Japan to criminalize possession of child pornography
Now here is a story that is provoking much debate on Japanese language forums here in the Land of the Rising Sun. On Friday a bill was agreed by the government to make the possession of child pornography illegal in Japan. While it may come as a surprise to some of you that this is not already the case, Japan is like many countries which has no specific laws against child pornography possession. This story comes from Kyodo News:
Ruling parties agree on bill criminalizing possession of child porn
Sunday 18th May, 12:50 AM JST
TOKYO - A project team of the ruling coalition basically agreed Friday on a bill to stiffen the law against child prostitution and child pornography to criminalize the possession of such pornographic material even for personal use, team members said. While the current law does not cover individual possession of child pornography, the revised bill states, eeNobody is allowed to own or keep child pornography,ff and stipulates a prison term of up to one year or a fine of up to 1 million yen for violators, the members said.
The bill also requires Internet service providers to contribute to preventing the dissemination of child pornography, which occurs across national borders, and to cooperate with authorities in investigations, they said. The bill does not cover pornographic animation or computer graphics, only focusing on photography and images.
But the project team postponed making a final decision at Fridayfs meeting, as there was an opinion asserting that a eetransitional periodff is needed for people who currently possess child pornography to give them time to dispose of them, and the team will discuss the matter at its next meeting, lawmakers from the team said.
The coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party plans to submit the bill to the ongoing Diet session running through June 15, but it is expected that the coalition will not be able to reach an agreement with the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan over the legislation.
While the DPJ is now considering compiling its own revision bill, some of the partyfs lawmakers have voiced concern about punishing those who only own child pornography, with a senior member saying, eeIt may lead to unfair investigations.ff
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Firstly, I must applaud the Japanese government on this, and I hope that those found in possession of such material or those found to be creating it will be dealt the strictest punishment possible. Now I will start my commentary on this with the last quote in the article. A senior DPJ (the opposition party in Japan) member is not happy with the law, saying that, “It may lead to unfair investigations”. Now I don’t know about you, but that seems like a very dark thing to be saying when you think everyone would be in favour of such a bill being made into law. Is he saying that an investigation into child pornography ownership would be unfair, or is he worried that the possession of such material would be the tip of an iceberg that could cause a lot of ripples in the water.
It says in the article that the possession of child pornography, “even for personal use” will be criminalised. This is stated in a way that gives the impression that if you are just in possession of the material yourself and are not profiting from it in any way, then that’s not so bad. But if you are making money from it then it’s a serious offence. I hope that’s just something lost in the translation though.
The bill was never going to pass through smoothly though, and the laughable obstacle has been having a “transitional period” for people to get rid of any child pornography that they have. Surely, all that’s needed is a very public message giving an address for people to send any material to (anonymously), where it will be incinerated. After say, 14 days, the law will be in full effect and anyone found in possession of such material will be arrested and investigated. As the article said, it is not expected to reach a final agreement before the closing of the current Japanese Diet session on June 15th. There will then be the summer break and a good chance that something like this could get forgotten about. I certainly hope not.
But, there are a few issues with this subject though which are worth mentioning. The first, and one which even I was surprised at, concerned the reaction online. On a couple of the Japanese language news sites and messageboards, the most popular messages are those expressing outrage at the new law coming into effect. The gist of these messages are that it is an invasion of privacy and that ownership of this material is not in itself a bad thing. Now whatever your personal opinions on this subject are (and I know it is a very hot topic), this is an issue which is very important in Japanese society.
The schoolgirl fetish in Japan is something that’s all over society, no matter where you look. From various female TV celebrities dressing up in school uniforms for appearances on quiz shows, to women in school uniform on TV advertising almost anything and everything, it can’t be escaped from. And this is before we go into the more adult-oriented world (note the slight irony there), with school-based pornography seemingly in every form of media. And the obsession with young girls gets more disturbing as the girls get younger. Many of you may not be familiar with the term “gravure idol”. This is the term given to describe a Japanese model who will model in clothes, swimsuits, lingerie etc, but who will never appear topless or naked. These models are usually young (late teens or early 20s) but there is a growing market for models even younger than that. Saaya Irie from Fukuoka (see below) would be a good example of this. She started doing gravure modelling at the age of 11. Yup, you read that right, at eleven years old she was being put in bikinis & lingerie, and made to pose for DVDs and photobooks to be made of her. Her provocative poses caused somewhat of a stir outside Japan (mainly due to her rather ample chest for her age), with numerous photos being published on the web. Consequently, her manager said that there will be no more bikini photoshoots in future releases. Unsurprisingly, in her next DVD she was in a bikini again. The Japanese media apparently sees nothing wrong with looking at the physical side of Miss Irie, with headlines like “Busty 11-Year-Old Girl with F-Cup Eases Cross-Strait Relations” in the tabloids, following her appeals to end the anti-Japan protests in China and South Korea a couple of years ago. Now I know that tabloids in the UK can stoop pretty low, but I think that even they would stay away from comments like that against an 11-year old girl.
But I hope you can see what I’m getting at here. The society in Japan seems to be very accepting of girls at the age of 11 (and, incidentally, there is one 9-year old gravure idol) posing in swimsuits, lingerie etc. There are always some who are willing to push the boundaries a little, and when modelling like that is fully accepted, then it is only a small move to topless photography and more unsavoury material being produced.
What will be interesting to see is how this is policed if it comes into effect. Will the stores in Akihabara that are allegedly stocked full of this material be closed down? Seeing as they are said to be run by the yakuza it would seem very doubtful as not many like to rock the boat with the gangs unless someone gets killed. And anyway, if it’s for personal use it’s not so bad, is it?
Would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this. Didn’t expect to write so much when I started this.
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