Japanese Porn Game Lampoons Rape Game Controversy

[timmytom1]

Brilliant play there, the Lionel Messi of public relations

Messi has a PR team? wow you learn something new everyday

OT:A fine example of lampshade hanging if i ever saw one

 

[Amnestic]

Some people are turned on by rape, fact of life, similar to how most people in this thread (including myself) enjoy slaughtering thousands of people in video games.

Now, unless you can provide some stats that tell me that people 'playing' rape games results in them becoming more likely to rape someone, you're doing a Jack Thompson in basing your viewpoint on assumptions.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.

Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]

Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

There's plenty of reasons. From inconclusive studies on just how video games effect us to moral implications. Oh, you enjoy raping and murdering virtual people for entertainment? What the fuck does that say about you as a person?

How fucked up do you have to be to enjoy entertaining the notion of murder and rape, even if it's simply a simulation? What are you if the rest of the world can get by just fine?

And before you say, "BUT WE DO IT ALL THE TIIIIIME!" That's the point I'm making. There's something wrong with you if you get off on these things. Yeah, it's just a simulation, but you're well aware of what it simulates. You're looking forward to it.

It's not about the people, it's about the act. You enjoy getting off on the idea and then the act and that terrifies people.

You seem to enjoy slaughtering zombies and all manner of Team Fortress 2 opponents, judging by your profile.

What the fuck does that say about you as a person? What, you get off on gunplay violence? On setting people on fire? On blowing them into little giblets?

Methinks you doth protest too much.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

GTA plays along this line, characters in those games do have some rights, steal or murder and the cops will run you in to the ground. Be funny in GTA if you did get hauled before a jury there was a mini game where you could bribe or intimidate your way to a not guilty verdict.

if you think about it, every one of us FPS players are war criminals, you know, with the senseless genocide and disregard for the laws of war.

Next year Alpha Protocol is released, a game which allows you to torture suspects. How many laws are broken in that game I wonder.

Lets take a step back here, video game characters arn't real, with carefully programed scripts they can mimic certain behaviour, but the simple AIs governing them are incapable of rational and complex emotional thought other species on this planet are. Are there consequnces to these sorts of actions in games? No, just hit the quickload and all the crimes are erased. As for these rape-eroge games, they are no more likely to cause someone to commit rape then GTA is no more likely to cause someone to steal a car and drive over people.

 

[cainx10a]

Japanese people have always been very strange, even in the 15th century they had paintings of women being raped by an octopus, so just let them have their rape games as long as they dont export it. And @ people who say "some people like rape, and in a game it shouldnt be illegal" , but video games are for some fun and letting go of frustration and anger by hitting things. People who play rape games play them because they are demented. People are also turned on by raping children and dogs, but you wont see video games about that. (least not outside of Japan) . Some things are just morally bad. Its human nature to kill other people, that's why wars happen, but its not human nature to go round raping children, like in rape lay.

Tell that to the Russian soldiers who were having a rape fest after Berlin's fall or the Japanese soldiers at Nanjing. Although rape as a tool of war has a further more sinister purpose than actual rape, man's bestial nature can sometime overcome their common sense. Reminds me a little bit of what one of the tool in Street Kings said " ... should have kidnapped a lady in shape instead ... ".


Edit: not insinuating I am an specialist in such matters, but I suppose someone else will be able to come up with a more valid and solid explanation, somehow.

 

[Caliostro]

Now you're making outrageous claims in an attempt to make a point. Nobody said rape games are going to turn people into rapists. Nobody said violent video games are going to make people murderers.

Ah, but they did say that. That's the entire backbone of the argument against these games. If they're harmless, why in the living hell should we ban them?

And the argument is immediately thrown out the window if and when a person decides to shoot a bunch of people because of the influence of video games on their life.

That was a joke, and it went so over your head it's not even funny.

That said, if that was true you'd have to ban pretty much everything.

Things that have caused people to murder:
Anything with a fan club? Check
Religion? Double Check
Sports? Check
Competitions of any kind? Check
Booze? Check
Relationships? Check
Music? Check
The army? Check
Material possessions? Check
...etc.

Perhaps we should be considering if someone kills someone else over something, it's not the thing's fault, it's the person's. If I'm too stupid/messed up to see the difference between GTA and real life and end up bludgeoning someone to death with a baseball bat "to get one star" we're not jailing rockstar are we? If I go out and shoot you in the head we don't sue Mr. Gaston Glock do we?

Ultimately people are responsible for their actions. Scapegoats are fun and all, but we're responsible for our own actions. Anyone can "hear" a bottle of coke suddenly telling them to plug their neighbor in the forehead with a winchester rifle, but that only means they wanted to do it.

From inconclusive studies

Tada. Do you know what inconclusive means? That you can't draw conclusions from it. Which means the study proved nothing.

Oh, you enjoy raping and murdering virtual people for entertainment? What the fuck does that say about you as a person?

If you don't enjoy murdering people you have the wrong hobby or you're in the wrong forums. Games are 99% of the time about murder.

That said, we all have a darkside, just some of us drown it in denial. You can say you don't, but you're lying. It's genetic. We are all capable of doing the most horrible things given the right setup.

That said, I find people who believe religions to be the lowest common intellectual denominator. They're dragging us down and the world would be better off without them. That's my belief based on my evidence. Ironically I heavily oppose the idea of religions being illegal. I don't care whether someone thinks rape, murder or torture are fun. There's no reason to take action against people who like that stuff. I don't care if some guy thinks raping kids is fun. I care whether or not they do it. What a person does tells me more about them than what they like. Child pornography isn't illegal because it indulges desires other people don't like. It's illegal because innocent children are hurt in the process.

...Cartoons don't have that issue.

How fucked up do you have to be to enjoy entertaining the notion of murder and rape, even if it's simply a simulation? What are you if the rest of the world can get by just fine?

I could argue the same about quite a few things people usually indulge in. Religion, drugs, reality tv shows, MTV... Ultimately they're all opinions. Never forget good and evil are perspectives.

What it should come down to is: Is it hurting anyone?
No. Not anymore than riddling another NPC with lead in Gear of War. It's not real.

And before you say, "BUT WE DO IT ALL THE TIIIIIME!" That's the point I'm making. There's something wrong with you if you get off on these things. Yeah, it's just a simulation, but you're well aware of what it simulates. You're looking forward to it.

Why do you play any game? /argument.

OH WAIT, I'm guessing people play Counter Strike for the voice commands... Yeah, that robotic "Fire in the hole" does it for me...

It's not about the people, it's about the act. You enjoy getting off on the idea and then the act and that terrifies people.

That would be their problem wouldn't it? Nobody's hurting them. Things like 50 cents or Kanye West's music auditory pollution or reality shows terrify me. They're abhorrently stupid.

...Yet they're still legal.

I enjoy meeting people who think that people who actually have the charisma and dedication to become mass murderers (y'know, like Hitler) would have been swayed in the slightest. Fun fact: if movies and reading didn't sway these people, Call of Duty wouldn't have had any effect.

If you're going to argue that murderers can be fixed by video games, you must accept the opposite. Murderers can be created by video games.

Wooooooooooosh!

Yeah I'm guessing Hitler (Hey hey, Goodwyn's law!) wouldn't have been swayed from his goal if only Modern Warfare existed back then. Or Mussolini... But Videogames are pretty good stress relievers, one of the best in fact, and it's a lot safer to relief stress by imagining you're shooting someone you hate while shouting obscenities down a mic till you get kicked than it is to pick up a 9 mm and shoot up your local college.

I'm part of an Organisation where a lot of them would say "I would rather have died than have to live with this for the rest of my life." Just a thought.

Before I say what I'm going to say, let me make one thing clear: I despise rapists. If it was up to me and we could prove someone guilty 100%, no room for doubt, I'd shoot them in the neck so they'd spend their last moments drowning in their own blood gasping for breath. That's how much I hate them.

That said, and as respectfully as I can say this, that's bullshit. I mean, people do say that, I'm fully aware, but they say it in order to magnify their own experience, so they feel they just lived through something bigger than they did. It gives them strength to move on, to feel like they just overcame something insurmountable like that.

It's not wrong of them, it's a coping mechanism, but people who honestly feel their lives are worse than death DO kill themselves. They don't threaten it and they don't tell you about it. They put a gun to their temple or take a long walk of a short ledge. The only thing there's no fix for is death, and it's the only thing that's pretty much always available.

 

[Doug]

Some people are turned on by rape, fact of life, similar to how most people in this thread (including myself) enjoy slaughtering thousands of people in video games.

Now, unless you can provide some stats that tell me that people 'playing' rape games results in them becoming more likely to rape someone, you're doing a Jack Thompson in basing your viewpoint on assumptions.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.

Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]

Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

I don't know I buy that - the reported statistics are probably true, but I severely doubt the reported rape rate is the same in Japan as in the USA (i.e. fewer raped Japanese women tell the police about it). Whether that accounts for the large different, I don't know. Whether its even true, I can't prove.

Anyway, as for the subject of the OP, I admit its alittle funny, but it does strike me as them missing the point.

 

[Nurb]

Bah, oversensitive politicians and parents getting all uppity because video games are the "new media"

Beating a hooker with a baseball bat to get your money back in GTA, watching people being tortured and killed in movies like Hostel or the even more graphic direct-to-video gorefests, or raping a woman in some rape game. It's all violence, it's all illegal and immoral in reality, but it's not real, and that's the point.

People trying to apply real world morals to fiction is absolutely idiotic. If virtual rape becomes illegal, why not virtual murder?

 

[Nanaki316]

Now you're making outrageous claims in an attempt to make a point. Nobody said rape games are going to turn people into rapists. Nobody said violent video games are going to make people murderers.

Ah, but they did say that. That's the entire backbone of the argument against these games. If they're harmless, why in the living hell should we ban them?

And the argument is immediately thrown out the window if and when a person decides to shoot a bunch of people because of the influence of video games on their life.

That was a joke, and it went so over your head it's not even funny.

That said, if that was true you'd have to ban pretty much everything.

Things that have caused people to murder:
Anything with a fan club? Check
Religion? Double Check
Sports? Check
Competitions of any kind? Check
Booze? Check
Relationships? Check
Music? Check
The army? Check
Material possessions? Check
...etc.

Perhaps we should be considering if someone kills someone else over something, it's not the thing's fault, it's the person's. If I'm too stupid/messed up to see the difference between GTA and real life and end up bludgeoning someone to death with a baseball bat "to get one star" we're not jailing rockstar are we? If I go out and shoot you in the head we don't sue Mr. Gaston Glock do we?

Ultimately people are responsible for their actions. Scapegoats are fun and all, but we're responsible for our own actions. Anyone can "hear" a bottle of coke suddenly telling them to plug their neighbor in the forehead with a winchester rifle, but that only means they wanted to do it.

From inconclusive studies

Tada. Do you know what inconclusive means? That you can't draw conclusions from it. Which means the study proved nothing.

Oh, you enjoy raping and murdering virtual people for entertainment? What the fuck does that say about you as a person?

If you don't enjoy murdering people you have the wrong hobby or you're in the wrong forums. Games are 99% of the time about murder.

That said, we all have a darkside, just some of us drown it in denial. You can say you don't, but you're lying. It's genetic. We are all capable of doing the most horrible things given the right setup.

That said, I find people who believe religions to be the lowest common intellectual denominator. They're dragging us down and the world would be better off without them. That's my belief based on my evidence. Ironically I heavily oppose the idea of religions being illegal. I don't care whether someone thinks rape, murder or torture are fun. There's no reason to take action against people who like that stuff. I don't care if some guy thinks raping kids is fun. I care whether or not they do it. What a person does tells me more about them than what they like. Child pornography isn't illegal because it indulges desires other people don't like. It's illegal because innocent children are hurt in the process.

...Cartoons don't have that issue.

How fucked up do you have to be to enjoy entertaining the notion of murder and rape, even if it's simply a simulation? What are you if the rest of the world can get by just fine?

I could argue the same about quite a few things people usually indulge in. Religion, drugs, reality tv shows, MTV... Ultimately they're all opinions. Never forget good and evil are perspectives.

What it should come down to is: Is it hurting anyone?
No. Not anymore than riddling another NPC with lead in Gear of War. It's not real.

And before you say, "BUT WE DO IT ALL THE TIIIIIME!" That's the point I'm making. There's something wrong with you if you get off on these things. Yeah, it's just a simulation, but you're well aware of what it simulates. You're looking forward to it.

Why do you play any game? /argument.

OH WAIT, I'm guessing people play Counter Strike for the voice commands... Yeah, that robotic "Fire in the hole" does it for me...

It's not about the people, it's about the act. You enjoy getting off on the idea and then the act and that terrifies people.

That would be their problem wouldn't it? Nobody's hurting them. Things like 50 cents or Kanye West's music auditory pollution or reality shows terrify me. They're abhorrently stupid.

...Yet they're still legal.

I enjoy meeting people who think that people who actually have the charisma and dedication to become mass murderers (y'know, like Hitler) would have been swayed in the slightest. Fun fact: if movies and reading didn't sway these people, Call of Duty wouldn't have had any effect.

If you're going to argue that murderers can be fixed by video games, you must accept the opposite. Murderers can be created by video games.

Wooooooooooosh!

Yeah I'm guessing Hitler (Hey hey, Goodwyn's law!) wouldn't have been swayed from his goal if only Modern Warfare existed back then. Or Mussolini... But Videogames are pretty good stress relievers, one of the best in fact, and it's a lot safer to relief stress by imagining you're shooting someone you hate while shouting obscenities down a mic till you get kicked than it is to pick up a 9 mm and shoot up your local college.

I'm part of an Organisation where a lot of them would say "I would rather have died than have to live with this for the rest of my life." Just a thought.

Before I say what I'm going to say, let me make one thing clear: I despise rapists. If it was up to me and we could prove someone guilty 100%, no room for doubt, I'd shoot them in the neck so they'd spend their last moments drowning in their own blood gasping for breath. That's how much I hate them.

That said, and as respectfully as I can say this, that's bullshit. I mean, people do say that, I'm fully aware, but they say it in order to magnify their own experience, so they feel they just lived through something bigger than they did. It gives them strength to move on, to feel like they just overcame something insurmountable like that.

It's not wrong of them, it's a coping mechanism, but people who honestly feel their lives are worse than death DO kill themselves. They don't threaten it and they don't tell you about it. They put a gun to their temple or take a long walk of a short ledge. The only thing there's no fix for is death, and it's the only thing that's pretty much always available.

I respect your views. I get the feeling I didn't word what I said very well.
I'm part of the Organisation because I too was a victim and I completely agree with the first sentence of your last paragraph - saying that is a total defense mechanism because I said it myself and I tried to take my life. Being somewhat religious I believe an attempt on my own life failed because I was meant to be kept here for something - but I know a lot of people, friends, who succeeded.
Whilst I believe there are a lot of people out there who immediately think "I'm lucky to be alive." it doesn't mean there aren't still bad days that plague them and make them wish they had suffered a worse fate. I don't believe it's something any person can get over completely, I know that's not an entirely postive attitude or message to give out but that's my two cents.

I wish more people had the mature sensitive views that you have x

 

[Amnestic]

Some people are turned on by rape, fact of life, similar to how most people in this thread (including myself) enjoy slaughtering thousands of people in video games.

Now, unless you can provide some stats that tell me that people 'playing' rape games results in them becoming more likely to rape someone, you're doing a Jack Thompson in basing your viewpoint on assumptions.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.

Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]

Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

I don't know I buy that - the reported statistics are probably true, but I severely doubt the reported rape rate is the same in Japan as in the USA (i.e. fewer raped Japanese women tell the police about it). Whether that accounts for the large different, I don't know. Whether its even true, I can't prove.

Anyway, as for the subject of the OP, I admit its alittle funny, but it does strike me as them missing the point.

Culture could accomodate the fewer reported rapes in Japan to an extent, perhaps, but 18 times? That's a stretch no matter how you look at it.

 

[Doug]

Some people are turned on by rape, fact of life, similar to how most people in this thread (including myself) enjoy slaughtering thousands of people in video games.

Now, unless you can provide some stats that tell me that people 'playing' rape games results in them becoming more likely to rape someone, you're doing a Jack Thompson in basing your viewpoint on assumptions.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.

Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]

Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

I don't know I buy that - the reported statistics are probably true, but I severely doubt the reported rape rate is the same in Japan as in the USA (i.e. fewer raped Japanese women tell the police about it). Whether that accounts for the large different, I don't know. Whether its even true, I can't prove.

Anyway, as for the subject of the OP, I admit its alittle funny, but it does strike me as them missing the point.

Culture could accomodate the fewer reported rapes in Japan to an extent, perhaps, but 18 times? That's a stretch no matter how you look at it.

Honestly? I don't know. In a country where a woman can be dragged off a train, sobbing and begging for help in front of 40 witnesses and raped, I doubt that rape victims really feel like reporting the crime will help - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST17815620070515

(and no, I didn't know about thing before my previous post, I was actually looking for an estimate of report rates in Japan when I encounted this "gem")

 

[Lord Krunk]

That was seriously funny. But then it got me thinking.

There are at least 100 times the amount of bad guys (mooks or otherwise) to good guys in any game. If they got the right to vote, then...

Holy shit. Democracy has failed.

 

[JanatUrlich]

I never saw what was wrong with rape games in the first place and that made me lol

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmmm, well I will say yet again that rape fantasies are a part of human nature. Pretty much everyone has fantasies about being "Taken" by an attractive member of whatever their sexual orientation happens to be. It's been a staple of erotic fiction since there has been erotic fiction. It's the theme of probably at least half of those romance novels women lap up. The whole "kidnapped and tied to the mast of a pirate ship, and then made to submit" thing is a stereotype for a reason.

It all comes down to a seperation between fantasy and reality, it's just like anything else (like say going on vigilante murder rampages), you take something from pure fantasy and try and act upon it in real life, your asking for disaster.

This is one of the reasons why I am something of a proponent of keeping most porn out of the hands of kids. A kid might think that if in a story some girl falls for a guy because he rapes her (or whatever), that this is a viable approach IRL. A mature adult on the other hand is far less likely to see things that way, hence why such entertainment is "adults only".

When it comes to tentecle monsters and such, well everyone has their fetishes. However a lot of those types of things tend to exist in the context of "horror" which is another genere entirely.

-

I think going after so called "rape games" is kind of pointless, all it's doing is adding visuals to something that has been around almost as long as people have. Such games are just graphically showing what it's implied Fabio (or your male model of choice) is going to do to the chick he's posed with on the cover of a romance novel (and probably does within the book).

It's just something for people to whine about.

 

[Amnestic]

Some people are turned on by rape, fact of life, similar to how most people in this thread (including myself) enjoy slaughtering thousands of people in video games.

Now, unless you can provide some stats that tell me that people 'playing' rape games results in them becoming more likely to rape someone, you're doing a Jack Thompson in basing your viewpoint on assumptions.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.

Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]

Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

I don't know I buy that - the reported statistics are probably true, but I severely doubt the reported rape rate is the same in Japan as in the USA (i.e. fewer raped Japanese women tell the police about it). Whether that accounts for the large different, I don't know. Whether its even true, I can't prove.

Anyway, as for the subject of the OP, I admit its alittle funny, but it does strike me as them missing the point.

Culture could accomodate the fewer reported rapes in Japan to an extent, perhaps, but 18 times? That's a stretch no matter how you look at it.

Honestly? I don't know. In a country where a woman can be dragged off a train, sobbing and begging for help in front of 40 witnesses and raped, I doubt that rape victims really feel like reporting the crime will help - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST17815620070515

(and no, I didn't know about thing before my previous post, I was actually looking for an estimate of report rates in Japan when I encounted this "gem")

The U.S. has gems of its own, I assure you. [http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/27/crimesider/entry5424131.shtml]

Admittedly that one has only 'about 20' witnesses rather than 40, but it illustrates my point. Sick shit is a global thing, be it not helping a woman from a rapist or Glenn Beck's haircut scat pr0n.

 

[Marv21]

Im glad they have a sense of humour, that what we need in this world. I think they will fight controversy with fun, it has never worked before, but its worth a try.

 

[FFKonoko]

Quite a while back, I heard of all the furor and downloaded the game. It didn't seem to glorify rape to me, and the rapist was horribly killed in pretty short order and the magic of google informs me that apparently the only potential ends are ones that lead to the death of the rapist. That seems kinda noteworthy, even with the fictional characters.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.
Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]
Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

I don't know I buy that - the reported statistics are probably true, but I severely doubt the reported rape rate is the same in Japan as in the USA (i.e. fewer raped Japanese women tell the police about it). Whether that accounts for the large different, I don't know. Whether its even true, I can't prove.
Anyway, as for the subject of the OP, I admit its alittle funny, but it does strike me as them missing the point.

Culture could accomodate the fewer reported rapes in Japan to an extent, perhaps, but 18 times? That's a stretch no matter how you look at it.

Honestly? I don't know. In a country where a woman can be dragged off a train, sobbing and begging for help in front of 40 witnesses and raped, I doubt that rape victims really feel like reporting the crime will help - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST17815620070515
(and no, I didn't know about thing before my previous post, I was actually looking for an estimate of report rates in Japan when I encounted this "gem")

What about in a country where a woman can be raped and beaten for hours in front of a crowd that not only didn't call for help, but began to participate...oh wait. =/ Someone already linked that one. Either way, the fact that lots of people saw both of the rapes and did nothing...its disturbingly common. Kitty Genovese, for instance? Or a similar instance in Massachusetts, a woman getting raped on a pool table in a bar, witnesses all around.

Extreme examples doesn't seem like a great basis for opinions. The 'unreported' factor is, by definition, impossible to get any proof about. So I don't think its a good argument, especially considering the numbers.

 

[Doug]

Some people are turned on by rape, fact of life, similar to how most people in this thread (including myself) enjoy slaughtering thousands of people in video games.

Now, unless you can provide some stats that tell me that people 'playing' rape games results in them becoming more likely to rape someone, you're doing a Jack Thompson in basing your viewpoint on assumptions.

Considering the per capita stats of reported rapes, the U.S. is far worse than Japan. Obviously correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but it's still food for thought.

Edit for Clarification: The U.S. had approximately 18 times more rapes per 100,000 people than Japan in 2002. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Statistics]

Yes. Virtual rape is generally not pleasant. Actual rape? I'd warrant it's a hell of a lot worse, personally.

I don't know I buy that - the reported statistics are probably true, but I severely doubt the reported rape rate is the same in Japan as in the USA (i.e. fewer raped Japanese women tell the police about it). Whether that accounts for the large different, I don't know. Whether its even true, I can't prove.

Anyway, as for the subject of the OP, I admit its alittle funny, but it does strike me as them missing the point.

Culture could accomodate the fewer reported rapes in Japan to an extent, perhaps, but 18 times? That's a stretch no matter how you look at it.

Honestly? I don't know. In a country where a woman can be dragged off a train, sobbing and begging for help in front of 40 witnesses and raped, I doubt that rape victims really feel like reporting the crime will help - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST17815620070515

(and no, I didn't know about thing before my previous post, I was actually looking for an estimate of report rates in Japan when I encounted this "gem")

The U.S. has gems of its own, I assure you. [http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/27/crimesider/entry5424131.shtml]

Admittedly that one has only 'about 20' witnesses rather than 40, but it illustrates my point. Sick shit is a global thing, be it not helping a woman from a rapist or Glenn Beck's haircut scat pr0n.

Hmm, well, thats not good either. Though I don't believe that Japan is so much better than the US. Cus, if official statistics are to be believed, Saudi Arabia has the lowest rape rate [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita] out of 65 nations that are listed (I'm guessing their countries that keep good records of crime reports).

I doubt this is true, because, well, the Saudi's aren't known for women's rights, and frankly, I don't think they count husbands/boyfriends raping and/or beating their wives into submission...

What I'm saying is that I don't believe that the Japanese are so much better than the West like everyone tries to make out, and that simply citing the low reported rape rates doesn't prove the actual number of rapes is low in Japan.