Forum - View topicIs Japan cracking down on itself?
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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With various recent anime being pulled or put on hiatus or having episodes skipped for sexual or violent purposes (when School Girls and Nymphet), is Japan cracking down on it's own risque and violent content behavior? The same can be said as they are becomig more strict (it'd seem) with anime downloads/bootleg and doujinshi.
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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I've been hearing rumblings from folks who read 2ch that Japan is cracking down on a few things lately.
-> Copyright infractions -> Lack of full mosaic -> Blatant obscenity These are not specific to anime and hentai though; anything that's brushing up against the word of the law is subject to being targeted and some self-censorship is also coming about as a result. Sometimes these types of crackdowns are attributed to Western influence, but my personal guess is that the current crusade has more to do with recent media stories that have been shining a brighter light on some of the more controversial content created in Japan. |
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Terrestrial_Cel
 Posts: 99 Location: SF Bay Area |
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As for Life immitating art, I can't speak for Japan, but I can speak for my own country of origin.
The United States displays the same reactionary behavior if not worse. When there is a heavily violent crime committed by a minor it is television, movies, and especially music that get blamed. In the Columbine High School shootings in the 1990s musicians like Rammsteine and Marylin Manson were directly blamed for the students' outburst. Interestingly enough, this kind of reaction doesn't happen when an adult commits a crime of the same nature (as much) and he's written off as a psychopath uninfluenced by the world around him or sympathy for others. Television is also especially susceptible to reactionary criticism when it accidentally oversteps it's highly censored barriers. It was sometime in the 1990s when US network television decided to put in it's own Televison Rating System "in response to public concerns of increasingly explicit sexual content, graphic violence and strong profanity in television programs" (followed soon after by cable networks). Which wasn't heavily intrusive, but slightly overprotective by the government (and in my opinion just provoked paranoia that a show will be bad for one's child, and made parents rely more on the government to decide what's right to watch). In watching the commentary on Family Guy DVDs (oh I have so much fun with my nerdyness), Seth MacFarlane mentioned that it was especially difficult to work with the FFC after Janet Jackson's "wordrobe malfunction"; things that were okay and do before on primetime are not okay now. He noted that the word "Retard" has been added to the list of words you cannot say. He also commented that he finds it rather backwards that nowhere on television can you use the word "f*ck" even though everyone uses it and knows what it means (even children). Family Guy has had episodes pulled, and the show has been completely canceled several times due to overt sexual and racial humor. That having been said. A show like Nymphet would never even be considered for US television. I find it amazing that Japan pulled it only when it related to a recent real-live incident (though that could because I'm used to over-censorship). I don't know the history of media censorship in Japan. I had been assuming it was a "don't ask don't tell" sort of thing, and risky behavior in the media was acceptable (to an extent) if people weren't paying attention. This reactionary behavior from Japanese networks seems new to me. |
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KyuuA4
 Posts: 1371 Location: America, where anime and manga can be made |
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As the saying goes: "It's fun until someone gets hurt." Or something like that. EDIT: (silly me, y'said it already) Any country follow that kind of pattern - where certain things are allowable -- until something bad happens. The crackdown on pedophilia in America? That didn't start until child abduction cases (some resulting in murder) gained very wide-spread media attention. Soon after 9/11, various items in media were pulled out because of WTC references. Heck, one of the Spiderman movies were in production and had to be edited/delayed just because the buildings were in the movie, or some kind of similar disaster was included. Now, with regarding to Nymphet, news sources here show some kind of axe incident involving Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
That discussion on Otaku a couple weeks ago shows something otherwise, where (mentioned) the negative view of otaku is attributed to the murders by an individual who happened to be one.
Comedian Lewis Black says that there's no such thing as bad language. All these "vulgar" words are used to express anger and frustration. Yet, I can see that censorship of such terms can be necessary, as the anger and frustration of one individual easily transfers over to another. |
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Leuconoe
 Posts: 83 |
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According to some professor on the BBC (i.e. probably not a complete hack, and at least studied at an actual university) the other day, it's actually a different and separate part of the brain from the language circuits which lights up when we swear (with feeling at least) - he referred to it as the 'rage coil', present in mammals, which in humans gets piggybacked by the language circuits to produce swearing.
. . . ok, I'll get back on the topic now. As you say, crimes which receive media attention exercise a surprising influence on censorship. I'm always tempted when I read such media coverage to imagine that the media portray videogames, TV et cetera as possibly to blame in an attempt to paper over the fact that humans are capable of some pretty evil things without being brainwashed. But that's just my inner Calvin coming out. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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After murders happen, a lot of people ask of the victims "what did those people do to him to make him want to kill them?" And we're all familiar with the truly sickening idea that women who dress provacatively "asked for it" when they are raped. People do not want to believe in real evil. Personally, I've personally dealt with the aftermath of human cruelty and I can tell you something about human beings. We are equally capable of acts of extreme good and unimaginable evil and we don't need excuses or reasons for either. I've met people who enjoy human suffering and it's not because they weren't raised right or because they've got some deep psychological trauma. They just like it because it makes them feel superior. It's the same reason a person enjoys making high marks in school or winning a trophy, just that they get their kicks from causing pain. It's hard for a lot of people to grasp that simple fact so they make up reasons. The bad music made them do it, the dirty movies made them do it, you name it and someone will use it as an excuse. The thing is, they can never explain why someone else who went through the same trauma or liked the same music or movies or whatever didn't turn out the same way. Some people just like to hurt others, it's really that simple. |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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My question, to anyone who thinks the media "makes children evil" or anything similar: What about crimes committed before Television? And movies? And before orchestrations/plays? Did the african drum beats thousands of years ago make someone kill?
This isn't really directed at anyone in this post, it seems most people are on the fence or on the "same side". Of course it's entirely IMPOSSIBLE to be homicidal and just be attracted to things like this. You couldn't possibly have mental problems before seeing a movie, *duh*.(Yes, /sarcasm) |
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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The proper argument is not that the media "makes" children evil, but that it influences them to commit violent behavior and criminal acts by exposing and naturalizing them to violence at an early age. The extreme case of this is when the Nazis made their soldiers watch POWs get tortured and eventually killed to dehumanize them and produce "perfect" soldiers. Just like violence in US media, the same for sexual content in anime - somebody has to draw the line somewhere. |
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Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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Some would argue that while your question is the more intelligent way to put it, it's not what people always say/are made to believe.
Desensitization? Sure, I agree with that. But again, if it's rated R or M or AO or NC-17 and on and on, it's assumed a mature adult will be viewing it and at the same time, able to handle it. I blame parents for many things because I see first hand people renting or telling their children to pick something out, and when they see the 10 year old pick the guns/half naked girl/blood on the front cover, don't care. Sometimes I say something, sometimes not. It's kind of fun to watch. Might make a good study type project actually.... |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Yet children in Japan are (a) exposed to violence in media from an early age and (b) statistically not committing much violent behaviour at all. I'm not really sure there's a direct connection. I'm also not so quick to blame parents, either. It's a bigger issue than that. Japan has its problems, but by and large it is a safe society where children are free to walk around major urban centres by themselves at times of day when almost all adults on the street are drunk. We in Canada and the U.S. do not have the same basic societal structure as this ... not at all. These issues of cause and effect may well not be universal. |
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omar235
 Posts: 1572 Location: Florida, Jacksonvile |
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Propaganda videos are good points, they do influence but those were used along side the "training" they recieved. Even then though there were youth in Germany forced into service.
The thing is it shouldn't be up to the media to draw the proper lines for children's parents, the parents should be setting the limits on what their kids watch. Now obviously kids may be exposed to things too old for them by accident, but it is up to the parents to sit them aside and explain to them the complicated issuses they have been confronted with, even if the parents aren't aware of their children being exposed to things too old for them that is why parents should talk to their kids every now and then. Even if the parents didn't set them aside, I wouldn't solely blame the parents, part of the blame I would put on the child. Humans are living, breathing, thinking beings and have a compacity at a pretty good level to learn from experience, to know what is generally unacceptable in society. So by the time the child is a teen they should still have grasped physical violence is a bad thing and you will get in trouble for it. |
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Ink Nijihara
 Posts: 19 Location: Los Angeles California |
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You forgot about Moetan Episode 6 being pulled off TV in Japan and only available on DVD. Not as close as the situation with Kodomo No Jikan, but similiar. I'm not sure what is going on in Japan. Originally this was a culture but i have a slight feeling that the groups against anime in Japan are behind this. As said in other threads, this is becoming a contraversal year for anime. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Uh, Japan is still a culture .... 
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petran79
 Posts: 122 |
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[quote="Azathrael"]
I read that also the Japanese did the same in the Asian countries they occupied. But the viewers werent soldiers but underage children |
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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Yes. While I've not been to Africa there are several Celtic/European indigenous tribes that have had their musical styles performed. I went to a display thing and it's not just the music but the atmosphere, the pounding drums, horns and chanting REALLY rile you up. I left sweating and with a massive adrenaline rush. That music could easily lead to violence if the atmosphere was right. |
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