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Creators Decry Tokyo's Proposed 'Virtual' Child Porn Ban (Update 7)

posted on by Egan Loo
Ashita no Joe's Chiba, Lady Ann's Satonaka, Doraemon's Fujiko, others sign statement

Tetsuya Chiba (Ashita no Joe) and Machiko Satonaka (Lady Ann) were among the manga creators who held a press conference on Monday to voice their opposition against proposed legislation in Metropolitan Tokyo to restrict sexually provocative, "visual depictions" of characters who sound or appear to be younger than 18 years old. The group presented the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly with a written statement in opposition to the measure. Among the creators who listed their names in the statement were Fujiko Fujio A, Takao Saitō, Moto Hagio, and Ryohei Saigan.

Nico Nico Douga presented a live video feed of the press conference, and the TBS Television network posted a video excerpt from the press conference.

Source: 47 News, Sankei Shimbun

Update: The freelance writer Tetsuya Shibui posted photographs from the press conference, including two photographs of the list of names attached to the statement opposing the proposed legislation:

Update 2: Other people who have voiced their opposition to the proposed legislation include voice actress Haruna Ikezawa, lawyer Takashi Yamaguchi, manga/anime creator Yoshitoshi ABe, manga/anime creator Yun Kouga, manga creator Yasuhiro Nightow, manga/anime creator Gō Nagai, manga creator Nanae Sasaya, manga creator Keiko Takemiya, and manga creator Kohei Nishino as well as the other Manga Department professors at Kyoto Seika University.

Update 3: The Ustream website is streaming the press conference, and The Journal website posted the list of creators opposed to the proposed legislation. Thanks, Yasuhiro Nightow.

Update 4: Hideki Egami, the editor-in-chief of Shogakukan's Monthly Ikki manga magazine, asked manga creators to respond on Twitter at about 4:00 a.m. EDT if they oppose the proposed legislation. The responses, have been arriving at a rate of about one per minute since then.

Update 5: As of 6:00 a.m. EDT, Egami's compiled list includes:

Update 6: The Net Business Innovation Research Consortium (NBI) industry group issued a statement in opposition to the proposed legislature. The online companies Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Rakuten, and DeNA are on the consortium's governing board. Thanks, dormcat. Source: RBB Today

Update 7: Translator and Production Coordinator Dan Kanemitsu (Twitter) led about 30 comic book authors, editors, and translators to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Monday to speak with four legislators directly. (Kanemitsu is a voting citizen of Tokyo.) Kanemitsu brought the following (provisional) list of industry professionals to the meeting:

Thanks to dormcat for help on name transcriptions.

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