Japanese politician andLove Hinacreator Ken Akamatsu recently commented on. Now further debates about media censorship have sparked online as the world scrutinizes a propaganda manga he created about freedom of expression that features himself and a political ally.
Akamatsu has previously played a serious political role as the chief advisor for the Association to Protect Freedom of Expression (APFE), an organization founded in 2016 by political ally and fellow Liberal Democratic Party member Taro Yamada. Yamada has personally opposed applying child pornography laws to anime and manga and he alongside the APFE claim to fight for artistic freedom of expression in the industry.
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The manga, roughly translated asHow to Fight For “Freedom of Expression,“features Akamatsu and Yamada as RPG-inspired heroes. Their mission isto protect a magical girl— a stand-in for anime and manga — from a dark-skinned angel known as Libera. Libera uses attacks with names like “Affirmative Action,” “White Veil of Ignorance,” and “Supererogation,” a Japanese nationalist buzzword for individualism, as attacks. Akamatsu has previously raised concerns over “external pressure” to regulate Japan’s “freedom of expression, especially for manga, anime, and games.”
Akamatsu may be referring to proposed guidelines inspired by recommendations from the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that have been mentioned in a petition to amend the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act as sources of “external pressure.” The petition includes amendments targeting things like child pornography and child erotica, and would also criminalize the distribution, provision, sale, access, viewing and possession of images and depictions of children, or those who are primarily depicted as children, performing obvious sexual acts, or depictions of sexual parts of a child’s body for sexual purposes.
Fellow Liberal Democratic Party member Kenzo Fujisue has suggested the potential regulations would negatively impact manga culture while being difficult to enforce. “I think it is also a problem that police resources are taken to crack down on victimless creations and do not contribute to saving real children,” he said onTwitter.
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The potential influence of using characters with childlike appearances, also known as lolis, on society at large has been a serious debate inside and outside of Japan. A report from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2016 claimed that, “stereotypes continue to be the root cause of sexual violence against women, and pornography, anime, video games, and manga contribute to sexual violence against women and girls.”
Akamatsu does not agree. “We creators cannot write or draw anything if there is a risk that the people who read it will reenact what happens in the story or creation,” Akamatsu wrote on the subject ina post. “In reality, I have never heard of manga encouraging war or encouraging murder. Why is this irrational regulation so highly touted when it comes to manga depicting high school girls? I would like to see you provide rational reasons and scientific evidence.”
While modern outside audiences,especially those in America, may have different tastes and cultural expectationsfrom media today, it is impossible to deny the history of sexualizing extremely young women in media outside of Japan. At the age of four, Shirley Temple played the role of a prostitute inPolly Tix in Washington, part of a series ofBaby Burlesqueshorts that featured several toddlers in hyper-sexualized adult clothing as an example. Asthe anime industry continues to adapt controversial mangaand the fierce debate over the depiction of children in animated media continues, it may be pertinent to remember the former evolution which lead to such pictures as theBaby Burlesqueseries being considered disturbingly inappropriate by modern audiences as a similar revolution has reached the shores of Japan.
How to Fight For “Freedom of Expression,“as well as a sequel novelHow to Protect “Freedom of Expression,“is available to purchase online.
Sources: AnimeNewsNetworkLink 1,Link 2,Link 3,Brainchild129,QuestingJack,
