Japan has finally fallen into line with other developed countries and has made the possession of child pornography illegal.
The upper house of parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of a bill revising the laws under which only the production and distribution of child pornography were banned.
The new legislation bans possession of photographs and videos depicting real children aged below 18 it does not include drawings
The
law says anyone who "possesses child pornography for the purpose of
satisfying his/her sexual interest" faces being punished with
imprisonment of up to one year, or a fine of up to one million yen
(about R105 600).
In order to encourage the disposal of material, the
penalties will be delayed for one year after the revised law comes into
action, which is expected possibly in July.
The law excludes "manga" comics, "anime" video and computer-generated graphics, following calls to protect freedom of expression.
Japan was the only member of the G7 group of industrialised nations in which the possession of child porn remained
legal. It is banned and subject to penalties in more than 70 countries.
Japan has a large pornography industry
Japan
has a large pornography industry, and visitors to the country note the
ubiquity of sexual imagery and the huge volume of material available.
While it is unusual to see people openly reading
paedophilic manga in public, mainstream comics read by commuters
sometimes contain sexualised images that many Westerners find
unpalatable.
Despite calls for manga imagery to be included in the
new rules, there was strong resistance from manga artists, free-speech
advocates and publishers, who said it would impinge on freedom of
expression and allow authorities to make arbitrary decisions about art.
Strong societal memories of the strict state censorship
in the run-up to Japan's disastrous entry into World War II, play into
such debates, with dissenters warning of the danger of allowing the
government to control the press.
