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[xxxplizit (pogi1kenobi)]

The first story:
http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/bill-156s-total-scope/

The bill finalized on Wednesday:
http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/bill-156-locked-to-go-prime-minister-expresses-concern-as-final-vote-comes-on-wednesday/

Before anyone jumps the gun, this is NOT the entire banning of Anime and Manga as too many people seem to believe all of a sudden!  This bill states that any material that is damaging to the youth's growth such as sexual acts would be RESTRICTED, NOT BANNED.  Publishers would be given 12 months to fix the addressed issues and past the 6 month mark would allow the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to expose the company to the public, forcing intervention from the Governor.  Also, any content that in any way depicts "Child Pornography" would be eliminated.  Internet filtering in cell phones would be forced to be more effective.  Parents would be forced to supervise and administer the Internet usage by minors.  Though Anime and Manga was mentioned in the document, the bill expands more than just that.

On one side (mainly for us Americans), we would easily judge this as a violation of Freedom of Speech, thus the amount of uproar regarding this situation.  This would severely change current ongoing works to create material under this bill, in which some may consider negative.  This would also limit the viewpoints of minors, least likely to have them resolve real-life situations in the outside world effectively.  A lot of people seem to say that there are better methods to solve the issue with harmful material affecting the youth than this.  Currently, it has placed concern amongst the big 10 and the Tokyo International Anime Fair.

On the other hand, some people may see this as an opportunity to rethink the industry.  This may give publishers a way to develop quality works without simply throwing excessive fanservice to the public just for a quick buck (i.e. the mentality of "I am going to buy manga because it has breasts, nudity, and sex").

Thoughts on this?

[TC_X0_Lt_0X]

My Loli's are threatened.
I are angered.

The fact that Tokyo thought it was a good idea to elect Ishihara is beyond me.
*Sigh Sigh*

[Piccahoe]

The guy who writes for Gameinformer.com is crazy.

Publishers, like Square Enix, Namco-Banda that produce video games as well as anime/manga, have to either move out of Tokyo so the bill will not be effective, or to abide by it.

<_< like thats ever going to happen.

[xxxplizit (pogi1kenobi)]

The guy who writes for Gameinformer.com is crazy.

That guy....actually, just about anybody who went to SankakuComplex (who is known to take some news out of proportion) most likely didn't do further research on what the actual Bill 156 said, despite "some confusing text on it," let alone read Sankaku's article in full anyways besides reading the title.

[jackiemarie90]

I'm gonna go with the freedom of speech thing, I personally don't like that kind of anime with excess amounts of fanservice and and loli's or whatever, but banning something that is fictional seems a bit extreme. Just put a warning label on it, don't silence the artist. And sometimes stories have gruesome details like that to raise awareness about terrible things.

[LastExile]

I'm gonna go with the freedom of speech thing, I personally don't like that kind of anime with excess amounts of fanservice and and loli's or whatever, but banning something that is fictional seems a bit extreme. Just put a warning label on it, don't silence the artist. And sometimes stories have gruesome details like that to raise awareness about terrible things.

^
This.

[PyronIkari]

Eh didn't want to chime in on this, but.

You guys are missing the reasoning and point of this. It's not about censorship, the reasoning anyways. The reasoning is something that very much took place in America, and like Japan always is, they're 2 decades slow.

The idea is that, Japan's young adults are a bunch of worthless losers that cannot give up "kids things". Cartoons, comic books, and video games. Sound familiar people? These things are attached and associated with children and are frowned upon when you're an adult. America started stepping out of this recently. For you children that weren't around in the 70s, 80s, and early to mid 90s; you were pretty much a loser/nerd/geek/pathetic waste of time if you did any of those things post grade school. Playing video games in high school? What a pathetic loser! Comic books? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. But today hell, people in college and adults talk about Death Note and Naruto. Which I find really ironic since both of those are for children(ages 5-14).

The funny thing is, most anime/manga are aimed towards children to young teens still. And people in the JP gov't think that adults need to grow the hell up and move on pass their childhood status of cartoons/comics/games, and think this is a good idea to force them to grow up. You know, by moving pass semi-perverted/perverted cartoons, and get REAL PORN!

The law in essence is dumb, and the reasoning although legitimate 2 decades ago, is kind of ridiculous now. Oh Japan, when are you going to catch up?

[TC_X0_Lt_0X]

It makes sense.
It's something I would not think of as such things are before my time.