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Dōjinshi Created About Tokyo Youth Ordinance Amendment

Manga creator Takeshi Nogami (Sailor-fuku to Jūsensha, Panzer fräulein ALTESEISEN), anime writer and setting advisor Takaaki Suzuki (Strike Witches, Last Exile), and translator Dan Kanemitsu (new Evangelion films, Love Hina) are collaborating on a dōjinshi (self-published work) about the recently passed amendment to Tokyo's Youth Healthy Development Ordinance.

Saru Demo Wakaru To-Jōrei Taisaku ~Monkey Business~ (An Idiot's Guide to Tokyo's Harmful Books Regulation) will be available at Comic Market 79 on December 31 at the Tokyo Big Sight event complex. The Japanese/English book will also be available from Amazon Japan.

The current ordinance already prevents the sale and renting of "harmful publications" — materials that are "sexually stimulating, encourages cruelty, and/or may compel suicide or criminal behavior" — to people under the age of 18. Tokyo's Bill 156 will expand the definition of "harmful publications"; the industry will now regulate "manga, anime, and other images" that "unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate" certain sexual or pseudo sexual acts. The government can also directly regulate these images if the depicted acts are also "considered to be excessively disrupting of social order" such as rape.

The upcoming dōjinshi will feature manga parodying the amendment along with English translations of the dialogue. There are also Japanese essays for which Kanemitsu is translating into English online. The creators encourage readers to share the book, as long as it is done noncommercially.

The dōjinshi's three authors have previously collaborated on a series of dōjinshi about Strike Witches. All three also actively opposed Bill 156 and a similar earlier bill that the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly rejected in June.

The dōjinshi's Japanese title, which can roughly be translated as "Even a Monkey Can Understand the Opposition to Tokyo's Ordinance," is a reference to Kentaro Takekuma and Kōji Aihara's insider's guide to the manga industry, Saru demo kakeru Manga Kyōshitsu (Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga).

Update: The number of the next Comic Market has been corrected. Kanemitsu notes that the dōjinshi, like many others, is all-ages. It will be available in Japan at Tora no Ana, Comic Zin, and other dōjinshi retailers after Comic Market.