This thread hurts.
Truly, none of us understands Japan. Hell, I myself know little about Japan, but these conclusions are ridiculous.
Jeopardy Surface said:
I think some of this "Liberated Japan" and "Prudish West" has to be coming from people unfamiliar with both cultures. Japan considers us to be basically, immodest sluts. The idea of everyone having instant and constant access to almost limitless free, uncensored porn would be as alien as everyone having their own car.
You can watch xvideos in Japan, uncensored. It's not illegal, at least for now, you just can't distribute uncensored pornography while in Japan.
Japan is the land where convenience stores sell adult magazines open counter, sometimes right next to the shounen magazine section and every kid who wants to buy Weekly Shounen Jump can see it.
Only Japan has people shutting in and rejecting real women, only Japan has a birth rate that looks like China's population graph, left upside down by accident.
I'm very interested in hikikomori, and from what read before, I guess the biggest factor is depression and its symptoms such as inability to do basic daily activities, to even getting up out of bed. This depression could stem from economic downturn, social anxiety, failing rigorous expectations, or a lack of fulfillment out of hard work.
It's not that everyone in Japan is satisfied with their waifus and cannot touch a real woman anymore, it's that normal people do not want to get married and have children due to being overworked, lack of privacy, to just not wanting children (seriously they cost so much and take so much time!), and lot's of other possible reasons. Maybe waifus fit in there somewhere, but not so much.
Only Japan is putting women in jail for 3D printed kayaks, and only Japan censors pubic hair AFAIK.
The Japanese Supreme Court upholds the belief, that as long as genitalia is not shown, it is artistic enough to not be obscene. It is no different to what the US thought until the 70s, and even now it is ambiguous of the legality of porn. I think this is very important, pornography is only "legal" in the US is because state prosecutors no longer want to go after it. In Japan, hardly anyone is prosecuted because in order to distribute their material, the publisher (including online shops or doujin markets like Comiket) will clear the item of obscene material to avoid being prosecuted.
However, a lot of doujin artists nowadays don't even try, and have an minuscule 8 px line covering the frenulum or the clitoris, because publishers say "eh, close enough" and sell it anyways. This is still illegal, but the chances of being prosecuted are very small. Prosecutors don't have to time to look at every piece of content. Instead, they try to go after it by precedent, like the RIAA suing some poor kid for millions of dollars for pirating an album. Still, like how people pirate things because the chances of any repercussions are so tiny, authors and publishers are willing to take the risk.
So, it's not as if people in Japan are afraid of genitals, or at least the ones who consume porn. It's just the conservative government... again. I mean, I guess there are always some prudes, but like the US you will find a lot of people unhappy about that kind of stuff.
Oh and pubic hair is not censored anymore. Also, you're going to see a whole lot more pubic hair in AV than in regular porn. I've seen my fair share to know they don't shave.
Short of going to Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, you'd be really hard pressed to find a more sexually repressive place than Japan. It just so happens that if you don't live in Japan, and aren't Japanese, and have the pick of their entire catalogue of porny games and so forth, you have a warped view".
In China and South Korea, pornography is banned. No getting it on the internet also, unless you want to bypass the filter and break the law.
Even in Japan, those games are not exactly played by everyone, anymore than otaku-level anime watching is a normal thing. A lot of what "Japan" supposedly is and does exists purely in the fantastical imaginations of people 4Chan unkindly calls "Weebs
They don't have to be played by everyone. Anime culture is highly prevalent in Japan, it is not a fantastical imagination of weebs.
Orga777 said:
This is not that accurate at all. Most Visual Novels have a half-assed story with stereotyped characters that all fall into Japanese Anime Trope Land they can't escape from. Many VNs are there to cater to the already built in fan-base in Japan. They do not have to try very hard to craft a good story, because it is going to sell pretty well anyway as long as it is competently put together. Which is why the Harem anime genre is still so popular despite the lack of any real quality what so ever.
Which is true for anything including movies and video games. Most of them suck. Anyone can make a VN, so it's like Steam Greenlight for porn. I'm just saying, there are more to VNs than nukige. Oh and you know all the uncreative harems and generic stories, are the ones that fail in sales? Generalizing here but, even otaku have tastes you know.