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ATastySub wrote:

This is false and has been spread a lot by people that want to downplay his crimes, including repeatedly by some of the previous posters in this thread despite being corrected many times. Watsuki admitted that his massive collection was continually acquired past that date. The reason he was even found was that he was purchasing so much they thought he was a distributor of it. Please do not downplay the severity of his crimes by buying into false narratives around these events by those that want to defend CSAM.

Speaking of false narratives, what's the source to "he had so much they thought he was a distributor" thing because that's a very specific phrase I see English speakers say a lot but have never seen someone provide any actual source for. No published report on this incident I've ever seen mentioned that fact. Is this just one of those things people made up along the game of telephone about this incident and it stuck because it makes it sound more shocking? We still don't even know what kind of material Watsuki even had. The reports always just mentioned "DVDs" so I always assumed it was the professionally made child idol nude stuff rather than homemade snuff films with actual sex that someone burned to a DVD and sold through a dark web mail order.

There's way too much misinformation, assumptions, and unknowns about this whole thing for people to be acting so certain and confident about the case.

Bertram wrote:

Speaking of false narratives, what's the source to "he had so much they thought he was a distributor" thing because that's a very specific phrase I see English speakers say a lot but have never seen someone provide any actual source for. No published report on this incident I've ever seen mentioned that fact. Is this just one of those things people made up along the game of telephone about this incident and it stuck because it makes it sound more shocking?

This report from the Asahi Shimbun says he had about a 100 DVDs and that they were "DVDs showing videos of naked girls in their early teens". Now a hundred DVDs is a lot, but I think it's hyperbole to say that's distributor level (plus where's the quote from police or prosecutors saying that they thought he was distributing it?). In addition the report also says "the suspicion arose during the investigation of a different child pornography case", so it sounds like the person you quoted was wrong in just about every detail of the case.

I mean, it's bad enough as it is, I have no idea why people need to exaggerate. Edit: also where was it reported that "Watsuki admitted that his massive collection was continually acquired past that date", because I can't find that quote either in the Japanese press.

Last edited by Kougeru on Mon Mar 17, 2025 10:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

tbh I find it odd that people are blaming this on "Japan" when punishments in the US are even lighter than this very often when the person is rich and/or famous. For example, Brock Turner was charged with 3 crimes which I'll just link here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Turner#Conviction_and_sentencing and was sentenced only 6 months in prison and 3 years probation. but he only served 3 months in prison. His crimes are far worse than having videos/images and he only served 3 months. America is just as bad and often worse than Japan when it comes to justice against sexual crime.

I appreciate the evenhandedness of the latest Answerman column. What Nobuhiro Watsuki did was appalling. For most of us,wanting a far harsher punishment for this man is justifiable considering the crime involved. To see the Japanese justice system give what seems like to outsiders a slap on the wrist for a crime this serious is baffling,not just anger-inducing. For many American anime fans,it's a little galling to see that this man isn't in solitary confinement somewhere or breaking big rocks into little ones.
While I see that there are some crimes worthy of rehabilitation,possessing CP isn't among them. But,it can also be unnecessarily complicated for those wanting a far harsher form of punishment for this man. For a lot of people,it isn't something like jaywalking or something like that. This is dealing in some pretty horrible stuff. We shouldn't have to put on moral blinders just because some thinks he's been punished enough. Many feel he hasn't. That really gets to other people.

bassgs435 wrote:

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.

Watsuki and Matsuki's cases are completely different and not comparable at all. Like it or not the courts and public at large do take these nuances and differences into consideration when it comes to both punishment and reception. If someone can't tell the difference between actually physically molesting a child and owning DVDs then that is on them. Yes, we can say it's all bad but nuance exists even if people are unwilling to acknowledge it. And despite them not acknowledging it the most important people out there - the legal system - acknowledge nuances in crimes so that's all that matter. That's why despite some people thinking all register sex offender should be locked up for life or worse, many of them can get off having to register after around 10 years and it's like they were never on it in the first place and go back to being normal citizens. If Watsuki committed his crime in my state he'd be a Tier 1 offender and able to get his record expunged after 10 years. Matsuki would have to register for life since his involved physical violence. Of course Matsuki got treated worse. He did a far worse thing than Watsuki did.

Last edited by whiskeyii on Thu Mar 20, 2025 1:38 pm; edited 2 times in total

ANN_Lynzee wrote:

spoiler[ There is something else there, psychologically, beyond just the "attraction" for the ones who act on it. There are anecdotal accounts of others who have the attraction but do not act on it and are extremely bothered by their thoughts about it as well, so it's not a one-size-fits-all situation. [snip] I do not know if there is a way to treat this (any more so with other kinds of psychopathic personality disorders).]

I can shed some light on this, actually. Spoilering for discussion of sensitive topics.

spoiler[These people are likely suffering from a variant of OCD known as Pedophilic OCD, where you start manifesting intrusive thoughts that you might be a pedophile. The key distinction between someone who suffers from Pedophilic OCD and a pedophile is that the thoughts must be intrusive, i.e., distressing in some way (EDIT: and therefore unwanted/repulsive to the person having intrusive thoughts), and usually lead to the person with OCD starting to isolate themself from their and/or other children to more self-harmful behaviors if not treated properly due to intensifying self-loathing. It’s pretty easy to see how you could convince yourself you were a pedophile if you never sought out treatment. ]

Tempest wrote:

pseudoephedrine is also available OTC in lower dosages (eg: 100mg in Contac C 600 plus) in Japanese pharmacies.

Sorry to go off topic, but wow, I had no idea this existed. I thought pseudoephedrine just wasn't sold and never even bothered to look. Great to know, thank you Smile

I usually lean on the side of pragmatism. I say let the public decide if the punishment was apt and decide accordingly. From what I can tell people seem to think it was given the Hokkaido Arc was able to continue and the public was just fine with reading it again as well as continuing to enjoy Kenshin as a franchise with new anime and other works and collabs with other mangaka. I'm surprised this topic still pops up from time to time given it's been 8 years now.

whiskeyii wrote:

ANN_Lynzee wrote:

spoiler[ There is something else there, psychologically, beyond just the "attraction" for the ones who act on it. There are anecdotal accounts of others who have the attraction but do not act on it and are extremely bothered by their thoughts about it as well, so it's not a one-size-fits-all situation. [snip] I do not know if there is a way to treat this (any more so with other kinds of psychopathic personality disorders).]

I can shed some light on this, actually. Spoilering for discussion of sensitive topics.

spoiler[These people are likely suffering from a variant of OCD known as Pedophilic OCD, where you start manifesting intrusive thoughts that you might be a pedophile. The key distinction between someone who suffers from Pedophilic OCD and a pedophile is that the thoughts must be intrusive, i.e., distressing in some way, and usually lead to the person with OCD starting to isolate themself from their and/or other children to more self-harmful behaviors if not treated properly due to intensifying self-loathing. It’s pretty easy to see how you could convince yourself you were a pedophile if you never sought out treatment. ]

Thank you for adding that. I wanted to clarify that I was talking about two groups ("Group A" and "Group B"). Your post describes "Group A" but my question about treatment was specifically about "Group B". Otherwise, yes, I think there is a lot of hope for treatment for "Group A" if they were able to talk to professionals about it.

juaifan wrote:

Watsuki and Matsuki's cases are completely different and not comparable at all.

Definitely agree with this, and wanna add another case of an author having a light-ish sentence because of CSAM possession that would, actually, be comparable to Watsuki's case is Suzuki Kenya's - animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-03-29/court-hands-suspended-sentence-to-please-tell-me-galko-chan-creator-kenya-suzuki/.184169 - who seems to also be back to working as he released a one-shot in 2023, so the fairly common argument that Watsuki was just too big for the industry to blacklist him doesn't seem to be involved, given even smaller artists can get away with it

Some things not being considered:

Anime and manga are not indicative of Japanese society at large. In fact, they remain much more niche than people tend to assume, with most viewership for anime being of series with family appeal (there's a reason, say, Sazae-san is the longest-running animated series ever while most adaptations don't even cover their whole source material), while manga is mostly being bought by school students.

Culture is constantly changing. For example, Japan has long been infamous for its low age of consent, but the de facto age has effectively been 16 for a good while due to how many provinces had theirs at that age or higher, and there's been pushback within the country in an effort to raise the national age to 18. This is reflected in people talking about how Japanese are grappling with issues like the slap on the wrist Watsuki got, but it really does need to be emphasized that culture has never been static, which goes just as much for Japan as it does for any other country.

The misogyny at play cannot be understated. Japan is an extremely patriarchal country, and not only does pedophilia go hand-in-hand with that, Shueisha has gained more notoriety in recent years for how much of a boys' club its Jump imprint is, which has absolutely played a role in why Watsuki lost almost nothing over this. And that's not a matter of cultural differences; just look at how people defend individuals like Neil Gaiman, or how those like Woody Allen and Roman Polanski are still supported by big names in the movie industry, despite doing much worse than buying CSAM. While there are also female examples (I'm sure Simone de Beauvoir has her defenders) as well as ones where the victims are boys (such as Francis Ford Coppola standing up for a director who molested a child actor on set), the majority of examples you'll find are of men assaulting women and girls, and that's no coincidence.

bassgs435 wrote:

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.

It goes way further beyond just "rep", especially considering Matsuki got catched in a MULTIPLE different charges (and in fact one of them was dropped off and Matsuki wasn't even indicted for it, despite both cases happened between just a hour (!) range) of the actual physical molestation against the minors, let alone there was a possibility that he actually done that way more than two times for a while - and heck, Matsuki sentence actually was way too light for the crime that he has done - considering he not even got serving in prison, but only the suspended sentence only.

In fact, the more closer case to Watsuki one was Kenya Suzuki (Galko-chan author) who also got indicted for his crime (and in fact, he got pretty much same sentence as Matsuki, the actual molester - three years of suspended sentence, while the serialization of Galko-chan was only SUSPENDED by Kadokawa (not even cancelled like Act-Age!)) - except the fact that compared to Watsuki case Suzuki deliberately broke the anti-child pornography laws by actually purchasing the books from international services after they were banned in 2014.

Greboruri wrote:

Bertram wrote:

Speaking of false narratives, what's the source to "he had so much they thought he was a distributor" thing because that's a very specific phrase I see English speakers say a lot but have never seen someone provide any actual source for. No published report on this incident I've ever seen mentioned that fact. Is this just one of those things people made up along the game of telephone about this incident and it stuck because it makes it sound more shocking?

This report from the Asahi Shimbun says he had about a 100 DVDs and that they were "DVDs showing videos of naked girls in their early teens". Now a hundred DVDs is a lot, but I think it's hyperbole to say that's distributor level (plus where's the quote from police or prosecutors saying that they thought he was distributing it?). In addition the report also says "the suspicion arose during the investigation of a different child pornography case", so it sounds like the person you quoted was wrong in just about every detail of the case.

I mean, it's bad enough as it is, I have no idea why people need to exaggerate. Edit: also where was it reported that "Watsuki admitted that his massive collection was continually acquired past that date", because I can't find that quote either in the Japanese press.

In a case where charges/punishment have already been doled out, it's really baffling to see people running defense like this. What does any of this say about you? What is the goal here? Kenshin can't be this good, right?

ANN_Lynzee wrote:

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?).

I see, and that's another problem I have when it comes to medicine banning in Japan, but at the same time the Japanese equivalent have chemical/ingredient that is banned in USA and elsewhere. So that makes one wonder, why does Japan have a 2 different or should I say double standard.

Tempest wrote:

mdo7 wrote:

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...

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.

Yeah, I just found that out when I looked around the internet more and more after my initial post, and found out that on Reddit that Tylenol are not banned in Japan, but you're correct about pesudoephedrine and codeine.

Tempest, you wrote:

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

Thanks for that info and the link, that's a better and simplified for everyone that is not Japanese aka foreigners to better understand what to get.

Here's my question: if ADHD drug like Adderall is banned, so what is Japan's equivalent or similar drug to Adderall? I mean you got to have a population of Japanese demographic that are diagnosed with ADHD. They do need a drug that can keep their ADHD in control, so if Adderall is banned, what kind of drug do they used to control ADHD?

To me, the lenient part was always the “oh here’s your whole career with an ongoing manga and a new adaptation right back, pay no mind to what you might use the money you’ll make from it for” which is why I absolutely refuse to engage with his new material and believe that even his old material should only be encountered on the high seas, if you get my drift. And I say that as someone who counts RuroKen as one of her gateway anime and an all time favorite manga, who saw the first live action film in Japan and taught herself to like mugi-cha just so she could collect all the cellphone straps that came out with it. I care about this franchise, but I care about the minors in the DVDs he collected more.

And I know there will be some who want to separate art from artist and first off, wait until he’s dead and not collecting royalties, but second given that one of my favorite things in the first manga were the side stories he wrote about his character creation and struggles with SJ censorship…yeah, I just can’t. At least not while he’s alive. Fortunately his predilections don’t really make onto the page, so once he’s gone maybe then I can disentangle what he created from what he did.

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