Anime and Manga at risk in Tokyo

Caught some of this over the weekend and had to take a closer look at it. Seems that Tokyo is taking a hardliner approach to "Harmful" Anime & Manga. It seems it is leaning more towards child pornography, but a lot of others could get nailed in the wide spread net of legislation.

It looks like Tokyo Metropolitan Government's trying to amend the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance (Bill 156). They are trying to prevents the sale and renting of "harmful publications". Pretty much what they mean by this is any materials that are "sexually stimulating, encourages cruelty, and/or may compel suicide or criminal behavior."

The Govenor Ishihara of Tokyo also stated that:

“Anyone who claims it’s not harmful to children to draw manga that features the sex life of married couples and the such are idiots. Tell them, ‘You need to go cool your heads."

"Ishihara responded to the Tokyo Parent Teacher Association’s December 3 petition in support of the bill by saying, “It’s not just about children. We’ve got homosexuals casually appearing even on television. Japan has become far too untamed. I’ll go forward with [this bill] with a sense of mission in heart.”

If you want to get a better understanding of what is in the bill, check out Dan Kanemitsu's Paper Trail. It give you a brief review of what is in the bill. From what I read, there are some heavy handed stuff, but if this was actually written right, it would go a long way to protect kids. How it is currently written though, has so many damn loopholes, it will cause confusion more than anything else.

All this has already sent ripples of discontent through the Anime and Manga Industy. It may even lead to a very quiet or non-existent Toyko Anime Fair in 2011 as noted by who will not be there from this poster.


It seems that several publishers are dropping from the Fair due to the this as well. There are a total of 10 Publishers (some big names are Kodansha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa) that have said this "... ban is completely vague and tramples underfoot the previous understandings between publishers and the Tokyo government.”

Shinichiro Inoue who is the CEO of a number of companies at Kadokawa, tweeted this:

"Kadokawa has decided it will not be participating in next year’s Tokyo Anime Fair – the attitude of the Tokyo government to mangaka and the anime industry simply won’t do."

Look guys (and gals), we can do the right thing here without book burning. We have all seen how it gets out of here in the US when a good idea turns into a frenzy. Cool heads need to prevail and really make sure these "laws" don't destroy the one thing we all love - girls in short school uniforms. I really feel bad for all the fans as this could lead to a sad New Year in 2011 for the stuff we love and enjoy.

Fuck, as I was writing this, Sankaku Complex popped up a new story called "Mangaka "My Publisher has Banned School Uniforms". Now things really are going to Hell in a Hand basket.

Sources: Japan Probe | Sankaku Complex | Anime News Network

UPDATE: IT FUCKING PASSED AND NOW LAW - OMFG

Link > Japanator