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In Tokyo, a
Crackdown
on Sexual
Images of
Minors
By HIROKO TABUCHI FEB. 9, 2011
TOKYO — In a manga comic book that is well known here, “My Wife Is
an Elementary School Student,” a 24-year-old teacher marries a 12-
year-old girl as part of a top-secret social experiment.
Japan, which has long been relatively tolerant of the open sale and
consumption of sexually oriented material, lately has developed a brisk
trade in works that in many other countries might be considered child
pornography. But now some public officials want to place tighter
restrictions on the provocative depictions of young girls — referred to
as “junior idols”— that are prevalent in magazines, DVDs and Web
videos.
The new law specifically bars only the sale to minors of the
restricted comics and videos. But industry executives say it will
essentially end publication of the material by discouraging risk-averse
publishers and booksellers from handling it at all.
Manga taps into a history of erotica that dates at least as far back
as the ukiyo-e prints of 17th- to 19th-century Japan, including Hokusai’s
famous portrayal of a fisherwoman and octopi in a salacious
encounter. But it was as recently as the 1980s that comic magazines
like Lemon People introduced a wider audience to sexual manga
featuring young girls.
The new Tokyo law, which applies to anyone under 18, bans the
sale of comics and other works — including novels, DVDs and video
games — that depict sexual or violent acts that would violate Japan’s
national penal code, as well as sex involving anyone under age 18. The
ordinance also requires guardians to prevent children younger than 13
from posing for magazines or videos that depict them in sexually
suggestive ways.
Legal experts say that Japan’s laws against child pornography are
lax by international standards. Japan has banned the production or
distribution of any sexually explicit, nude images of minors since 1999,
when Parliament passed a law in response to international criticism of
the wide availability of such works in the country. But even now,
unlike the United States and most European countries, Japan does not
ban the possession of child pornography.
Japan’s 1999 law has also helped stamp out a formerly popular
genre of photo books depicting nude under-age girls. One of the genre’s
best-selling books, published in 1991, featured nude photos of the
actress Rie Miyazawa, who was not yet 18 at the time of the photo
shoot.
But in the last five or six years, books and videos have emerged
that sidestep the law by featuring girls, some as young as age 6, posing
in swimsuits that stop short of full nudity. These models, who are paid
about 200,000 yen ($2,400) a shoot, often dream of careers in acting or
music, industry insiders say.
Junior idol photo books and DVDs are widely available on Web
sites like Amazon’s site in Japan and in specialized bookstores. At least
eight magazines are devoted to such photos, including Sho-Bo, which
features girls of elementary school age.
“I loved the white bikini,” Ms. Iinuma, the 13-year-old model, told
the adult male fans who turned out at the Sofmap electronics store in
Tokyo for an event to promote the release of her second DVD,
“Developing Now.” It is a plotless 70 minutes of Ms. Iinuma in various
costumes and poses.
Mr. Yamaguchi and others also contend that the Tokyo government
pushed through the new regulations without ample debate. Some also
worry that stronger regulations will harm an industry whose fortunes
have already fallen in recent years; sales of comic magazines, in
particular, have dropped by a third over the last decade, to $24.3
million in 2008.
“I don’t even think about how old these girls are,” Mr. Yoshida said.
“It’s a completely imaginary world, separate from real life.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 10, 2011, on Page B1 of the New York edition
with the headline: In Tokyo, a Crackdown on Sexual Images of Minors.