Yomiuri on the game censorship situation
Yomiuri has written a news article on the matter reporting that the Liberal Democratic Party (the ruling party) has formed a team to see what can be done about the current situation with all these games featuring sexual violence in distribution. Komeito had already formed a similar team mid-May, so they will probably start to seriously get into discussions with the ruling party about tightening regulations.
The LDP held a session on the 29th of May to discuss the regulation of sexual violence in PC games. Discussing how Japan is being pointed out as being too lenient on games depicting sexual violence and child porn, and are hearing from the relevant ministries and government offices.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry which was present at the LDP meeting says that the independent review committee for the PC game industry has already responded to the current situation:
(1) restricting the sale and production of Rapelay, making it practically impossible to buy it within Japan
(2) they are in discussions regarding the banning of the sale and production of rape games or sexually violent games
—
I guess this is the closest to an “official” confirmation that TBS was wrong in their report.
The directors in the EOCS mainly comprise of eroge industry people such as the chairman of Alicesoft, so they are people that would technically try to side with the eroge industry, but it does look like they are under a lot of pressure right now.
Either way it looks like some sort of change is inevitable.
Related:
Rape games will be banned in Japan
Rape games not really banned and I hate TBS
May 29th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Any idea what kind of change? Something like the use of euphemisms? Disclaimers? Or something stronger? Is there any precedent of something similar to this happening before?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Officials: Ok we will make every eroge to be produced in within 500,000 copies.
(1month later)
Feminists: Not enough!! Our sisters are being raped!
Officials: Ok we make it 200,000 copies.
(1month later)
Feminists: Still not enough!! Our sisters are still being abused!!
Official: Ok we make it 100,000 copies
…
(1 year later)
Feminists: ……just do it.
Official: We now make it 1 copy for each eroge.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I’ve got a really bad feeling about this…
May 29th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Yeah, this kind of government intervention, even “indirect”, usually spells trouble. Plus one of the government groups is basically the puppet of a freaky cult.
May 29th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I was wondering these games they want to regulate are for 18+ and up right, so adults should be told what they can or cant play because a group outside of japan is being supposedly more moral when america has more violence against women than japan will ever have? talk about pot calling the kettle
May 29th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
@oppaishibari: Your logic is a bit flawed, since countries with more incidents of violence will typically have more people speaking out against it - at least when said incidents are illegal and the law is readily enforced. Rape is illegal in America, no matter which way you try to spin it. The groups I’m seeing that are speaking out against these types of games are usually femenist or women’s rights groups, which more than likely have some members that HAVE been raped.
That being said, I DO believe there’s a cultural disconnect between Japan and the countries that these outcries are coming from. I don’t think that’s being taken under consideration, and I don’t believe that playing a game where you rape characters is in any way or form equivalent to walking outside and raping the first woman you see on the sidewalk. I tend to deplore games in this subgenre, but only about as much as I deplore GTA4. I think it makes for horrible gameplay.
If you read the comments for this story on a blog like Jezebel, you’ll find a completely different shell of opinion.
May 30th, 2009 at 4:40 am
“Rape is illegal in America, no matter which way you try to spin it.”
As it is in Japan, so whats your point? That doesn’t dispute the point that Japan still has by far a lower overall crime rate and far lower rate of crimes against women than the US. Don’t get carried away with role-play AVs, Japan quite seriously follows and prosecutes sexual crimes.
They may have a reason to be so passionate but all that does nothing but obfuscates the basic point that THAT statistical point DOES clearly make (as do most arguments made from bases of empathy and passion rather that frankly colder logic).
The logic is that it disputes the flawed notion that these games have any connection to increased sexual violence (in fact it breaks any attempt at even basic correlation). Its Columbine with the linking of Doom and violent children and school shootings, but lacking even a correlation to work with.
The subject matter may be distasteful, but distasteful, in both the US and Japan, isn’t a basis for government censorship (supposedly). In other words, you don’t ban things simply because they don’t suit your tastes (in theory). There needs to be an indication of harm. Something this leads to that needs to be prevented. That’s why these groups try so hard to try create these kind of arguments.
but there’s the problem, they don’t have an argument. The games don’t lead to greater violence. There isn’t even an indication the two are linked.
May 30th, 2009 at 11:59 am
@Anonymous: You have to realize that I was responding to the poster and giving some kind of rationale as to why groups in the US would have such a response. My point is that it’s NOT NOT (two nots there) illegal in Amercia, contrary to the poster’s implication.
I also happen to agree with all of your points, but I don’t believe I’m in a position to judge a person’s emotional outcry - especially if they HAVE been a victim of rape. Nor do I believe that such “cold logic” is an appropriate response to such people. That’s reserved for all the folks that jump on the band-wagon without giving critical thought.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:00 am
Games featuring WW2 - in some of them you can even use Japan or Germany to win.
Games featuring rape - in them you can rape girls, of course fictional ones.
Hey, WWII has brought the world a casulty of over a hundred million.
Ther were either KILLED or MIA(i.e. died somehow)
What disaster did rapists bring to the world? (notice i am not defending rape)
WWII games are allowed but rape ones are not, what logic is this?
I am just defending RAPE GAMES, not rape. A crime is a crime, but if it is in a game, this restriction should be loosened a little bit.
Otherwise we will have NO IMAGINATION AND NO JOYMENT.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Rape is a distasteful subject no matter where you are, and it is easier to target because such games only appeal to a very unique niche of people, but don’t worry. Once public decency standards are enforced upon the eroge industry it will no doubt be used as a solid precedent to continue into the WWII and FPS genre to prevent “murder-simulation”. And once that’s done we can finally get to real culprits, such as games portraying the abuse of innocent creatures.
I mean seriously, fat men tripping out on mushrooms and jumping on the backs of turtles? That shit has GOT to go.
Oh, and please don’t be distracted by the rape AV’s out there, as they aren’t as interactive and clearly have nothing to do with anything. And don’t you dare jump into the novel market, as attacking literary portrayals of indecent acts would be silly, even if they are suprisingly (and unfortunately) common.
May 31st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
So what, are they going to pretend they can regulate the thousands of circles and independent artists, or are they just going to attack companies that would be featured on getchu, and circles that would be focused on dlsite?
Somehow I don’t think they’ve even thought that far ahead..
The terminology is so insanely vague, along with the obvious question of “How in the hell can they prove rape/intent within a hentai game that neither states it as rape, nor denies it?”
How in the hell does a game like rapelay get singled out when there’s games that will give you freaking nightmares like most all of Black CYC’s stuff?
None of this makes sense, and there’s way to many things to keep pointing out, kind of makes it feel impossible to take seriously because of it..
June 1st, 2009 at 6:25 pm
it must be understood that this type of press is not always an acceleration ramp for an actual ban or legal action, but is always part of an acceleration ramp for the next election where conservative parties use moral topics to get more seats and follow their various goals (including economic and environmental policy) with as much power as is possible.
the flow of a democracy is a balance between consensus and judicial precedent. preferences about what people want to let other people do is going to be expressed through the little funnels in government not necessarily by logic but by numbers — stories like this grab attention and create a number, since the majority of people (including judiciaries and politicians) take an appraisal of a topic based more on consensus/normalcy, and less on information.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
That what makes democracy fail, the flow of flawed information, misconceptions and false ads/information. Hell pretty much everyone has grown up to beleve what the other person says or what the news paper says.