×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Kosaku Shima Manga to Be Revised After Depicting Man Paid to Protest Against U.S. Base




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Jackson Hill



Joined: 27 Nov 2023
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 2:19 pm Reply with quote
I find it amazing that even with all these events, there are still many fans who refuse to see how in many aspects japanese entertainment is limited to childish subjects, while serious themes in their society need to be censored. We already saw this a few years ago with Lock Back.

I just hope that this evidence shows that there is no such thing as "japanese authors can write about whatever they want, unlike in the West".
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
RockSplash



Joined: 28 Oct 2019
Posts: 501
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 2:35 pm Reply with quote
I'm not suprised by this. I don't think this is the US asking a manga creator to backdoor, but Japan itself toning the themes down for being too honest. Shin Godzilla was all about hwo Japan can't help but censor itself.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 13547
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Guess there's still some Japanese-Western tension.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Smongo



Joined: 10 Feb 2024
Posts: 64
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 6:35 pm Reply with quote
Like all countries with laws that backfired like US & Prohibition of Alcohol & other laws, Japan has a history of censorship especially with the famous example of the 1907 law (article 175) forbidding publishing sexual obscene material and until as recently as 1986 with Toshio Maeda and the rest is history.

ON A SERIOUS NOTE: As someone who’s been to Okinawa plenty of times and known several victims and witnesses (one of those being my HS wrestling coach who’s been in the US Marines for 25 years and was on the Okinawa base in 1995 & saw the scum bags fleeing into the base after the crime they’ve committed to make sure the US protect them from Japanese attorneys from taking them, go look up Okinawa 1995 incident), the US needs to get out. Not saying all us military personnel are criminals/scum bags (have friends and family in military), but US military imperialism and how the rich & elite run our governments is we have so many problems from corrupt politicians accepting brides from US company like Lockheed Martin & other private military contractors, Agent Orange poisoning of Vietnamese & US, Banana Republics, what we are seeing now in Gaza, how US and other countries treat their armed forces, etc.

To keep it short, The people of Okinawa & other military occupied place have had it enough for too long and deserve to be free. Media such as manga, video games, etc. should reflect the truth about our reality which we live in and provide more insight into these situations & what we reflect from it/ how we fix it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Connor Dino



Joined: 20 Dec 2010
Posts: 343
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 6:58 pm Reply with quote
Smongo wrote:
ON A SERIOUS NOTE: As someone who’s been to Okinawa plenty of times and known several victims and witnesses (one of those being my HS wrestling coach who’s been in the US Marines for 25 years and was on the Okinawa base in 1995 & saw the scum bags fleeing into the base after the crime they’ve committed to make sure the US protect them from Japanese attorneys from taking them, go look up Okinawa 1995 incident), the US needs to get out. Not saying all us military personnel are criminals/scum bags (have friends and family in military), but US military imperialism and how the rich & elite run our governments is we have so many problems from corrupt politicians accepting brides from US company like Lockheed Martin & other private military contractors, Agent Orange poisoning of Vietnamese & US, Banana Republics, what we are seeing now in Gaza, how US and other countries treat their armed forces, etc.


Yeah no. What is this absurd, insane, one sided opinion you are pushing?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2574
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 7:47 pm Reply with quote
There is an easy way to solve this. Make a sequel chapter where the company finds out that it got bamboozled and clean the water like that. But yeah. (Seinen) Mangaka can write about almost anything they want, even the teen-targeted Jump+ has tons of truly demeaning content in Japan, but if it´s directly related to real-world Japanese issues with names attached then you are toast. Oishinbo is still on hiatus after a decade despite being one of the bestselling comics of all time. Shinzo Abe himself added his 2 cents back then. Lol. That could never happen in America due to Hustler Magazine v. Falwell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell and our European satire is equally out there and famously got a few cartoonists murdered in my lifetime.

The ballsy-as-hell Kamen Rider Black Sun made sure that everyone had legally distinct names and didn´t line up too closely to the people the show was a hit against. Image, Dark Horse or DC´s adult imprints won´t let you write about an Issekai rapist on the other hand but have no problem ripping apart a standing president with the Batman logo on the cover:

You will not believe where Frank Miller went in 2019 with Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child. What a complicated man. Boy oh boy and I am curious about the Darwin's Incident anime´s reception next year.

Finally, does Sega have more of a backbone than Kodansha? Yakuza 6 says so.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
onpufan



Joined: 22 Dec 2022
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2024 11:12 pm Reply with quote
I think people are misunderstanding the issue here. Being anti-military base occupation or anti-foreigner in Japan is not an uncommon stance out of Japanese citizens and creators. Rise of the Ronin was a video game that came out this year where you play as Japanese samurai killing American soldiers during the end of Japanese isolationism in the 1800s and you even get to fight historic figures like American Navy officer Matthew Perry in a boss fight who's goal was to colonize Japan. A few years ago we had the anime Kyokai Senki/AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline that told the fictional story of Japan economic collapse and being occupied by many foreign countries including America and followed a ragtag resistance team trying to kick them out of Japan. None of these pieces of media were controversial or saw any issue.

The issue here seems to be the fact this series is implying that the people who are opposed to military base occupation in Japan are only doing so because they were being paid to do so. That all the people who protest Okinawan occupation are just paid actors who are being funded by some kind of billionaire figurehead or organization which is a common conspiracy theory people have in politics and no one on their own would ever hold these beliefs of their own volition.

I have not read Kosaku Shima or know anything about the mangaka so I have no idea what their beliefs are or how it's handled in the manga itself but that is the way I'm reading this article. Given the history and stuff you can read about that goes on in Okinawa I imagine some people got upset if indeed the series is suggesting any Okinawa protestors are merely paid actors and maybe that the creator is pro-American occupation.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
justthistime



Joined: 09 Jul 2022
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2024 10:08 am Reply with quote
Euro-guy resident in Japan here (not in Okinawa though so I have no stakes in the whole dispute). I moved to Japan 20 years ago and am as familiar with the issue as anybody around here can be by just watching the news.

The Okinawa-issue, meaning the locals not being happy with the US presence as in: having the impression that the post-war occupation has been going on since...well, the end of the war, but also a seemingly endless string of "incidents" including but not limited to brawls, theft, hit-and-runs, rape and even murder involving US servicemen has been testing the patience of the locals ever since.

Quote:
The issue here seems to be the fact this series is implying that the people who are opposed to military base occupation in Japan are only doing so because they were being paid to do so. That all the people who protest Okinawan occupation are just paid actors who are being funded by some kind of billionaire figurehead or organization which is a common conspiracy theory people have in politics and no one on their own would ever hold these beliefs of their own volition.


Exactly! As a matter of fact, the accusation that the local protesters are nothing more than paid (peasants) out for a quick buck is a right-wing thrope tossed around on the Japanese internet by the infamous "netto uyoku" or internet far-right wingers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netto-uyoku ).

The right-wingers call the protesters "プロ市民 (pro shimin or professional citizens)" as a pun on "市民団体 (citizen groups)".

I do know the Kosaku Shima manga but haven't read it though, so I can't say where the author and his editor stand on the issue but...

Quote:
For this chapter, creator Hirokane and the editor in charge traveled to Okinawa for research, specifically on the tourism industry. During their travels, they heard from several local residents that there were part-time jobs for people to oppose new U.S. base construction. Although this was unconfirmed hearsay, the staff depicted the information as definitive.


...their so-called research is more than lackluster, as the whole internet name-calling thing is actually pretty well known in Japan...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ChiilongCha



Joined: 26 Jul 2018
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 1:01 am Reply with quote
If they went to do research and found out about the protestors supposed being paid, then why would they stop there? Naturally the next step would be to find out who's paying those people. This is what makes the claim questionable.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
CreativelyFwrd



Joined: 04 Oct 2024
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 1:39 am Reply with quote
justthistime wrote:
Exactly! As a matter of fact, the accusation that the local protesters are nothing more than paid (peasants) out for a quick buck is a right-wing thrope tossed around on the Japanese internet by the infamous "netto uyoku" or internet far-right wingers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netto-uyoku ).


Why would Japanese right-wingers think the protestors aren't genuine? Japanese right want Japan to revise Article 9 and have a right to have an army and defend itself once again which would mean kicking out the American military presence. They'd be the ones telling Americans to get out of the country.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Albyher0



Joined: 23 Oct 2021
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2024 12:20 am Reply with quote
The author is literally an HR advisor for LDP, so it's not really surprising.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
RupanSansei



Joined: 20 Sep 2024
Posts: 100
PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2024 3:20 am Reply with quote
Albyher0 wrote:
The author is literally an HR advisor for LDP, so it's not really surprising.

what does LDR stand for? i can't find anything on it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Albyher0



Joined: 23 Oct 2021
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2024 3:23 am Reply with quote
RupanSansei wrote:
Albyher0 wrote:
The author is literally an HR advisor for LDP, so it's not really surprising.

what does LDR stand for? i can't find anything on it.

Correction, he's a public relations advisor to the government's Ministry of Defense and has been known to have very close ties to LDP(ruling government)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group