|
Ishihara does about-face on smut, orders crackdown on magazines
By Mark Schreiber
April 18, 2004
By early summer, many magazines and comics displayed in Tokyo bookshops and
convenience stores will peer out from beneath sheaths of transparent plastic.
This will be one of the more visible results of a recently revised ordinance
aimed at controlling sales of "unwholesome materials," approved by the
Metropolitan Assembly March 30.
The revisions came about through the recommendations of an advisory body set up
to study youth problems, formed last October at the behest of Tokyo Gov.
Shintaro Ishihara, who was convinced of the need to purge the metropolis of
"harmful data and environments" that might lead children to commit crimes.
Under the new law, explains Sunday Mainichi, retailers will be obliged to seal
off publications the body designates as "unwholesome" -- more specifically
those whose contents might "explicitly stimulate sexual feelings, aggravate
feelings of cruelty or arouse suicide or crime" -- from the eyes of
impressionable youngsters. Retailers found to be in violation will first be
warned, and those failing to comply will be subject to fines of up to 300,000
yen.
Though a staff member of the metropolitan government insists that criteria for
designating what is "unwholesome" have not changed, and that no specific quotas
have been set on the number of publications so designated, a source suggests
the new restrictions may affect as much as 10 percent of all periodicals.
Considering the extra work, hassle and risks involved for retailers, there's a
good likelihood some may simply stop selling such publications altogether.
The new ordinance comes on the heels of the Tokyo District Court's
controversial injunction halting the sale of the March 25 issue of Shukan
Bunshun magazine at the request of Diet member Makiko Tanaka, a ruling
subsequently nullified by the Tokyo High Court. Sunday Mainichi voices concern
that these actions evoke unpleasant memories of suppression of press freedom in
the years prior to World War II, which began with a crackdown on certain
publications that in those days were referred to as ero-guro nansensu
(eroticism, grotesquerie and nonsense), i.e., sensational entertainment that
the authorities believed had no redeeming social value.
"The whole issue has come to be treated as a public-security matter," observes
professor Mitsuaki Sasaki of Kobe Gakuin University's Faculty of Law. "The
problematic nature of a child's sexuality is being viewed as something that
threatens the safety and well-being of citizens -- in other words, a
public-security risk factor and therefore something that must be controlled to
the greatest extent possible. I think the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has an
obligation to explain its stance."
At a special budget hearing March 15, metropolitan assemblyman Akihiro
Hatsushika quoted from a book that Gov. Ishihara published 35 years ago, in
which Ishihara stated: "There is no need to conceal sexual matters from
children, and even if undesirable books were suddenly to disappear, crime and
delinquency would not decline in the slightest."
In another book, Ishihara defended pornography, stating that, "In modern
society, if things are left as they are, anyone can become infected by a virus,
against which he develops immunity. I suppose the same thing can be said
concerning sex."
"Aren't you contradicting yourself with these tough new restrictions?"
Hatsushika asked Ishihara.
"Since things have come this far, we need to act with firm resolve," was
Ishihara's reply.
Copyright 1999-2004, AsianSexGazette.com. All rights reserved. No
content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.
Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
Tougher
action sought on Internet child porn
6-16-2000 |
