UN Group Urges Japan to Ban Explicit Games and Manga

[John Funk]

UN Group Urges Japan to Ban Explicit Games and Manga

In the wake of the RapeLay controversy, a United Nations group that aims to eliminate discrimination against women has urged Japanese lawmakers to put an end to games and cartoon that "promote sexual violence."

The United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has issued [http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW.C.JPN.CO.6.pdf] a 13-page compilation of observations about "Japan's sixth periodic report on sexual discrimination" earlier this month. While the committee applauded increased prison sentences under Japan's revised laws against child prostitution and pornography, it expressed concern that Japanese fiction - specifically interactive fiction - was continuing down a disturbing road.

Specifically, the report mentions concern at the "normalization of sexual violence in the State party as reflected by the prevalence of pornographic video games and cartoons featuring rape, gang rape, stalking and the sexual molestation of women and girls." It's not hard to see in this echoes of the RapeLay controversy from earlier this year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89398-Rape-Game-On-Amazon-Triggers-Anger-Outrage]. The committee further observed that Japan's current child pornography laws don't apply to fictional depictions of children in erotic games, manga, and anime - no matter how explicit.

The committee concluded with a request to Japanese lawmakers "to ban the sale of video games or cartoons involving rape and sexual violence against women which normalize and promote sexual violence against women and girls." While the resolution might rebuke rape games, notably it contains no such condemnation for Platinum [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93631-Japanese-Eroge-Company-Renames-Rape-Games-to-Platinum-Games] games.

And here I was thinking that today was going to be a slow news day. Oh, RapeLay. You're like the gift that keeps on giving to game journalists.

(Anime News Network [http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0819/TKY200908190430.html])

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[Katherine Kerensky]

yay, more attempts at making everyone exactly the same:
brainless sheep for the [politians/leaders/whatever] to command.
surely the games give them a way of venting their 'desires' onto imaginary settings instead of going out and attempting it?

 

[nova18]

I agree with the ban of anything that promotes sexual violence.
But it is a strange component of Japanese culture, and if History teaches us anything, it is that trying to change a countries culture is never a good thing. Its an odd duality that is oppresive as it is trying to be liberating.

 

[Outcast107]

I think its good that their doing it. I don't give a damn if it just a game. Its going way to far with people can do or can't do. I love how everyone try to say the game where you "murder" people are just as bad. Maybe, but you also are the hero and getting shot at. So your defending your self. In this types of games, your the bad guy ,and not the cool type either. It just taking a sick fantasy and trying to say its right. So I'm just glad their stopping it. And people , please calm down, their not going to bad shooters or w/e your worried about if they ban this game.

 

[bodyklok]

"First they came for RapeLay, I did nothing, for I did not play RapeLay."

 

[Joshimodo]

"Hey, country that isn't under our rules and regulations! Do what we tell you!"


Let them have them, it's not like it's affecting them or us.

 

[TheTygerfire]

This is the same group that wants to teach 5 year olds about sex and rape. Yeah, I thought we DIDN'T want kids to be messed up.

Video games only screw up people that were already screwed up, period.

 

[GamerLuck]

surely the games give them a way of venting their 'desires' onto imaginary settings instead of going out and attempting it?

you would think so, but unfortunetly, alot of pwople now a days are slack jawed nit wits who cant recognise the line between the real and the virtual, and in game habbits or something dipicted in their favorite book become actions in real life. The rest of us may be able to draw the line, but the few that cant ruin it for the rest. everyone suffers

 

[Rigs83]

I'd say something about free speech and things like that but Japan is really hard to defend sometimes. Someone in Japan should make a game where a hikigamory(no idea how to spell it] leaves his room, bathes, puts on clean clothes and leaves his parents house and actually faces the world and becomes a healthy and happy human being instead of staying all day and night in his room watching porn and playing rape games.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Well, I think the UN has it's heart in the right place. Then again, Japan just wouldn't be the same without it's perverted games...

 

[bladeofdarkness]

why the manga/anime ?
games i can sort of get (not agree with. just get)
why the none interactive mediums ?

 

[Kollega]

I have nuked this post,so i won't get picked on. Thank you for your time.

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[The Infamous Scamola]

Maybe when the west stops making games that glamourize murder? Just saying, this whole thing is kinda stupid. Let them play their rape games, as long as they ain't actually going out and raping anyone. Fantasy is all it is.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Japan just needs to pull the racism card on them.
Censorship is bs to begin with but this is double barreled bs. The japanese rape fantasy thing (which I can't say I really appreciate) is just that, a fantasy and usually these fantasies are about girls who say no but mean yes. Considering it's coming from a country that doesn't have high rates of rape or other violent crime to begin with, they should be left alone.

They should be more concerned with the REAL crimes committed against women: like slavery and forced prostitution of real people. What, do they think that banning the game is going to stop perverts? On the contrary, it's going to encourage them to leave the house.

 

[Asehujiko]

I think its good that their doing it. I don't give a damn if it just a game. Its going way to far with people can do or can't do. I love how everyone try to say the game where you "murder" people are just as bad. Maybe, but you also are the hero and getting shot at. So your defending your self. In this types of games, your the bad guy ,and not the cool type either. It just taking a sick fantasy and trying to say its right. So I'm just glad their stopping it. And people , please calm down, their not going to bad shooters or w/e your worried about if they ban this game.

The problem is that if lawmakers get the hang of banning stuff, they will continue doing so. The similarity between an eroge game and a political opponent? From the perspective of a person in power, they are both "disagreeable". And if one can be banned, why can't the other?

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Meh, if anything these games act as a deterrent.

I mean, don't get me wrong, these games aren't good at all, but I still see them as alternatives to people wanting to do such deeds, almost a healthy release if you will.

 

[Outcast107]

"First they came for RapeLay, I did nothing, for I did not play RapeLay."

Please, don't pull the bullshit on me. Rape and defending yourself from monster/aliens/bad guys are different. I just can't stand behind something that promote rape. Most of my cousins are girls, and I would KILL! anyone who touch them like that. So anyone who says "this is just a game" piss off. your just defending a game that promote rape, and says its ok to go do it. At least in most shooters you can't redo it. The only game you can redo is GTA and most people don't get off to it unless their already crazy in the head.

 

[Armored Prayer]

At one side, I think the UN is doing the right thing.

But on the other, Its Japan. Its hard to imagine them without it.