In a recent face-to-face opinion poll with Japanese people over the age of 20, 86.5% of those who responded said that manga and art should be subjected to regulation for child pornography. 90,9% agree that “harmful materials” on the Internet should be regulated.
The main question of this poll was asked in this manner:
Under the current laws, manga (comics), art (illustrations), and other materials that depict sexual acts and other activities with fictional children are not subject to regulation. On this matter, there is the view that if fictional children are depicted, there is no problem since there is no harm being done to others. On the other hand, there is also the view that such comics and other materials promote the sexual objectification of minors and sexual crimes against minors, as well as the view that they should be regulated in the same way as photography, DVDs, and other materials that depict actual children.
How do you feel about regulation of such manga (comics) and art (illustrations)?
58.9% said that such manga and art “should be subject” to regulation. 27.6% said that “if I had to choose, they should be subject” to regulation. 6.6% said “if I had to choose, they should not be subject” to regulation. 2.5% said they “should not be subject” to regulation. 4.5% said that they did not know.
This special opinion poll on “Harmful Materials” was conducted by the Japanese government and its results were released to the public on October 25. The main reason why this poll was conducted is because of the recent debate on child pornography. The current laws in Japan do not regulate manga and art that depict children who are not real, or “virtual child pornography.”
Interestingly the poll interviewed 3,000 people over the age of 20 across Japan, and 1,767 people (58.9%) responded. But i was thinking, that the figures may be exaggerated since in a face-to-face interview, most people would give socially desirable answers.
Source: ITmedia News
I wonder if this is going to impact how anime and manga are drawn in the future. Especially since there’s this recent crackdown on explicit doujin. On the other hand, I think its really important to regulate child-pornography related materials to protect the young.
Even though I never watched Working!! myself (wished I did), I... – 
Very much a slippery slope. It is not hard to imagine a broadly interpreted legislation that covers pretty much every single anime character under the sun.
But honestly such laws are most surely to fail because you simply have no way to determine the artistic criteria for “children”, especially under a certain age. For example, the 2 pictures posted above, are they children or simply chibi-fied version of an adult? What about characters that like Sasame that look undeniably children but is actually more than 200 years old? Not even human to begin with?
At the end, regulation is impossible. Government won’t be able to do much.
how bout start cracking down on their porn industry? its them that drives ppl to draw dirty stuffs…
You have to understand, the people have already gotten on their stands based on the liberal media sensationalist news they sometimes churn out.
I won’t comment based on the recent åä¾›ã®æ™‚é–“ show, but before we get starting on the “paranoia” drive, the basis for the regulation is to stop propagation of child-like pornography (whether what that means). I think on one hand, most people do attain some level of differentiation between reality and art, so calling for a regulation is baseless. On the other hand, this kind of stuff touches on many aspects of human societal behaviour and patterns, and there is a potential for child-like pornography to extend beyond art, into reality.
I would go on the “art imitates life imitates art… etc.” debate, but I don’t wish to engage on doing so, therefore the best way to deal with the proposal is to treat it as it is: a proposal. We will talk only when the Japanese government starts doing something about it.
LOL
You don’t do surveys in Japan, because the Japanese will give you the answers you want to hear.
This survey is not reliable.
“in a face-to-face interview, most people would give socially desirable answers.”
Exactly. Even if this survey were to be done in North America, the number of people who support regulation would still be exaggerated, especially since this is such a touchy issue. The amount of response bias is just too great to take the results seriously.
i agree with drmchsr0 and asuka, imagine if someone came up to you and asked you do you like hentai or something like that, most everyone would say yes because they don’t want to embarass themselves
i mean NO lol
It is best to keep your western failed morality out of Japan where it does not apply and Heal yourself — this wreaks of a self righteous Liberal organization stemming from America or Europe — Bullet Trains that get one from point A to B at 200 Miles per hour and a harmonious society, and you want to hang your crap bullshit failed morality on my coat hanger? Swim back from where you came from and leave our country alone!!
I can’t believe you used Itoh Noizi’s precious artworks for this disturbing article to depict child pornography….