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Japanese Poll: 87% Accept Manga Child Porn Regulation

The Japanese government's Cabinet Office issued on October 25 the results of its Special Opinion Poll on Harmful Materials, in which 86.5% of those who responded said that manga and art should be subject to regulation for child pornography, if they had to decide. 90.9% said that "harmful materials" on the Internet should be regulated, if they had to decide. The current child pornography laws in Japan do not regulate manga and art that depict children who are not real, or "virtual child pornography."

The seventh of seven questions on the poll asked the following:

Under the current laws, manga (comics), art (illustrations), and other materials that depict sexual acts and other activities with fictional children are not subject to regulation.

On this matter, there is the view that if fictional children are depicted, there is no problem since there is no harm being done to others. On the other hand, there is also the view that such comics and other materials promote the sexual objectification of minors and sexual crimes against minors, as well as the view that they should be regulated in the same way as photography, DVDs, and other materials that depict actual children.

How do you feel about regulation of such manga (comics) and art (illustrations)?

58.9% said that such manga and art "should be subject" to regulation. 27.6% said that "if I had to choose, they should be subject" to regulation. 6.6% said "if I had to choose, they should not be subject" to regulation. 2.5% said they "should not be subject" to regulation. 4.5% said that they did not know.

In earlier questions, 27.3% said they were aware or very aware of the details in the national debate on "harmful materials." 63.2% said that magazines, DVDs, and other harmful materials should be subject to nationwide regulation, while 21.8% said they should be regulated by individual prefecture. 80.8% said that the regulation of magazines, DVDs, and other harmful materials should be strengthened, while 13.8% said that the status quo is fine, and 1.0% said the regulations should be eased.

90.9% said that harmful materials on the Internet should be regulated or "should be regulated if I had to choose." 19.2% knew about mobile phone filtering, 29.% heard about it, and 51.2% did not know about it. 90.9% said that mere possession of child pornography should be regulated or "should be regulated if I had to choose," a slight increase from 90.5% in an August 2002 poll.

The poll asked 3,000 people over the age of 20 across Japan to respond from September 13 to September 23. (20 years old is the age of maturity in Japan.) 1,767 people (58.9%) responded. The poll was conducted by investigators in individual interviews.

Source: ITmedia News