We now interrupt our regularly scheduled absence of programming with a public service annoucement: Super Google has done it again. Not being evil, that is. This has resulted in a suprising lack of [...]
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Last Thursday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Youth Development Section announced that it arrested a 52-year old man from Gifu on suspicion of violating the Child Pornography Law, in what [...]
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Last Thursday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Youth Development Section announced that it arrested a 52-year old man from Gifu on suspicion of violating the Child Pornography Law, in what it trumpeted as the first “exposure of computer graphics child pornography” nationwide. Initial news reports provided scant details beyond the “CG child porn” headline, fueling speculation that the police were somehow anticipating the current reform bill by cracking down on purely fictional material, namely pornographic 3D models of imaginary character. As later reports revealed, however, the object of the investigation turns out to be of a quite different nature. The man had been distributing, directly as well as through not particularly shady channels such as Melonbooks, a doujin picture collection called 『聖少女伝説2』 Seishoujo densetsu 2, whose official website, as helpfully pointed out by Yaraon, is preserved on the Internet Archive. You can get a sense of the nature of the material there. As reported by Sankei News, it consists of scanned pictures of young girls from nude photobooks of the 1980s and early 1990s, with slight edits to hair styles, skin colors and poses using some photo editing software, presumably so that the author could pretend that they were “computer-generated” and hence, he believed, legal. read more
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At the end of May, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and its allies the Komeito and the Japan Restoration Party introduced, yet again, a bill to amend the national Child Pornography Law, citing the need for a further crackdown on the exploitation of children, and for aligning Japan with “global standards” of regulation. In reality, however, the bill, which is essentially a carbon copy of a previous one submitted in 2009, and which had been scrapped due to the LDP's historic electoral defeat that year, does nothing to further its stated goals. Its main provisions include a ban on “simple possession” of so-called child pornography, and a call for a three-year “inquiry” into the detrimental effects of sexual representations of minors in fiction (anime, manga and games), at the end of which the law would be expanded to include those other materials. Now you be thinking that this isn't so bad, for reasons such as: “What's wrong with banning possession of child porn? My country does it too! That stuff shouldn't exist! It gets made because there are criminal perverts who buy it! And by the way, if you defend it, you're a filthy pedophile, go kill yourself!” “So the anime ban isn't really a ban, just an inquiry. I see nothing wrong with that. They won't ban the stuff if they don't come up with a serious argument that it harms real children.” Both of those viewpoints are based on assumptions that are severely at odds with reality. This post is about the first point; in particular, I would like to explain why, even though it is in fact true that many countries have a ban on the simple possession of what they call “child pornography”, adding such a ban to the Japanese child porn law would very much not align it with “global standards”. I might discuss the second point in a later short note. read more
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At the end of May, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and its allies the Komeito and the Japan Restoration Party introduced, yet again, a bill to amend the national Child Pornography Law, [...]
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At the end of May, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and its allies the Komeito and the Japan Restoration Party introduced, yet again, a bill to amend the national Child Pornography Law, citing the need for a further crackdown on the exploitation of children, and for aligning Japan with “global standards” of regulation. In reality, however, the bill, which is essentially a carbon copy of a previous one submitted in 2009, and which had been scrapped due to the LDP's historic electoral defeat that year, does nothing to further its stated goals. Its main provisions include a ban on “simple possession” of so-called child pornography, and a call for a three-year “inquiry” into the detrimental effects of sexual representations of minors in fiction (anime, manga and games), at the end of which the law would be expanded to include those other materials. Now you be thinking that this isn't so bad, for reasons such as: “What's wrong with banning possession of child porn? My country does it too! That stuff shouldn't exist! It gets made because there are criminal perverts who buy it! And by the way, if you defend it, you're a filthy pedophile, go kill yourself!” “So the anime ban isn't really a ban, just an inquiry. I see nothing wrong with that. They won't ban the stuff if they don't come up with a serious argument that it harms real children.” Both of those viewpoints are based on assumptions that are severely at odds with reality. This post is about the first point; in particular, I would like to explain why, even though it is in fact true that many countries have a ban on the simple possession of what they call “child pornography”, adding such a ban to the Japanese child porn law would very much not align it with “global standards”. I might discuss the second point in a later short note. read more
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mt-iです。フランスでの非実在青少年の性描写所持規制の経緯をもう少し詳しく調べてみましたが、かなり示唆的かと。以下は手短に説明します。 フランスにおける児童ポルノ規制は１９９４年に遡る。当時は実在する未成年者の「ポルノグラフィーの特性を持つ」画像の製造と配布しか禁止されていなかったのです。 ベルギーのマルク・デュトルー事件を背景に、１９９６年あたりから仏マスコミは「ペドフィリア」に対するモラルパニックに襲われました。警察は何百人の男性を未成年に見える少年の淫らな画像を所持していた容疑で一斉逮捕したりして「ペドファイル犯罪」を厳しく取り締まるスタンスを取りました。容疑者たちの名前や顔写真を堂々と晒しながらメディアは事件を大々的に報道しました。容疑者の自殺が続々。ほとんどの場合、容疑が薄く、起訴の根拠は薄弱だったのは、数年後に判明しました。（ちなみに単純所持は特殊犯罪ではなかった頃ですが、問われた罪はrecel de corruption de mineurs「未成年者を堕落させたことによって作られた代物の所持」） そんな中１９９７年に、児童ポルノをはじめ性犯罪に対する罰則を強化しようとした「性的犯罪防止抑止及び未成年者保護に関する法案」が提出されました。新技術に対する不安が大きかった時でもあったので暫定法案はインターネットなどの新規規制を導入していましたが、上院審議会Charles Jolibois会長は「児童ポルノ合成画像」への深刻な懸念を示して「未成年者の画像又は描写」(l'image ou la représentation d'un mineur)を罰するべきだと主張しました。そういう風に改正された法案が１９９８年に最終可決されました。審議記録を読むと、意図された罰則対象は明らかに「実在人物の写真とは識別できない写実的ポルノ画像」ではありますが「représentation」という単語は非常に曖昧なので、広義に解釈すると実在人物とは関係のない絵画や描画も規制対象となるのです。 また２００１年に、ポルノや性犯罪とは無関係であるはずだった「親の権威に関する法案」の第二次下院審議の時、Catherine Picard議員は「児童ポルノの単純所持を 罰する規定」が必要であるとしてこの法文に入れることを提案しました。それに対しSégolène Royal家族担当大臣は「来る横浜の児童性的搾取に反対する世界会議にてのフランスの地位を強化する提案だ」という肯定的な意見を示したほか、上院審議中に「購入者がいるからこそ、あんな恐ろしい物が製造されるのだ」と主張。改正法案は異論なく可決されました。驚くことなく、依然として規制されていた非実在青少年のreprésentation「描写」も所持罰則対象。 要するに、非実在青少年の「描写」は１９９８年に、そして単純所持は２００２年に禁止されましたが、しばらくの間「描写」に対する追訴は一切なかった結果、規制範囲は漠然なままでした。２００３年にフランス人権連盟・創作自由監視委員長Agnès Tricoire弁護士がこう書きました。「刑法２２７条２３項に於けるreprésentationという単語は美術的描写も該当するのだろうか。仮にそうであれば、こんな描写の各々の作者に法律に定めた精神鑑定（刑法７０６条４７項）を受けさせるべきだろうか。精神鑑定は未成年被害者への損害を考慮しなければならい（刑法７０６条４８項）が、どうなるのかね。」 だが結局、２００６年にフランスの日本アニメ配給会社Kazeの社長ら３人が、未成年者の描写を含むエロアニメ『淫獣聖戦ツインエンジェル』を配布したとして有罪判決を受けました。フランス最高刑事裁判所「破毀院」まで上訴しましたが、水の泡でした。というか、破毀院がはっきりと「アニメや漫画は規制の対象だ」と書いてしまった厄介な先例。しかし十数万円程度の罰金刑となって、実在児童ポルノの実刑判例に比べたら「寛大」な判決だったからか、私が知っている限りは反響が殆どなかったのです。正直に言えば、Agnès Tricoireら創作自由擁護派は「美術」を守ろうとしているので、彼女らから見れば日本のエロアニメは美術であるか、守る価値があるかは疑問。 去年２０１２年にいよいよ懲役判決が下された時も知識人反応はなかったようです。今回は日本のエロ同人誌でした。 read more
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To say that tsurupeta.info hasn't been very active on the blogging front this year would be a euphemism. We have, however, been involved in various projects of an otaku nature, some of which will be presented this Saturday on the last day of Comiket 81. Here's a quick round up ahead of the big day. To appear on C81 Circle La Muette, which publishes commentaries on the international otaku scene and the spreading of otaku contents overseas, puts out a doujinshi entitled 『表現規制から見たフランスの事情』 (in Japanese). This basically consists in a chat between Toqmitz and I on the subject of freedom of speech issues in France from an otaku perspective. Loli material is of course the main concern, although we cover some other issues as well. You can find the book on Day 3, booth 東P40a. Toqmitz should also have some previous books available. The Animerca Production Committee, that oversees the doujin anime critique journal Animerca1, puts out a special issue on manga, 『マンガルカ vol.1』, which, in the middle of very prestigious material like an interview of Natsume Futanosuke, publishes a modest discussion between chief editor Han=Anime Hihyou, Toqmitz again and myself on the state of manga consumption and the manga market in France. This is a non-expert take on the subject, but interested readers might find some of the references useful. You can find the book on Day 3, booth 東Q30b, probably with some back numbers we have also participated in (see below). A few copies should also be available on Day 2, booth 東ポ28a, for the Friday crowd. Previously published books We have a few previous contributions to Animerca. In 『アニメルカ vol.4』, we held a panel discussion with several French bloggers (Axel Terizaki, Enthousiaste, Pazu, Tetho, Tinkastel/nyo) about the origins and state of the French otaku fandom in the 2000s. That was a funny ride. At C80, Animerca also published a special issue about Mahou shoujo Madoka Magica, where I translated two articles by Tetho about the reception of Madoka in France and various aspects of the show he thought went wrong. I also added a quick “translator's note” on what I felt were the most common criticisms of Madoka among Western viewers. It's likely that both books will be available at the Animerca booth this Saturday. Based on those previous Madoka contributions, I helped Han=Anime Hihyou put together a short chapter about the reception of Madoka in the French- and English-speaking fandoms for 『超解読まどかマギカ』, a special volume of Madoka analysis from the editors of quaterly magazine Gendai shikaku bunka kenkyuu. It's available through standard distribution channels, like Amazon. Podcasts Earlier this month, 2DT kindly invited me to talk (in rather general terms) about the appeal of erololi material on his [very classy podcast][2dtpodcast]. You can listen to it here (in English). I occasionally speak on the (not quite so well produced) French aniblogger podcast Skouetch. Last summer, I was on HebdoSkouetch #5 and on the impromptu Skouetch Live recorded on the last day of Japan Expo (both in French). Followers of the aniblogosphere may have already heard of Animerca, as it has previously published contributions from such prominent figures as wah, Alex Leavitt and kransom (who, by the way, put me in touch with Han=Anime Hihyou in the first place; thanks again!). ↩ read more
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To say that tsurupeta.info hasn't been very active on the blogging front this year would be a euphemism. We have, however, been involved in various projects of an otaku nature, some of which will be [...]
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