"Tokyo's Manga Ban" -- Future of Anime and Manga industry

[eir_angela]

I'm sure everyone know about the "Tokyo's Manga Ban".
With the censorship criteria being so ambiguous, what would you supposed will happen to the Anime and Manga industry in the near future?

[kukuified]

Hmm, I think alot of otakus will go berserk for sure xD
This will greatly affect the economy of Japan since Japan is one of the country which produces many anime and manga.

[Skilero]

For a rundown of it all:



ten comics publishers, including industry powerhouses kodansha, shueisha, shogakukan and kadokawa, collectively announced on friday that they are withdrawing from participation in the tokyo intl. Anime fair, the biggest event of its kind in the toon biz.
Kadokawa earlier made an independent announcement that it was ankling the event, which is skedded for march 24-27, under the sponsorship of the tokyo city government.
The publishers, which call themselves “comic ten companies association,” oppose a bill submitted to the tokyo metropolitan assembly on nov. 29 that would tighten restrictions on so-called “excessive sexual depictions” in toons and comics sold to youths under the age of 18. Strongly supported by tokyo governor shintaro ishihara, the bill, opponents claim, threatens freedom of expression.
“we strongly distrust the position of governor ishihara and (tokyo) municipal authorities, which lacks respect for comics and animation creators,” the group said in a statement.
earlier this month, ishihara made some remarks (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-12-06/2-parties-oppose-tokyo-revised-youth-ordinance-bill) in favor of the ban, letting everyone know that he is disgusted by the idea of allowing homosexuals to appear on tv:

“anyone who claims it’s not harmful to children to draw manga that features the sex life of married couples and the such are idiots. Tell them, ‘you need to go cool your heads.’” ishihara responded to the tokyo parent teacher association’s december 3 petition in support of the bill by saying, “it’s not just about children. We’ve got homosexuals casually appearing even on television. Japan has become far too untamed. I’ll go forward with [this bill] with a sense of mission in heart.”


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCtGqosPhLw&feature=player_embedded
One of the top-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today shows Ishihara angrily reacting to a reporter’s question about Kadokawa Publishing Co.’s announcement that it would not participate in the fair:


Ishihara says he doesn’t care, but he probably should. If the bill passes assembly votes on Monday and Wednesday, the next Tokyo International Anime Fair is going to be like a ghost town.
To watch a lengthy Japanese discussion about the problems with Tokyo’s proposed bill, check out this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R0xk7fKOU4).
Update: The bill has passed the first round of voting. It still needs to pass a second round of voting on Wednesday, but it doesn’t look like there is much standing in the way of that.
A post by Brian Ashcraft (http://kotaku.com/5712825/tokyo-says-sayonara-to-freedom-of-speech) has clarified some of the details about the bill:

But today in Tokyo, the second version of the bill went up for a vote and passed by the assembly with a final vote on Wednesday. As blogger Dan Kanemitsu points out, the ordinance is not national legislation, and is not a ban per se, but penalizes companies that produce material that is harmful to those under 18 years-old. Unlike in the U.S., companies that produce the material — and not retailers — come under fire.
The bill also does not target material that is 18-years-old and up as that material is already inaccessible to minors.
What’s also worth nothing is that the Tokyo government already has the power to dictate what, as Kanemitsu writes, is “too sexually stimulating for minors OR too sadistic for minors OR too likely to cause criminal acts among minors OR cause suicide among minors as ‘harmful material’, and force such material to be treated as adult only material.”
Regarding the new bill, the Tokyo government explains (via The Mainichi Daily News), “only manga and animation that glorifies or exaggerates illegal sexual acts will be subject to the regulations, and freedom of expression will not be violated.” This new bill attempts to define what is obscene — vaguely. Kanemitsu believes this is one way Tokyo is attempting to control what people read and view.
More importantly, the bill is directed at video games, anime and manga, but does not encompass novels, films, TV and photographs. Mediums that use real-life images are exempt.
So, it is not a literal ban, but by punishing companies that publish material that falls within its vague definition of harmfulness, it will try to force those companies to practice self-censorship. Tokyo is a very big market, and even if the bill doesn’t cover the whole country, many companies will only be able to produce one version of a comic book or video game, so the “censored for Tokyo” standard could become the national standard.

If you read the final three paragraphs of the spoiler there's nothing wrong.

[Anoleis]

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r259/phoenixdude7/Slowpoke-BreakingNews.gif

[wolfgirl90]

I'm sure everyone know about the "Tokyo's Manga Ban".
With the censorship criteria being so ambiguous, what would you supposed will happen to the Anime and Manga industry in the near future?

Err...before I begin, I know you are new, so I won't blow up about this, but I am quite sure that we have discussed this at least twice on AF.

Tokyo's Anime/Manga ban passes (http://www.animeforum.com/showthread.php?99768-Tokyo-s-Anime-Manga-ban-passes&highlight=manga+ban)

Please search the forums before posting.

Anyway, the supposed "ban" is not actually a ban; its an attempt to get anime and manga publishers to censor themselves. Its a restriction on sales (http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/12/15/tokyo-manga-restrict-age-ban.html), not a ban.

You see, despite the different laws that Japan has about pornography (e.g you are not even allowed to import it and the depiction of pubic hair is obscene, even in some educational settings), anime and manga have been mostly unregulated. Publishers have basically been able to get away with A LOT of things and still get their product sold to minors. This law focuses on that and places a restriction on it.

This might be something that is new in Japan, but in the United States, this is standard procedure. Anime/manga publishers are crying foul because they believe that their free speech rights are being infringed upon. While some parts of the new law are a bit vague, the law doesn't ban them from being able to have rape scenes in their manga; just that if they do, it has to be marketed to adults and put in a separate section of a store away from minors, which is what they did with porn anyway (only now it applies to anime and manga).

Of course, this causes publishers to consider self-censorship (similar to what ESRB rating do for game publishers). Sure, if I could exercise my right to draw a woman getting involved in some horrendous sex act, but if I do my work will be restricted. Do I want that? Could I tweak my story a little so that message stays the same without the scene being there, allowing my story to be available to more people?