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NEWS: Takeshi Nogami Responds to CNN's Rapelay Report

Obviously a well thought out defense of his culture and way of life.

Dernhelm wrote:

adultery is negative precisely because of what it is, a term coined by these religious groups that pertain to the sinful acts of extramarital sex.

Actually this is kind of the thing I was making a point about. Things coined as sinful by religious groups are sinful by the religion's standards, but the proponents of that religion seem to think the standards should be universal and apply to everyone. Christians think all people are sinners, particularly people who are not Christian. So is the standard really a Christian standard, only they should follow, or are they stressing these are rules for which everyone must follow (and only upon realizing the Christian faith can someone recognize and repent those sins)? The bible clearly states it's the latter.

not wrote:

Obviously a well thought out defense of his culture and way of life.

It's articulate, but not exactly well thought out, and reeks of propaganda-ish statements towards his country. I don't agree with CNN's article, and think the whole thing is a bit of a tempest in a teapot, but really, the best response to a "news" report like this is ignoring it.

He should be offended as a public media outlet is injecting false stereotypes and labels of his country into the minds of one of it's closest allies.

If something similar happened to the U.S., I can imagine some might as flustered as he.

the only problem i have with your opinion is that you should have used terms that were more morally or judgmentally neutral. because terms like "marriage" and "adultery" are not ambiguous enough to be considered something separate from Christian judgment and will only cause confusion and opposition (like what i am doing now) especially if you want to talk about it in a purely scientific, factual, and unbiased way.

Eh, I think that's a stretch. To an extent the crowding of the train system has to be a part of it, but in practice the groping issue is treated seriously. Here's some assorted links about it here,

False accusations of groping were highlighted when Japan's Supreme Court overturned in April the conviction of a professor for groping a girl on a Tokyo train.

Judges pointed out a need to be careful in such cases when the accuser was the only source of evidence, media said.

here,

The behaviour of women in the safe zone has also drawn complaints. Momentarily freed from the rigid sexist expectations of Japanese society, a carriage of OLs can adjust their make-up and prattle away on their phones as much as they like, drawing complaints from other passengers.

Jun 23, 2004

here,

July 10, 2008

and here.

Why nobody helps?
I have heard this question by foreigners many times, I've asked it myself.There have been long discussions on why " everybody watches but nobody tries to help". A Japanese professor as well as some Japanese PhD students explained, that since Japan is group-oriented society, everybody waits someone else to make the first step, or to be told to do so. They even used the term" shiji machi nihonjin"(Japanese, waiting for instructions, to be told what to do).

I hate to nitpick, but all this really says is that the fantasy exists/has existed. Clearly so, but that point doesn't address whether it's legitimate or not.

There's a good point in here insofar as there's a huge difference between being tempted by sin and actually committing it.

However, is there really a 0% danger of being desensitized to the act if you're acting it out in a video game, even a little bit? I actually agree that rational adults can tell fantasy from reality. At the same time though, aren't we all molded by what we put into our minds in the first place, at least to some degree?

And if there's a market for a game like Rapelay, what does that fact imply about that market and the way it thinks about women?

Catharsis is the emotional cleansing of the audience and/or characters in the play. In relation to drama it is an extreme change in emotion resulting from strong feelings of sorrow, fear, pity, or laughter; this result has been described as a purification or a purging of such emotions (whether those of the characters in the play or of the audience).

How might the game change or exacerbate that way of thinking, even assuming that most of its players will never even consider rape? In addition, if we could ignore external stimuli simply by the force of our will, there wouldn't be a successful advertising business to speak of. Am I wrong? Is there something I'm missing here? Those questions aren't just rhetorical, by the way.

That sounds great, but is that actually the case? Are most players of these games really rapists in waiting that would be committing crimes without the game? I daresay most defenders of the game would say that they wouldn't consider it. Can this really be proven one way or the other?

And so I can't help but wonder: To what degree is it acceptable to lobby for a foreign country to be held to a higher moral standard?