Publication Details

Sex, censorship and media regulation in Japan: a historical overview Over the past several decades alarmist reports about the supposed dangers of the sexualised nature of much Japanese popular culture have regularly featured in the English-language press. It has been claimed that Japan is 'awash ' in all kinds of pornography, including child pornography (Larimer 1999; Fallows 1986: 38) and that insufficient attempts are made by the authorities to properly regulate the expression of sexual matters. A major concern of such reporting has been the supposed 'dark side ' (McGinty 2002) of the manga (comics) which are ubiquitous in Japan and, since the 1980s, have become popular with young people worldwide. International childprotection agencies, including such bodies as UNICEF, have argued that Japan's classification systems, which tend to be self-regulated by various culture industries as opposed to enforced by government-appointed bodies, are ineffective in screening out representations of sex and violence that are 'harmful to youth' (McLelland 2011). One problem with this kind of media discourse is that it assumes there are universal standards or agreement over the meaning of contentious terms such as 'pornography ' or 'obscenity'. As Anne Allison has pointed out, Anglophone discussions of pornography have largely overlooked standards and practices concerning th