Monday 13th December, 08:00 PM JST
TOKYO —
A Tokyo metropolitan assembly panel passed a controversial bill
Monday to toughen regulations on the sale of comics and animations
containing depictions of ‘‘extreme’’ sexual acts.
The bill to revise the metropolitan government’s ordinance seeking
sound upbringing of youth will likely clear the assembly’s plenary
session Wednesday for enactment.
Amid complaints from the publishing industry that the bill could
violate freedom of expression and stifle creativity, a clause was
added demanding the assembly give consideration to artistic and
social expression and apply the ordinance carefully. But the clause
will not be legally binding.
Protesting the assembly’s move, a group of 10 major publishers
selling comics such as Kodansha Ltd., Shueisha Inc. and Kadokawa
Group Publishing Co, issued a statement Friday that they will
refuse to take part in the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2011 to
be hosted by Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara in March.
The bill calls on publishers to impose self-regulation on the sale
of comics and animations containing depictions of rape and other
penal offenses and those ‘‘unduly lauding or exaggerating’’
incestuous affairs so that people under the age of 18 cannot
purchase or access them.
The bill will designate those that the metropolitan government
determines as particularly malicious as ‘‘unhealthy books’’ and ban
the publishers from selling them to young people.
The regulations will take effect on July 1 next year, and will not
apply to comics and animations released before then.
At Monday’s meeting of the assembly’s general affairs committee,
the bill gained approval from members of the Democratic Party of
Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party,
while those of the Japanese Communist Party and another minor
caucus opposed it.
The assembly first submitted a bill of similar content in March but
was voted down in June due to opposition from publishers as well as
criticism by the assembly’s largest caucus—the DPJ—that the scope
of its regulations was vague.
The initial bill stated that comics and animations depicting sexual
intercourse by characters apparently under the age of 18 would
hamper the healthy development of children and must be
controlled.