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LDP Petition: Japan's Child Porn Laws Should Apply to Manga/Anime/Games
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Two national legislators of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) submitted a petition this month to change Japan's child pornography laws so that they apply to anime, manga, and video games. Some members of the LDP have been advocating for this revision since at least 2008, but have not succeeded thus far. The revision would also make "simple possession" of child pornography illegal. Currently, buying, selling, or distributing child pornography is illegal in Japan, but not its possession. The petition introduced by Hiroyuki Hosoda and Yuriko Koike has 222 signatures.
The proposed revision to the "Act on Punishment of Activities Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Protection of Children" would make it illegal to own, buy, sell, or possess child pornography in anime, manga, and video games, and other "virtual obscene images." The LDP also wants to revise the law to prosecute those who possess child pornography on their computers and mobile phones, as well as those who distribute it online via child pornography websites.
The LDP submitted the petition at the 178th meeting of the National Diet, which ran from September 13 to September 30.
The LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was a major backer of a separate revision to Tokyo's Youth Healthy Development Ordinance. This revision expanded the number of manga and anime that fall under "harmful publications," the legal category of works that must not be sold or rented to people under the age of 18.
[Via My Game News Flash]
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