the Take That comeback special. But reverse the gender bias. And that’s not including Tokyo’s burgeoning soapland culture, hostess cafes and high school girls in loose socks “accompanying” sweaty business suits for extra pocket money…
But it is this very divide that lends Japan its innate charm. Although on the surface it may be a land of silly inventions, sardine packed trains and tentacle rape, you can reassure yourself deep down that underneath is a strong undercurrent of decency and most importantly, a will to do everything properly.
And finally I come to the point of this little tirade.
Those of you that read Shingo’s rantings on Heisei Democracy may have read this particular post a couple of weeks ago. This concerned me. I mean, I have been vaguely following the Lolicon debate with no particular interest since it’s not really my thing and I wouldn’t especially miss it if the lawyers suddenly decided that it was too close to something that they dare not speak its name. However, the closure of the Tokyo Boueki Kaikan Taitou building to small doujin events such as Futaket and ABnormal Carnival is vexing to say the least.
Not least because I was hoping to go next year while I was in Japan on my elective.
It’s not entirely surprising that the Japanese government have taken this stance over the doujinshi issue even hough Comic Markets have been going on harmlessly for many years. It must seem unusual to foreign politicians that such seemingly offensive material with parallels to real life CP, bestiality, snuff and rape are allowed to be sold freely when some are decidedly illegal in other countries. Therefore, they must not be seen actively condoning their sale, common though it has become.
So what about that underlying current of decency and morality that I was just talking about? Japan has undoubtedly one of the lowest rates of crime and sexual offences in the developed world, even in the presence of such “subversive” material. Its citizens, then, seem to be more able to differentiate fantasy and reality unlike their American 18-rated-game-playing counterparts (if the tabloids are to be believed).
Haven’t Japanese politicians anything better to do than clamp down on something in order to look better internationally? By stamping on this particular corner of the Japanese personality surely all this will cause is large feelings of animosity, doujinshi circles to move further underground and the loss of one of the best examples of free expression in the world.
Or perhaps it is the spread of this depravity by the internet that is of concern to the business suits? If it got into the hands of the easily influenced brains of the Western world, who knows what would happen?
Tentacle monsters of the world beware – those half naked girls are after your blood…
Powered by ScribeFire.
Comments
7 Responses to “Censorship – are the Japanese finally cracking down on hentai culture?”
Leave a Reply
Other sites and Projects
- Yuribou scans - Scanlations of dubious virtue
- Yuribou's List of Japanese Adverbs and Onomatopoeia
- Yuribou hentai dictionary
Subscribe to our feed
Search
Blogroll
Aggregators
Blogroll
Fanfiction
Friends
Manga
Other
Yuribou is brought to you today by the number
December 2nd, 2007 @ 6:33 am
For someone claiming to be a doujin fan, you sure lack knowledge on its history. There has been tonnes of crackdowns in the past, most notably when the “Otaku Killer” struck.
Whether or not this time’s initiatives prove to be the real deal or just some temporary measures before the authorities get bored with it, is up for anyone’s guess.
December 2nd, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
It bugs me when things like this happen because its a glaring example of one of today’s society’s flaws. Not only is this type of intervention an annoyance to everyone who tries to enjoy such subject matter, it shows just how much political power is being wasted on useless/meaningless exercises such as this while other more serious issues fester unattended.
December 2nd, 2007 @ 5:35 pm
It’s funny that almost every govt. knows that certain “cultures” (if you will) are liked and also hated. This whole Doujin business is’nt very different than the music, game and movie industries coming under fire by politicians having nothing better to do than gain the support of clingy parents, again with nothing better to do themselves. So yet again, in an attempt to look “good”, politicians choose the “moral” side of an issue and continuosly bash a culture (doujin or whatever) even though they themselves have have little to no knowlege of the effects some cultures have on the populice. Personally I hate when the “higher ups” think they can tell us whats right or wrong, that my friends is up to ourselves to decide. And now a quote…
“Videogames are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock ‘n’ roll.â€
—Shigeru Miyamoto
December 3rd, 2007 @ 8:29 pm
I find it funny since masami akita during the 1970’s sent his tapes with blatant porn as the inserts to people who bought them but he was never deemed unmoral by anyone. The same “morals” are being toughted in america but at the same time the politician’s can be found taking bribes and doing said illegal acts behind closed doors.
December 3rd, 2007 @ 9:52 pm
anypne still laughing at Sen. Larry Craig? If anyone needed proof that politicians are dirtier than the dirt that bash, I could probably pick atleast 3 republicans who fit the bill!
December 22nd, 2007 @ 1:22 am
The United States has travelled this road recently. In 2002, the US Supreme Court held that fictional depictions of child pornography “records no crime and creates no victims by its production.” (Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition) and is therefore protected under the First Amendment.
August 21st, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
i skipped the writing and looked at the pictures