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Imōto Paradise! 2 Manga to Be Restricted as 'Unhealthy' in Tokyo

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government decided on Monday to designate the Imōto Paradise! 2 manga as an “unhealthy publication,” and the resulting restrictions will go into effect on Friday. The title was designated under the revised Youth Healthy Development Ordinance due to its “glorification of incestuous acts.”

The publication will be the first to be formally restricted as such by the government since Bill 156 revised the law in 2010.

As a result of the designation, bookstores will be prohibited from selling or renting the book to minors younger than 18 years old, or allowing them to browse the book. To that end, bookstores will be legally obligated to separate and place the book in an adult section.

The Imōto Paradise! 2 manga by artist Sekizai Mikage adapts Moon Stone Cherry's 2013 adult game of the same name. The first Imōto Paradise! game inspired an adult original video anime project.

Kadokawa published the manga on April 3, and the book was initially not classified as adults-only. The Youth Healthy Development Council, which is composed of members tied to publishers, scholars, and guardians, then received the government's request to evaluate the book. On Monday, the council reported to Tokyo Governor Yōichi Masuzoe that the proposed "unhealthy publication" designation was appropriate for the book. The government will send a notice of the decision to publishers and other organizations on Friday.

When asked for a comment, a public relations representative of Kadokawa replied, saying, "We have not received the official notice from Tokyo, so we wish to refrain from commenting. After we receive the notice, we want to consider the action we will take moving forward."

The revised Youth Healthy Development Ordinance expanded the number of manga and anime that fall under "harmful publications," the legal category of works that must not be sold or rented to people under the age of 18. Erotic material was already restricted before the amendment, but the amended law also restricts the sales and renting of materials that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government considers "to be excessively disrupting of social order."

The Youth Healthy Development Council had deliberated over previous works such as the To Love-Ru -Trouble- Darkness manga and the Yosuga no Sora television anime series. However, the council decided that these earlier works did not violate the revised ordinance's new standards. Three months before Bill 156 went into effect on July 1, 2011, Masahiro Itosugi announced that there will be no more printings of volumes 1 and 3 in her Aki Sora manga, due mainly to their depictions of incest.

Source: Yomiuri, Mainichi Shimbun via Dan Kanemitsu