Forum - View topicAnswerman - Do Cultural Differences Justify Watsuki's Punishment?
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mdo7
 Posts: 6972 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Japan isn't the only East Asian countries that has a lenient criminal justice approach toward child sex abuse or sex crimes in general, this happened in South Korea too, actually most of East Asian countries (except Mainland China) don't put or take sex crime on the same level as in the US or Europe.
Now when it comes to drug even one that is not serious, I know that marijuana or even legal stimulant or OTC drugs in Japan like ADHD drugs are not legal which really baffles me even to this day and they don't bother to decriminalize them despite scientific and cultural norms. Seeing ADHD drugs ban or strictly controlled in Japan makes me wonder how many people in Japan have undiagnosed ADHD and autism (usually people that are high-functioning autistic) over there, and I say that as someone who is on the spectrum. |
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Zased
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Is Japan actually "grappling" with such an issue or is this just editorializing by a writer who doesn't like that stuff? |
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Avec ou Nous
Posts: 171 |
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I think this is only baffling if one is unable to look beyond their own culture and think every other country should adhere to theirs. Some of us could say it's baffling why America has not banned certain chemicals in food like titanium dioxide, potassium bromate, or hydrogenated oils yet since so many other countries have done so due to the health issues they cause. Personally I don't see the confusion on why Japan hasn't legalize harmful drugs just because some other countries like America did. Plenty of countries have not legalized marijuana for medical use let alone "recreational" use. The thing with cultural norms is people always assume theirs are the best and most logical so we'll always be bias about stuff. The answer is those countries do not consider those drugs to be harmless or not-serious. As far as Watsuki goes I don't personally care about the punishment he got. Some context that people forget and this article fails to mention is that child porn was legal to own in Japan until 2014. Unsurprisingly an incident only a few years later, let alone by a celebrity, would be fairly lenient. Revenge porn used to get a slap on the wrist as well until only recently because it increasingly became more of an issue people concerned themselves with. So people who shared those private videos and images until only recently got off pretty light if they suffered any consequence at all. It generally takes awhile for the system to catch up. |
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AiddonValentine
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As someone who actually keeps up with the news in Japan, yes they are. This is not just editorializing |
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quoss
Posts: 74 |
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"While societal pressure and rehabilitation efforts may contribute to lower re-offending rates, they do not justify lenient punishments for serious crimes."
Do they not? Punishment's only moral value in my opinion, since we're sharing personal morals here, is its contribution to lowering future offenses. Any satisfaction given victims or the public only contributes to a culture that celebrates revenge and haven't you seen the opening seventy-five seconds of CANAAN? No, because it flopped? Dang it |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10477 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Oh, this question. I believe stats are incoming, so you'll have to wait for a more detailed response from Jerome. But in short, yes, Japan is grappling with these issues. It's a very common, and unfortunate opinion among foreigners who only know Japan through pop-culture, that the country doesn't have a similar ongoing social dialog as the rest of the world. Powahara, sexuhara, gender equality, CSAM and lolicon (separate but related), LGTBQ rights, immigration, wealth disparity, etc. are all ongoing issues that Japanese society is discussing. Close to home, ANN's majority owner, Kadokawa (KAD) announced plans to publish a book called "Irreversible Damage" last year, and it lead to protests in front of the KAD office by supporters of trans rights. A few years back the Tokyo Metropolitan Government tried to restrict (not stop) the sale of Lolicon within the prefecture and it caused significant backlash from publishers who felt the prefecture government was going to far with the restrictions. These various movements are much less loud in Japan than they are in North America, but before you assume that this is entirely due to less interest, keep in mind the nature of Japanese society where "rocking the boat" is not well looked upon and frequently people who want change, and/or have been victimized themselves, self-censor so that they are not labelled "troublemakers." But if you pay attention to Japanese news sources, you will see that these issues are... issues that Japan is grappling with. [edit: Corrected myself above. Thanks Lynzee.] Last edited by Tempest on Mon Mar 17, 2025 1:07 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mdo7
Posts: 6972 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Uh, I don't want to go off topic, but you are aware that certain over the counter drug like cough medicine like those with pseudoephedrine, and Codeine are illegal in Japan, you do know that right? Meaning that you're not allowed to have Tylenol, and other OTC medication that we used in the US can't be brought into Japan. This is what I mean by that on my previous post. If they're banned in Japan, then how the heck do Japanese people with specific need get the medication that are like on the same level to beat any headache, allergies, etc... I mean you got to have a population in Japan that may need these OTC drug one way or another. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1628 |
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One thing that I'm curious about is how much of Watsuki's incredibly light punishment came down to his celebrity. If he wasn't the creator of one of the best-selling manga series in history, would he be sitting in a prison cell right now? Or are normal people who are convicted of the same crime given equally light sentences in Japan?
In the west there is a frustrating pattern of the rich and powerful getting away with crimes, getting no real punishment at all (but still whining about being "cancelled") and then resuming their careers as though nothing happened. Is Watsuki another example of this? Or was he treated the same as the average perpetrator? At the very least, I think it's safe to say that if he hadn't been a popular creator, publishers would be a lot more inclined to simply not hire him anymore. But since his series makes money, we've got a new Kenshin anime and a manga sequel which simply continue along as though Watsuki never did anything wrong. Everyone involved is willing to look the other way so long as the money keeps flowing in. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24658 |
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From Jerome's column:
See, here's my thing. I have zero problem with somebody who says, "In my country we deal with issue of ____________ in this way and in a different country they deal with it in a different way. I prefer the way my country does it." I think that's a totally fair comment. Where I get a little uncomfortable is when a person implies that there is some objective, fundamental way of doing things and a country is just objectively wrong in veering from this so-called "fundamental principle." Killing innocent people for no reason is wrong is a fundamental principle that virtually no sane person would disagree with. Giving harsh sentences to those in possession of csam images versus giving them a sentence that takes into consideration rehabilitation and social reintegration is not a matter of "fundamental principles." There is no natural law or no extra-national authority that can be cited to support either harsh sentences or sentences prioritizing rehab and reintegration. There are only opinions among people as to which route they prefer. My last comment on this is that there have been plenty of anecdotal examples of people in North America convicted of possessing child sex abuse images who have received much lengthier sentences than people who have actually raped children. That seems crazy to me. |
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bassgs435
 Posts: 399 |
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Didn’t the Act-Age writer get fired for molesting minors? The difference in treatment of both men makes me think Watsuki’s rep had influence in the light consequences of his actions.
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SciasSlash
Posts: 122 |
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One detail that's often missed is the exact timeline. Japan has tightened its laws around CSAM a lot over the past couple of decades. Watsuki's defense was that he acquired the material before the law was tightened. As a lot of the legal language refers to the purchasing or acquisition of CSAM, and there's no legal provisions for retroactively charging someone, it meant that his crime was possession, not acquisition, creation, or propagation. Possession is generally the lowest charge when it comes to any illegal material or substance.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3098 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I also don't wanna go off-topic but I have an anecdote about this that is related and kind of interesting. So I did happen to get a headache in Japan and they do have over-the-counter medications for that, albeit with alternate ingredients. My husband is an RN (everything I'm about to write is not medical advice) and is very particular about ensuring medications don't have any interactions. I have a daily med that I take, so he'll spend a decent amount of time reading reliably sourced information before he'll let me take something outside the usual. In this case, the medicine we had purchased didn't have known interference with my usual medication, but it did include an ingredient that's banned in other countries (including the US if I remember right) because of a rare side-effect (I think it can cause rashes?).
Just to clarify briefly, I think they announced plans to release the JP translation of this book but ended up pulling it as a result of the protests/disapproval. |
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AnswerJerome
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Hey hey! Thank you for engaging with my column. I appreciate it. This is my first time joining the forum to talk Answerman, and I feel that your feedback deserves a reply. There is enough academic research and journalism freely available online that has been published over the past decade to suggest that Japanese society is indeed "grappling" with the issue of sexual exploitation and the normalisation of the hypersexualisation of underage girls in popular manga, anime, and video game works. It is clear that there is an ongoing debate within Japanese society regarding the matter. Here's a few articles I have read recently while researching this column by Japanese journalists, essayists and researchers. This piece focuses on "normalisation", which is central to the debate. What is normal in one culture may be considered abnormal in another. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/12/30/japan/japan-sex-industry-women-stereotypes/ Sometimes, the society that normalises something acknowledges that it may be considered abnormal or distasteful by other cultures. As this story illustrates. https://news.sky.com/story/japan-stores-ditch-adult-mags-ahead-of-rugby-world-cup-and-tokyo-olympics-11615329 There is even acknowledgement at the upper levels of Japanese politics that perhaps a change is due. https://www.kanaloco.jp/news/government/article-912720.html Anecdotally, my conversations with Japanese men and women working within the anime, manga and games production and licensing industry has been educational in terms of understanding contemporary attitudes towards the topic. Nonetheless, far more insight and research in this area from Japanese experts would be greatly welcomed. I go to great lengths in my column to stress that I am making my own value judgement based on how the culture and the laws of the society I inhabit treat CSAM. And why that is. It is undeniable that Japan is engaged in an ongoing discussion about this issue, and it would be premature at this stage to argue that it is a settled debate. Much more work still needs to be done. I would like to hear the views and opinions of more Japanese women and girls in particular because I am not convinced that they have been included in the conversation. That's understandable considering Japanese cultural mores and practices, but also symptomatic of the very lopsided structure of Japanese institutions and businesses when it comes to advocacy of female voices. |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10477 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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No, this is not baffling. Culture & Religion have never been acceptable excuses for abuse. I don't care what culture or religion you are from, abusing women, children, minorities, and "others" is wrong. It was wrong when the Christian church supported it, it was wrong when the US government supported it, it was wrong when the Nazi party supported it, it's wrong when [insert country/government/religion/culture] supports it. Of course there are grey areas, and there are lesser and greater abuses, but the principal is the same, abusing people is never okay. CSAM has very definitely been shown to be child abuse. Japanese law already recognized this by outlawing production ages ago. They failed to cover possession upfront, but they fixed that in 2014. That legal loophole may have contributed to Watsuki's light sentence, but it doesn't make his possession of the material more acceptable. |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10477 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Tylenol (Acetominophen) is perfectly legal in Japan and is sold OTC in Japan. Codeine is a controlled substance in most countries, and you can not bring in any medication with more than 1% codeine into Japan (or Canada, or...), but you can get it prescribed in Japan. Pseudoephedrine is a controlled substance in Japan, but there are equivalent drugs available OTC (ceterezine) and pseudoephedrine is also available OTC in lower dosages (eg: 100mg in Contac C 600 plus) in Japanese pharmacies.
There are equivalent drugs with equivalent effects. https://www.japan-experience.com/plan-your-trip/to-know/traveling-japan/useful-otc-drugs-in-japanese-pharmacies |
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