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Sakai City Answers Complaint on BL Books in Libraries
posted on by Egan Loo
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: The city of Sakai, located in the central Japanese prefecture of Osaka, posted a citizen's July 30 complaint about the massive amounts of boys-love materials in the city's four main libraries. The citizen not only claimed that the books in the reading rooms are "sexual harrassment," but also expressed concern for the books' "bad influence" on children and the citizens' tax burden. According to the complaint, neither the nearby Osaka Municipal Libraries nor the Osaka Prefectural Libraries have such a large boys-love collection. The citizen asked about the size and cost of Sakai's boys-love collection; the city responded that its internal inquiry currently indicates that 5,499 volumes were purchased at the cost of 3,668,883 yen (about US$34,500).
However, the city also noted that the books were purchased due to requests from library users. The city maintained that the role of a public library is to respond to the other citizens' wishes by selecting material that people want to read. The city did acknowledge that the books were openly displayed in the reading rooms as the complaint indicated, and said that the books were quickly placed into archives.
Source: Livedoor News via Sankaku Complex
