What do you think about Japan's recent ban on child pornography?

Maybe it’s because child pornography involve real people, and cartoons don’t.

I’m not surprised. Japan is fond of porn, and they have a long history of making porn. They may censor what is “too much”, but not porn in general.

If their porn don’t sell well oversea, they still have a lot of native customers. Hell, the porn industry there is growing, and more and more Japanese women are competing for a part for porn movies.

Apart from being quite late in the year 2014, it seems entirely reasonable.

I don’t know how they could defend their slow response….I have no idea.

@filmfann “Can outrage by other countries force Japan to extend their laws to include hentai, manga, anime, and such?”

Why should it?

I think displaying cartoon characterizations of sex with the underage feeds and encourages the perversions of child molesters.
Having foreign countries ostracize Japanese goods would certainly impact their economy to the point where they would have to respond.

that is the same argument that certain people use to advocate banning violent video games and movies.
spurious and useless.

A child in any form of perverted art, most especially those sexual in nature, should be left out. But I wonder if different cultures could have different definitions of what a “child” is.

In the US, an 18 year old is still a child. What if in other places, a female who already menstruated is no longer a child-?

I kinda wondered about their cultural views of children too @Count @mazingerz88.

Wow, wow, wow, where to start, oh, I have to don my flame-retardant Teflon suit first. OK, let’s rock and roll.

Are you surprised it took so long for Japan to do this?
More surprised they caved to foreign pressure and not dealt with it on their own terms and time schedule.

How do they defend their slow response?
Maybe to them it was not slow. I am sure there are many things one can point to in the US and say of that; but to us Yankees it is not slow.

I think displaying cartoon characterizations of sex with the underage feeds and encourages the perversions of child molesters.
With all that, the manga, whatever form of porn they deemed child porn, and the “junior idols” in magazines, out of the US and Japan which nation as the highest cases of child molestation, since Flutheronians like to play the ”numbers game” so much? If the US has more (and I suspect it does) that kind of guts that argument. Of the men and boys (if they can get their hands on it) that support the industry with their yen, and perpetuate it with their interest, are you going on record to call them ”perverts”, so I don’t have the wrong assumption?

Having foreign countries ostracize Japanese goods would certainly impact their economy to the point where they would have to respond.
Should that be tit for tat even if it is the US doing something the world hates; they should put an embargo on the US to make us change are ways, even if we think we have full right to do it or engage? What about the recent hot button thread about gun ownership and the right to carry it on your person? If other nations decided that was stupid, and would lead to more murders so they decide to embargo the US until the government feels the financial squeeze and removes most guns from private ownership. Would they be justified or have the right to do it?

@mazingerz88 But I wonder if different cultures could have different definitions of what a “child” is.
Now there is a bold epiphany of clarity. I know some people do not want to think of it so, but the average age of consent worldwide would be near 15.5 yr. Many nations determine the split between child and young woman closer to the biology and not ideology. I know the US would rather everyone use ideology but that ship has sailed.

In general We in the US want to solve our ills, teen pregnancy, crime, homelessness, health care, abortion, racism, etc. our way on our own sweet time (as it often is), I say it is their problem to make or solve if they get to the point that is what they want to do, no other nation has any right to dictate what is good, healthy or otherwise for their society.

@filmfann

Right, because those henti illustrations are so realistic looking. Frankly, this world already has enough statutes on the books creating crimes where there is no victim. We don’t need to encourage more.

The realism has nothing to do with it. It’s the mind of a person who even wants to look at pornographic cartoons of kids that’s the problem.

@mazingerz88 “In the US, an 18 year old is still a child.”

That’s odd. Last time I looked I could have sworn that 18 was legal adult anywhere in the nation.

@Dutchess_III “The realism has nothing to do with it. It’s the mind of a person who even wants to look at pornographic cartoons of kids that’s the problem.”

Ah yes, thoughtcrime. How wonderful.

@Darth_Algar that was a very odd answer.

@Dutchess_III

How so? That’s exactly the kind of reasoning you’re employing.

Pedophiles deriving sexual gratification from seeing children in a sexual manner in a movie or a cartoon or in any format, is just a step away from acting on it. According to your logic, kiddy porn shouldn’t be illegal at all because all the watchers are doing is thinking and imagining and putting themselves in with the children, but it’s OK because it’s all in their minds.

@Dutchess_III

I’m not talking about child porn. I’m talking about hentai and the like. Child porn has victims. Hentai does not. World of difference there.

We still have states in this country where it’s legal to marry off your own daughter at 14.

Personally, most of my hentai-watching was between the ages of 13 and 17.

I wish them good luck, but am very pessimistic as to the effectiveness of the law.

But watching Hentai can lead to victims. I mean, it just feeds the beast until cartoons aren’t enough.

@Dutchess_III

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

@Dutchess_III

Have you ever read Lolita?

@Dutchess_III
just like video games, movies, comic books, rap music, playing with plastic soldiers and toy guns can lead to murder victims.

No, @Darth_Algar but I’ve heard about it. Isn’t it about a 16 year old who seduces her dad, or something?

@ragingloli I just think it’s different. It’s depicting children in extreme adult situations. WHY would anyone even want to see it?

why would anyone want to see gory splatter horror movies?
it does not matter. all that matters is that none of it is real, and no actual children are harmed druring its production.

@Dutchess_III

WHY would anybody even want to see a movie where someone kills 100 other men? WHY would someone even want to act like they’re shooting others? WHY would anybody even want to play a game where they can pretend to steal cars, set fires, and run over hookers? I mean, what is wrong with the mentality of someone who would even seek those things out for their entertainment? It’s only a matter of time before they start committing such acts for real.

They’re looking for an adrenaline rush. I think mostly men like to watch that action stuff. They like to put themselves in Stallones shoes and pretend like they could do all that stuff too.

People like the ones we’re talking about are looking for sexual arousal…by children.

@Dutchess_III People like the ones we’re talking about are looking for sexual arousal…by children.
Trying to keep on track with the gist of the OP question, if the world should ostracize Japan because they have men who get their jollies from porn with what we in the US deem as children, should the world ostracize the US to shut down the zoo porn if it is seen by the world as abusive to animals?

Pretty sure that’s illegal too @Hypocrisy_Central.

^ No, if one wanted they can find it all over, which just about any beast that won’t eat the woman (and sometimes men) boinking them.

Yes, but it’s still illegal. In this list of US states, I don’t see one where it’s legal (But I didn’t read them all carefully. I’m watching Judge Judy.)

Bestiality is only illegal in a small number of states. However, filming bestiality is illegal in most of them, if not all.

Kind of the opposite of Japan until now.

Also, to keep it entirely relevant, we’d have to be talking about animated bestiality. Like MyLittlePony porn.

LOL!

Don’t laugh, it’s actually kind of a big thing.

Some people need a real life I guess!

This @Seek.

In case you don’t believe me:

Google results for MLP Porn

but seriously, why is their fetish any less valid than yours or mine? It’s not hurting anyone.

But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re talking about human children being used for sexual gratification, in what ever form.

Would you ask a person who had a fetish for hentai to babysit your kids?

@Seek Are you saying someone who likes women to dress up as a maid is equally perverted and equally dangerous as someone who enjoys catoons of children being fucked?

@Dutchess_III Yes, but it’s still illegal.
Having glossed over it, it seems that some states have it on the books; how they enforce it I don’t know. On the fed level there are no restrictions or penalties. Even if it were some penalty they could meter out for engaging in it, there seems to be no law in owning or watching it. The major search engines all lead you to it if you search, or in some cases, you enter an innocuous phrase or word that somehow takes you there unwittingly, not so with kiddie porn no matter which nation it started out in. Homegrown zoo porn, or foreign (where most of it seem to be made) you can openly go to the sites and order the DVDs or get downloads. Similar to what Japan had with the porn; you can’t make it there but you can own and watch it. If the US can’t stop zoo porn here, I wonder how they (the Japanese) will enforce it there or even if they will have the heart to aggressively pursue it.

@filmfann I do believe my last comment was in regards to animated bestiality porn, not animated child porn.

Either way, writing a law against cartoon violence, in which no harm comes to any actual child, reeks of persecution of thoughtcrime and violating free speech.

@Dutchess_III I used to watch Hentai myself. I believe I’ve already mentioned that. Most of the friends I had in high school watched it, too. Mostly for the laughs.

I mean, have you ever SEEN hentai? It’s over-the-top absurdity. Tentacles everywhere, ooze all over everything, and they still bother to subtitle all of the ”** whimpers **” It’s really, really funny.

It honestly sounds like the same thing as asking whether you’d ever let someone you’ve ever heard tell a dead baby joke to babysit your kid. The two don’t correlate. Just because someone tells a one-liner about having a pile of dead babies in their garage doesn’t mean they actually have a pile of dead babies in their garage, or intend to ever have a pile of dead babies in their garage.

OK, you’re talking about hentai. I don’t know a thing about it. But it sounds like Japan has other versions of cartoon porn that isn’t so silly. From the OP’s article: ”But the new law left untouched the nation’s popular and sometimes sexually explicit manga comics as well as other portrayals of young girls as objects of sexual desire.”

@Dutchess_III

Yes, we’ve been talking about hentai all this time. In fact I believe I even stated hentai more than once in my posts. Rest assured, no children are harmed in the making or consumption of hentai.

@Darth_Algar I meant to say in the US, up to the day before a person turns 18, he or she was still a child.

Not on topic but I seem to read years ago that the Japanese don’t care much about homosexuality unlike here in the US. You could sleep with either man or woman and no one would care. Says something about sex in their culture.

@mazingerz88 “I meant to say in the US, up to the day before a person turns 18, he or she was still a child.”

No, not really. Not a legal adult (unless you’ve sued for emancipation and the court has granted it to you), but not really a child ether. Just not extended certain legal privileges yet.

In the US, we used to have Tijuana Bibles, which were cartoon or illustrated porn, but I am unaware of any that depicted children, though I suppose it is possible.
I am amazed how Japan can be so hypocritical about such things.

I have to wonder where one draws the line.

It is my understanding that Lolicon hentai is technically illegal in the US, though with the internet it isn’t hard to find. Japan actually brought that on themselves, when they made it illegal to publish Lolicon (underage girl hentai) in DVDs and books, but not online publishing (though how they would stop it is beyond me).

But if it’s illegal to depict a nonexistent underage child in anything resembling something that might be mistaken for a sexual situation, how do shows like Family Guy get away with, say, 80% of their material? Is it specifically the depiction of animated vaginas being penetrated?

@Seek

I thought such laws in the US were struck down by the Supreme Court on 1st Amendment grounds.

Apparently thoughtcrime is prosecutable if it’s really really icky.

@Darth_Algar Gee, what could I be getting at when I said anyone in the US below 18 is a child until they turn 18—? Especially when I look at the OP’s question.

Could it be if they got involved in a pornographic shoot a day before turning 18, they were still children but if they shot it the next day, no one might not be able to prosecute the people involved in producing said porn-?

Well, they do need a line somewhere.

@Dutchess_III Yup. And that is the line I think. Child porn’s illegal. Never heard of illegal young adult porn.

Those lines can be maddening. I was once denied medical coverage for my kids because I made $12.00 a year too much in income! Twelve dollars. 12.

@mazingerz88 I meant to say in the US, up to the day before a person turns 18, he or she was still a child.
Not an absolute truth. If a 16 year old goes on a crime spree or acts as a major drug kingpin the state will make allowances and see that person as an adult. Even if you are under 18 when it comes to money such as entrance fees to events, amusement parks, tickets on trains, planes, etc. often the parson is seen as an adult, even if just to fleece them of more money.

@Dutchess_III From the OP’s article: ”But the new law left untouched the nation’s popular and sometimes sexually explicit manga comics as well as other portrayals of young girls as objects of sexual desire.” From the OP’s article: ”But the new law left untouched the nation’s popular and sometimes sexually explicit manga comics as well as other portrayals of young girls as objects of sexual desire.”
Incest hentai and manga is a very popular genre in Japan. In the past there were some Flutheronians (maybe ran off is why they are no longer here) who lived in Japan, or moved here to the US from Japan and they said as much when we chatted about amime, hentai, and manga.

@Hypocrisy_Central Wondering whether there are more cases of pedophilia in Japan, or not, compared to countries where incest hentai and manga are not popular and something similar are not tolerated. Very interesting if indeed, there are less pedophilia cases in Japan.

@mazingerz88 Very interesting if indeed, there are less pedophilia cases in Japan.
Because you kindled my imagination on that I tried to Google that fact. Needless to say, I could not find a list of cases by nation. There are articles of the usual suspects involved in it and some obscure places that have revealed themselves as probable places of it happening, but no list. Myself, I would have to conclude it is less, had it been that prolific I would believe it would be easy to find as all the stuff on the Catholic church; that you do not have to be looking for, and you get hit in the face by it.

Possibly relevant

^ People here in the US would rather saw their arm off with no anesthesia, grill it on the barbie and eat it with fave beans before they even take that article with any ounce of seriousness, though it is an interesting theory I am going to search more on, thanks for being brave enough to link it.

I’m going to start the grill.