Does Japan's Youth Ordinance Bill Spell the End for Anime/Manga?

From these articles, anyone saying that this is the death of anime industry is clearly hysterical. I do not see anything like that happening.
 
It's difficult to say without knowing how harshly the law will be enforced. Can't imagine much good coming from it though.
 

Firestorm

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From these articles, anyone saying that this is the death of anime industry is clearly hysterical. I do not see anything like that happening.
Yeah, that's a helluva leap. It's like asking if the video game industry is going to die if the Supreme Court rules in favour of banning the sale of video games that are too violent/sexual in nature to those under 18.
 
I do find it odd that it is specifically aimed at animated media and not "live-action" media. I would think that live-action media would have far more potential to be harmful to minors.

However, as mentioned above, it seems a mountain is being made out of a molehill here.
 
This isn't really that significant. While it might be a little (or very) biased against anime and magna, it isn't that big of a deal. So, it's regulating things that in all honesty should probably be regulated. There is always the factor that if children aren't exposed to certain things, they are less likely to do them. In theory, this kind of thing is in place in America too, but it is barely enforced. I think it should be applicable to all forms of media, but it isn't that big of a deal.
 

Firestorm

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The government should not be able to arbitrarily decide what is and isn't appropriate. That is up to the parents.
 
hopefully, it wont affect the industry much. maybe kids will get poeple of age to buy it for them anyway? i think it'll be fine though
 

Ancien Régime

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Just glancing over the particulars of this law from those links in OP:


1: Japan made this law in response to lobbying by foreign radical feminist groups. They will not enforce it in any real way. Just look at the content - it only hits anime and manga, not books or material depicting real persons! This is clearly trying to placate international busybodies.


2: There are so many loopholes in this law it's not even funny - first off, it only penalizes anime producers WITHIN TOKYO - this is not a nationwide ban. Secondly, it is really vague, and with their propensity to not enforce morality laws, not much will actually get hit. At worst, some of the blatant fan-service will be toned down, but not even that is likely. Things like hentai are aimed at adults to begin with (and thus presumably not subject to the ruling). And let's not go into doujin material.

3: In the end, I give it 50:50 this gets repealed. We in America truly underestimate how important otaku-related material is to the overall Japanese economy. In 2004 (this was the only figure I could find), anime (not including manga, games, merchandise) etc alone was worth 2% of GDP. Even in that link the OP sent, the prime minister of Japan made a blog post about him being concerned about the boycott by various publishers.

This is a horrible, horrible law, but I doubt that it will stand.
 
The law is horrible and is probably not going to pass as the government gets pressured and embarrassed (then again who knows, traditional assfucks can ignore all shame).
 
Just for those who seem to still be confused: This law does not ban anything. It just moves things to the adult section. Granted, that does bring up the point about governments making all your decisions for you.
 

Arcticblast

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It's like illegally downloading music.

You're going to be in deep shit on the side chance you get caught, but there's always a way.
 

cim

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It's like illegally downloading music.

You're going to be in deep shit on the side chance you get caught, but there's always a way.
Not really at all. This isn't making possession illegal at all, but sale. The content won't be created without a market.
 
Well here's what one guy said about this:

kahu said:
In regards of Japan, I'm gonna say something crazy. You're likely to see increased crime rates with this turn of events.

The sheer irony of the Japanese people is that they're for the most part introverts in comparison to the US or even the rest of their East Asian neighbors. They've had that practically drilled into their DNA as a survival instinct throughout their history.

The only people who are exempt from this social paradigm are people in the media industry, and only in the area where the mass media's hands aren't as strong. A good chunk of more famous people who've contributed to Japanese culture in the past 60 years are idiots or have a few psychological disorders.

In a country as tightly wound as this, you'd need a means of catharsis to relieve excess stress and reduce psychological pressure on an already fragile psyche. East Asia may have some of the most efficient educational systems in the world, but its people don't exactly KNOW anything or have any true sense of self. Without a means of catharsis, you're likely to see increased suicide rates and more people snapping.

People need to run from reality. Capitalism is not fun when it's mixed with a primarily Confucian social paradigm. It leads to the ultimate form of social hierarchy. Social ties are THAT much stronger, leading to THAT much more corruption and influence. When all of that pressure finally gets to you, unless you've experienced at least 3 years of western life, you'll become a shell of your former self that literally can't do anything.

Of course, those who've already gone past the edge are likely to be more heavily influenced by the media and become a danger to society, but that applies to all forms of expression, really. People who've gone past the edge will often become bums, nutcases, or criminals, fitting whatever they come across into their own mindset.

While the industries targetted have been making major mistakes left and right these days, it still had hope for aspiring artists. Now, everybody in the industry is effectively a government official. They can't do anything without the government's approval.

This is a bad joke. They're giving up freedom of speech for effective martial law on the anime/manga/game industry instead of trying to push the social paradigm into a state where the industry is responsible and even the bad is used for an ultimately positive social influence. East Asia NEVER does what it says it'll do. It'll do more in the favor of the people with the most power, and this'll just serve to increase the amount of lobbying that's required to get something done and the amount of control the Japanese government has over the media.

Japan, for all its sick ****-ups and negative aspects throughout the past 100 years, has been at least praised for its social and cultural freedom and diversity when it comes to expression. And otaku culture's been the backbone of it. Now, said culture is gone, and a Japan that's faring badly in most industries in comparison to relatively cheaper(and more corrupt) Korean and Chinese competitors just lost the edge it had.

And the "Sell outside of Tokyo" debate is effectively invalid. The market share for Tokyo is so high that it isn't the majority of Japan, it IS Japan. 80% of your potential customers effectively falling into government surveillance is basically a death blow within the Japanese market.

Japan's decided to turn back to the facism that screwed East Asia over in the first place. The "ethics" part isn't the issue here. It's what the government's likely to do on the pretense of "ethics" to control society. Anything that openly attacks the negative aspects of Japanese society can be treated as material that invokes treason, thus giving the government an iron shield that makes it next to invincible, what with the mass media having already been under their belt forever. It also gives Japan a means to shut down foreign comic/animation/game industries that are trying to make their bid in Japan. Everybody's going to be reduced to sucking up to the government to avoid getting shutdown. And for the most part, it's more or less the equivalent of the age of the Samurai or the dictatorship during World War II where you have to pledge absolute obedience or else you're dead. Just that it's less obvious now.

The last line of defense is the internet. And luckily, said line is something not even governments know how to handle. All we can hope is that the last line can turn the situation around, or East Asia's tensions are eventually going to reach the level between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Which in turn means lies flying all over the place and entire populations being reduced to government sheep herds.
 
The moment I saw this law I knew that it is the result of foreign activism. Japan is trying too hard to be politically correct.

I want those foreign, retard lobbyists out of Japan.
 
Just for those who seem to still be confused: This law does not ban anything. It just moves things to the adult section. Granted, that does bring up the point about governments making all your decisions for you.
Exactly this... also, many anime are targeted towards adults (sennin) as opposed to children. I'm not sure if they have a TV rating system in Japan, but if they wanted to air, for example, Kiss x Sis, they could just move it to a timeslot reserved for what we in America would rate as an adult show.

I doubt this will have any effect. Also, the law is so vaguely worded the enforcement officials will be forced to run circles around loopholes before someone can be successfully prosecuted and indicted for such charges..
 

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