Japan's 2D Loli Ban Threatens Nation, Again

Three years ago, the Diet of Japan was faced with a petition for a new, harsher law against child pornography, that would have also incriminated 2D materials such as anime, manga and eroge. At that time, the Diet chose to "investigate" (a.k.a. ignore) the matter for three years - and all was good... until now. But time's up, and Japan's pesky Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is once again pushing for such a legislation, as they did back then.



In their latest anti-loli crusade, the LDP - together with their usual coalition partners, the Koumeito (the political party of a Buddhist cult) - want to explicitly include anime and manga in the definition of what can constitute "child pornography", arguing that they, too, promote crimes against children and thus should be banned. A bullshit statement, to say the least, though I won't go over the obvious counter-arguments, all over again...

For the time being, at least, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is opposing this bill. But let's not forget that they also opposed Tokyo's infamous "nonexistent youths" bill at first, only to support it later on... Leading, among others, to the great schism between Tokyo's Metropolitan Government, and anime / manga creators last winter (and the anger rages on).

No doubt we'll hear more about this... Until then, fingers crossed!