So yesterday I mentioned the censorship in porn that exists in Japan. In adult movies, manga, illustrations... pretty much everything visual, peoples genitals mush be censored out. Why? It's hard to say, I've found articles and such stating that this came about during the 1800's as an attempt gain more government control though the media. Some say that it came about after the second World War and the occupation of America and western ideas. From what I can tell, the law still exists. It's quite real and latest person to get fined for it was Suwa Yuuji in 2004 for his manga Misshitsu.

Well, this new piece of news is sure to shake things up even more. Earlier this year a ban was brought forth to the Japanese Government to ban loli material (virtual youths). The ban was proposed by the "Clean Government Party" and from pressure form other domestic Governments. Many predominant manga artists stepped up and cited that this ban was going to be restricting freedom of expression for artists in Japan and, due to the description of the bill, would have to ban such shows like Evangelion. The Government back peddled and bill failed... twice. But it's back now baby... and it's doing a much wider sweep of porn then before.

This new bill covers illegal sexual acts like rape, groping, BDSM, voyeurism and under age sexual activity. Now, from what I can tell, it's not a ban but a restriction of sales of games, manga and anime that have these things within. It should be noted that this bill doesn't cover film or novels. So the manga version of Japanese literary classic “The Tale of Genji” where a young girl is raised as a sex slave would fall under the bill but the original novel it comes from would not.

With this third attempt, the party hopes to finally win and bring the loli arts to a close. Artists plus the anime, manga and game industry in Japan is nervous as this would bring down the hammer on their freedom of expression.