Forum - View topicINTEREST: Japanese Communist Party Claims No Contradiction In Opposing Regulation of Anime, Manga
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taishou*
 Posts: 129 |
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You clearly are not reading the article. Nowhere did the JCP state they want to ban anything in regards to anime/manga. Having a discussion or debate about the ethics of something is not the same as banning it. It's pretty clearly stated that they only support defining CSA material as material featuring actual children. |
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Nahnah
Posts: 4 |
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“ opposes the categorization of manga, anime, and games as "fictional child pornography"” This is literally there in the article implying that they view it as non-fictional child pornography. If you’re going to accuse people of not being able to read, at least double check your own reading. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3672 |
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To be clear, these are people who, after looking at the last 100 years of history, decided "Yeah, Communism is a brand we want to be associated with." I find their thinking that "these ideas have a correlation to harm" to be pretty strange standard to stand for.
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taishou*
Posts: 129 |
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I'm not going to turn this entire thread into me arguing with you. They clearly stated they have no intention of regulating fiction. They clearly stated that fictional depictions shouldn't fall under CSA material/child pornography. I don't know how difficult that is to understand. This fearmongering is absurd. |
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Thaumana
 Posts: 121 |
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Read the article. As long as manga and anime and other fictional media are left out and not limited in their creative development, i'm not too worried for the time being.
In my country, there is already this kind of wishy-washy law that bans "child-like" suggestive depictions, and there have already been cases where publishers have released self-censored versions of ecchi manga with shortened pages or chapters without communicating that to readers beforehand. The problem with such a law is that publishing and age-rating agencies can simply decide at their own discretion and subjective arbitrariness which depictions of characters are considered too young for them and which are not. Such poorly defined laws based on subjective, personal taste only lead to complete uncertainty and wasted investment in the market (As someone who has witnessed quite a few age rating discussions of numerous games with the boards and staff members of the respective rating agencies, I know very well how much people argue according to their pure sensibilities, prejudices and feelings about certain media and genre). A similar problem led to rejections and bans of several anime visuals containing games on Steam that had only mild or no sexual content, simply because the moe characters looked child-like to the rating staff. And once you allow such a law in the first place, you can continue to stretch the bans until it becomes non-transparent, which brings along the risk of very arbitrary judicial decisions sooner or later. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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To be fair, this is also the only political party in Japan to denounce China and stand with both Hong Kong resistance and recognize Taiwan's sovereignty. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3139887/japanese-communist-party-snubs-chinas-communist-party-centenary So uh, I'm not sure you realize exactly what these people want to be associated with (it surely isn't oppressive autocratic regimes) |
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simona.com
 Posts: 338 Location: Tokyo |
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finally someone who's actually talking some sense.
there must be differentiation between real child abuse and creative expression; the way that idiotic law is now, it's basically putting manga and criminal acts on the same level. they aren't. |
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3672 |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2419 |
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Obviously that won't stop it from being produced entirely. However as you just pointed out, nothing will accomplish that. That isn't a realistic goal to have whether you want to ban it or whether you want to more passively discourage sales. Trying to even do that is a bad idea and wasted effort. Look where the war on drugs got us. Banning it won't erase it from existence.
I think that is much worse than drawn art even if it isn't explicitly pornographic. It feels like a case of mistaken priorities to not be going after that first. |
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WisteriaCrow
Posts: 5 |
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I mean it kinda depends on what you classify as sexualizing children. Shonen jump manga sexualizes teenagers. I personally think it’s a bit questionable, but not necessarily problematic. (Now the form of sexualization CAN be problematic — like the groping “joke”) And it usually is a surface level sexualization. But then there’s the stuff that isn’t quite hentai but is definitely more erotica. Like a lot of the stuff Seven Seas (somehow) publishes in America. Most of it has 18 year olds, but not all. And it gets pretty explicit. So if we are seeing that stuff in Barnes and Noble in America, it’s probably common to see even worse in Japan’s stores. But again. It depends what you mean by manga sexualizing children. I’m of the mindset that unless they explicitly look like a prepubescent child, fictional characters can be sexualized, at least on a surface level of “hey this is an attractive person” — though it’s a bit icky when it gets really explicit. But I’m mainly of that mindset because most anime 14 year olds look and act more grown than real life 20 year olds. Age is seriously just arbitrary in fiction — most of the time. But I digress. Censorship is a slippery slope. So while there does need to be more pressure for artists to not draw kids in sexual situations, I’m not sure that’s the way to go about it. I feel like it’s more up to stores and editors to put a stop to selling and producing this stuff. So maybe that could be a route the party takes if they actually aim to make this a full blown public discussion. Honestly what they said sounds largely reasonable. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10463 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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You misunderstood. They oppose it being characterized as child pornography, fictional or otherwise. (But despite this, they do see a link "between fictional child pornography and broader cultural perceptions that normalize child sex abuse.") |
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 659 |
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Yes, there sure are harsh penalties for possession of child pornography in Japan. That's why Rurouni Kenshin was pulled from publication and Nobuhiro Watsuki will never be heard from again. Oh wait, he just had to pay a small fine and continues to enjoy popular support from fans and fellow manga artists. I got the consequences for his actions mixed up with celebrities who get caught with small amounts of drugs! I think it has been made abundantly clear that Japanese law considers possession of child pornography to be a fairly minor crime, which certainly contributes to "broader cultural perceptions that normalize child sex abuse."
Passage of anti-child pornography laws have actually significantly reduced the production of junior idol material. You just don't read about it on an anime site because it isn't anime. [Removed snark. Errinundra.] ...the JCP's position is quite nuanced and one I fully support. There's a number of ways to push for a culture shift without resorting to censorship. It's a lot harder than just passing a law but much more effective in the long run. |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10463 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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They're named after an international ideology. People don't stop being Christian just because the Nazis and the Crusaders were Christians. Like modern Christians, who trace their ideals back to biblical teachings, most communist trace their ideals back to Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. There are communist parties around the world, and very few look at North Korea, China or Russia for inspiration. Many even consider the leaders of those countries to be traitors to the communist ideology; they aren't going to abandon their ideology or its name because another country abused it to do bad things. -t |
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capt_bunny
 Posts: 364 |
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/insert Twitter joke and almost all Westerners secretly part of the JCP/
Anyway.... Many psychologists have already had this talk countless times with violent media. All results are the same: fiction does not affect reality. It's YOUR fault if you don't know how to separate fiction and reality. It frustrates and scares me about how many people can't separate the two. It should only be of concern if real children are harmed. As someone who is very liberal; maybe my ideas are too "free" but I do believe creation should not have censorship. That's what is so great about anime. Many artists have expressed about lolis in saying they feel themselves as the loli and not the other characters. It's a story to tell or show expression of feelings in their own eyes. This is my own opinion. You are fine to dislike the type genre or characters. It's a little funny to a certain degree about how the communists can't understand this like many other political parties too. |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 423 |
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My problem with this is the part about the JCP claiming "(they) perceive a link between fictional child pornography and broader cultural perceptions that normalize child sex abuse."
This has been researched ad nauseum since the 1999 ruling that banned child pornography but explicitly excluded fictional depictions of non-real children. There has not been a single conclusive study, research paper, thesis, or any other professional publication that directly equates fantasy engagement to risk of offending, despite many having an agenda to find evidence in support of this claim. Reading the rest of the article however, it seems that the JCP doesn't in fact believe that at all, which is supported by their ruling in the 2010 proposition and the listed follow-up statement. Either way it's confusing, but I agree with their position that more discourse on the effects of fictional mediums such as games, anime, and manga on the well-being of children would in fact benefit anti-censorship parties. And if their goal is to protect freedom of expression by corrective zoning (to prevent cases like the Mandarake case) without adversely affecting existing creators, then by all means I think that would be a positive start. |
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