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Answerman - Is Japan Or America More Prudish About Sexual Content?


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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:01 pm Reply with quote
One of Japan's weirdest sexual content hang-ups is with video games. Can't even show bare breasts or simulated sex in a game rated CERO Z (restricted to 18+).
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:07 pm Reply with quote
If anyone is interested in this topic, I highly recommend the book Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage & Sex in Contemporary Japan by Nicholas Bornoff.

It was published in the early 1990s so I suppose it is a bit dated today, but the core principles still apply.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5887
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:19 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I mean, we've all seen the Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, the infamous 1814 ukiyo-e of tentacle sex.


Ummmmm I haven't not that I want to.
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falseinfinity



Joined: 20 Dec 2018
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:28 pm Reply with quote
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marifrit



Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:34 pm Reply with quote
The part of Japanese cultural tradition that can be seen as anti-sex is Confucianism. This is why countries like China and Korea are extremely anti-porn. And why Japan has some of the anti sexual content regulation it does.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:40 pm Reply with quote
CatSword wrote:
One of Japan's weirdest sexual content hang-ups is with video games. Can't even show bare breasts or simulated sex in a game rated CERO Z (restricted to 18+).

Are you sure? Cause there are a bunch of eroge that say otherwise.
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bakauchuujin



Joined: 21 Oct 2018
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Sexual Content?
One of Japan's weirdest sexual content hang-ups is with video games. Can't even show bare breasts or simulated sex in a game rated CERO Z (restricted to 18+).

Are you sure? Cause there are a bunch of eroge that say otherwise.


Guess CatSword meant in console games not PC. Console titles from my understanding can't have bare breasts or simulated sex in games in Japan. On top of this the US is now forcing them to not even be able to have sugestive swimsuits in japanese games on consoles regardless age rating.
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Netero



Joined: 10 Jun 2018
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:36 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Adult content has been tried in courts and protected as free speech.

Only if it's not legally obscene.
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#HayamiLover



Joined: 22 Jul 2018
Posts: 796
Location: Eastern Europe
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:39 pm Reply with quote
Well, it is obvious that different cultures have different attitudes towards intimate life. Even without talking about such highly controversial things as erotic fanservice in the works that tell about schoolchildren. In my country, for example, if any topic is considered morally controversial, then you will not see it in mainstream films or TV shows in general.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:43 pm Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
CatSword wrote:
One of Japan's weirdest sexual content hang-ups is with video games. Can't even show bare breasts or simulated sex in a game rated CERO Z (restricted to 18+).

Are you sure? Cause there are a bunch of eroge that say otherwise.


The EOCS handles PC games, including eroge. As bakauchuujin cleared up, console games are handled by CERO. A CERO Z is directly equivalent to an 18+ from the EOCS, yet is not able to show even a third of the graphic content that EOCS-rated 18+ games can. (Some graphic violence is also not allowed even at the CERO Z rating, which is why GTA V's torture scene was censored in Japan.)

I guess this goes back to what Justin was saying about the bottom line being that these countries are just really inconsistent.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:13 pm Reply with quote
AkumaChef wrote:
If anyone is interested in this topic, I highly recommend the book Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage & Sex in Contemporary Japan by Nicholas Bornoff.

It was published in the early 1990s so I suppose it is a bit dated today, but the core principles still apply.


Rokudenashiko's graphic novel memoir What is Obscenity? is another good read on the topic.
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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:14 pm Reply with quote
The US gave us the biggest porn industry in the world. Case closed?
Z rated (console/handheld) games don´t nave nudity, they literally can´t. Full stop. Proper gore is a no show too. The only nudity on TV is on premium channels and barely there. Same for the US but premium channels do bring the nudity big time. Hello Starz.
US comics or art can show genitalia. Hello Batman Damned, you industry wrecker you. But no one cared when Green Arrow showed his dick in the mid 90s in a 17+ book...
Not so much in Japan and nearly all manga with real sex/nudity are quite obscure. Things were VERY different before a string of drastic reforms in the mid 19th century but present day Japan nearly borders on a muslin country on how bottomed up things get. Especially if i consider that prostitution is illegal.
The US at least has has Vegas and is only a bit weird on the topic of sex overall. Actually very weird. The spice still flows, yet the naysayer are pretty loud too. Insert the Thanos quote [here].

So come to Western Europe. The land that can pucks dicks on both daytime TV and 0 rated films. As long as it ain´t sexual or if the video is used for sex exudation. My Christian gymnasium (middle-hight to high school) showed Full On Penetration clips filmed in infra-red during sex ed. The biology teacher also went out of his way to tell us that homosexual is part of nature and we even got to watch a really bleak Aids documentary. Beat that wherever you come from! I am waiting and the school had crosses in every room. #notallChristians?


Last edited by residentgrigo on Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:21 pm Reply with quote
I would say that North America has become more repressed than Japan in terms of entertainment that is made for men. The political correctness movement has been going after female characters that are appealing to men in terms of both appearance and dress. There are people who dislike what men like so they push for censorship so that companies don't offer that type of entertainment. The recent censorship of ecchi games such as Senran Kagura being one recent example. For the moment it is mostly a game issue.

bakauchuujin wrote:
Guess CatSword meant in console games not PC. Console titles from my understanding can't have bare breasts or simulated sex in games in Japan. On top of this the US is now forcing them to not even be able to have sugestive swimsuits in japanese games on consoles regardless age rating.
The game console situation is partly due to the companies deciding not to allow sexual content in console games due to the think of the children arguments that were made back in the 1990's. Ironically the same arguments have been used in the last year to put light beams over anime women in bikinis. Also the situation has become more complex with the PS4 since it is Sony employees in California that are deciding what is acceptable for games released in Japan.
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Hinotoumei



Joined: 12 Jun 2016
Posts: 100
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:22 pm Reply with quote
the difference is quite clear. In japan there is generally an acceptable way of acting in public, of talking and of presenting yourself in the public image. Girls often cover their faces when eating hamburgers and it is uncommon for guys to pick up girls, let alone talk to them in bars.

In Canada and America, everyone runs around with their opinions, their gender, their likes and dislikes on their sleeve. They run up and down the street screaming about the size of their penis. Guys pick up girls and bars etc and all you hear all day is racist, disgusting conversation, to the point you can't even smile and say hi to anyone without being told to go bleep yourself. american media also contains sex scenes on public television. Japanese media may contain fan service (overly sized boobs, sex jokes and humourously censored nudity) but you will not see the sex scenes. on top of this, when it comes to nudity in manga, the women and men are not typically drawn in a way that is erotic (regular manga, not hentai)

This is where it branches off, as you stated, Japanese people keep their interests and hobbies discretely to themselves and are culturally more polite and reserved in public speech. So, even though there is a dark underground of sexuality, most people are not aware of this.

becuase of this, american culture has gotten to the point where you cannot walk up the street without being bombarded by racism, being told to go bleep yourself, being called gay for not having casual sex etc etc. In general this is pretty much not wanted by most people, but no one says or does anything about it because they get openly mocked and criticized for their "complaints" about random strangers sending pictures of their penis to their phone which their 2 year old child accidentally sees. and theres no escape, you aren't even safe in your own house because fat schizophrenic men try to kick down your door screaming "stop raping me" because they are having a schizophrenic episode. where your roomate sits at home all day collecting welfare and breaks the world record for most racials slurs said in one sentence daily ranting and raving about white supremacy sites. and no, this is not restricted to just one specific residence, this is basically a desscription of everywhere i have lived in the last ten years.

Japan on the other hand, has all these things going on, but the public image and common decency is still practiced for the most part out in the open.

so it's really a question of whether you want to live in a country where you can't go anywhere without being offended, harassed, discriminated against and otherwise bothered to the point you want to kill yourself, versus a country, that even though these things go on, the typical person you meet on the street isn't going to launch pictures of their genitals at you through a potato cannon and streak up the street making racist comments while they threaten to kill you and scream rape rape rape woooooo these drugs are great.

that is the difference. i'm ashamed to be canadian..yet oddly enough, you dont' see many japanese immigrants fleeing japan or hear about people being ashamed of being japanese.. at least i am not privy to this information.

i wonder why.


Last edited by Hinotoumei on Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:28 pm; edited 1 time in total
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:26 pm Reply with quote
residentgrigo wrote:

So come to Western Europe. The land that can pucks dicks on both daytime TV and 0 rated films. As long as it ain´t sexual or if the video is used for sex exudation. My Christian gymnasium (middle-hight to high school) showed Full On Penetration clips filmed in infra-red during sex ed. The biology teacher also went out of his way to tell us that homosexual is part of nature and we even got to watch a really bleak Aids documentary. Beat that wherever you come from! I am waiting and the school had crosses every room. #notallChristians?


Christ, I went to a school in Texas, and all we got was the usual abstinence-only strategies in middle school. I can't count the number of times I heard other girls discussing non-pill related birth control methods in high school. The adult version of me can only look back in horror, wishing that more people had gotten the information they needed much, much earlier.

FWIW, the first time I heard about anything besides condoms and pills as any kind of protection (birth control or otherwise, like dental dams) was in *college*. In a Sociology 101 class. That was also the only time I can recall being shown actual images of sex in a classroom setting. The US has a serious sex-education problem.


Last edited by whiskeyii on Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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