Pornography in Japan
Encyclopedia
Pornography in Japan.
or pornographic wood-block pictures were printed with all imaginable situations. These often took the form of a book with sentences to describe verbal utterances of the partners, as well as to offer brief descriptions of a scene. Near the end of the Edo period when foreigners became widely known and seen, even sex acts with foreign males were drawn and sold, not to mention acts with animals
, demons (both male
and female
), and deities. The actual uses of shunga in the period are still debated, but probably resembled modern uses of pornographic materials, including masturbation
and shared viewing with a lover.
After the Meiji restoration
in the second half of the 19th century, the publication of pornographic materials declined under government pressure. Yet even as Shunga production slowed, shunga were being exported and peddled as "erotic arts" to foreign markets. Pornographic novels were still produced underground, though the language barrier prevented them from becoming widely known abroad. Pornographic arts (now including photography) were still produced, but these came to be viewed as low arts.
and early Shōwa period
, an artistic movement called Eroguronansensu, literally "erotic-grotesque-nonsense," occurred influenced by decadence works of Europe. These words were used because they had an air of a new and modern feeling. Until the 1950s, pornography were still very limited in production. Open sexual expressions were permitted in novels and manga
, but a strict control was applied on photographs and films. During World War II
, pornographic materials were banned altogether.
Influenced by magazines like Playboy
, pornographic magazines were printed soon after World War II
. These magazines quickly branched out to cover all genres and featured pornographic novels as well as pictures. Playboy itself, however, did not succeed in Japan. Its articles were about the American lifestyle
; women were mostly non-Asian, interviews were with people largely unknown in Japan, and fashion and sport were American. Instead, it spawned a fetish and a genre known as Yomono, literally "Western things." Playboy revamped its articles and style in the early 2000s in Japan by having Japanese writers write exclusively about Japan and dropping most of the original content.
In the early 1960s, several movie studios began producing "Pink films," to be exclusively viewed in adults-only movie theaters. With censorship laws prohibiting genitals from being seen but otherwise free to express anything, these movies quickly diversified to fill all genres, including rape and bondage. Throughout the 1960s, the "pink films" were mainly produced by low-budget, independent filmmakers such as Koji Wakamatsu
. In 1971, the major studio Nikkatsu
entered the pink film genre with its higher production values through its Roman porno (lit. romantic porno) series. From the 1960s to the late 1980s, ambiguous censorship laws resulted in hundreds of cases regarding erotica and pornography. At midnight, television stations mostly aired soft-core pornographic movies until their ratings dropped due to the pornographic movies.
Starting in 1971, homosexually-oriented magazines began to appear. The first of these, Barazoku
, began publication in 1971 and continued publishing until 2004. Homosexual magazines tend to be tailored to particular segments of the population, such as Badi
, which features younger adult males, Samson
, devoted to chubby men, and G-men
, featuring muscular men. The websites of these magazines also feature videos produced featuring these respective body types.
became popular over Betamax
format because large numbers of AV were released in VHS format. Few AVs were sold in laserdisc
format, but VCDs and later DVDs were used to distribute AV.
Computer games with no limitation on content except for censorship laws became a popular way to distribute pornographic games. Early VCDs and DVDs were viewed on personal computer
s. Because so few Japanese people saw any reason to play games on these platforms, as opposed to video game consoles, playing computer games was sometimes viewed as being synonymous with playing Bishōjo game
s.
In the late 1980s, the Dōjinshi
market expanded. It is estimated that about half of this market consists of pornography. Copyright problems plague the market, yet the dōjinshi market was a common place for one to start before making a debut in a professional magazine. Yaoi
began in the dōjinshi market. From the mid 1990s, the dōjinshi market also began making and selling pornographic games.
In the 1980s, magazines oriented towards a mature male audience began to offer more explicit content. This was not immediately a major social issue because magazines oriented towards a mature female audience already existed and their content was in some ways more explicit.
believes that many child pornography producers have simply turned to producing anime or films featuring adults dressed as children.
people who sell or distribute obscene materials can be punished by fines or imprisonment. Article 175 was included in the original document in 1907 and remains relatively unchanged. Showing pubic hair
and adult genitalia was once considered obscene. It is not uncommon for pictorial magazines to depict nude women with their genitalia airbrushed over in black, and video pornography routinely depicts explicit sex scenes with the participants' genitalia obscured by mosaics
. The amount of censorship of the penis can vary, for example, the entire penis may be blurred, or as little as part of the glans. Until the 1990s, the entire pubic region, including hair, was deemed obscene and unpublishable. The publication of Waterfruit and Santa Fe by Kishin Shinoyama
marked the first widely distributed publications to feature pubic hair
. Many video production companies belong to ethical associations which provide guidance on what is acceptable and what is not. NEVA
, EOCS and CSA are examples of three such organizations. Recent controversies have frowned upon both pubic hair and even genitalia itself being displayed in works of art and in educational settings.
There is also a thriving genre of underground pornography in Japan (called urabon) that ignores these censorship laws; it has become especially prevalent on the Internet, as there are no mechanisms in place to prevent its transmission from Japanese nationals to the outside world, or vice versa. On November 1, 1999, Japan introduced laws to outlaw child pornography
in an attempt to converge with the U.S. and other western countries.
is based in animism
, with a belief that supernatural beings dwell in nature. The gods and goddesses of Shinto are not repositories of morality or perfection. Instead they exist within nature and thus, sexuality is an innate part of life itself. During the Sengoku period
, religions like Buddhism
and Christianity
served as ideological backbones to acts of rebellion. Later, religious organization was used by regimes for political purposes; for instance, the Tokugawa
government required each family to be registered as a member of a Buddhist temple. In the late 19th century, rightists created State Shinto
, requiring that each family belong to a shrine parish and that the concepts of emperor worship and a national Japanese "family" be taught in the schools. After World War II, the Japanese constitution instated a separation of church and state.
is banned with criminal punishment in Japan since 1999.
Possessing without distribution has been a disputed point since the establishment of the law.
In the Diet, the Liberal Democratic Party
and the New Komeito Party
proposed to
prohibit the possessing without distribution, the Democratic Party of Japan
presented a counterproposal to prohibit the taking over from anyone. Since the House of Representatives of Japan
was dissolved on July 21, 2009, the amendments to the law against child prostitution and child pornography on the table were withdrawn.
and Ayako Uchiyama observe a strong correlation between the dramatic rise of pornographic material in Japan from the 1970s onwards and a dramatic decrease in reported sexual violence, including crimes by juveniles and assaults on children under 13. They cite similar findings in Denmark
and Germany
. In their summary, they state that the concern that countries with widespread availability of sexually explicit material would suffer increased rates of sexual crimes was not validated and that the reduction of sexual crimes in Japan during that period may have been influenced by a variety of factors they had described in their study.
Aka-Chan Purei ("Baby play") : This genre involves going back to the "baby days" where they had no responsibility and could depend on their mothers to take care of everything.
Baacharu Deito ("Virtual dating") : Shot from the point of view of the boyfriend, the porn actress takes him on a "date" which ends in a sexual scene.
Broken Dolls: This is a subgenre based on the popular medical fetish and involves young girls in hospital beds, covered in casts, splints, gauze, and fake bruises. It usually involves rape and forced bondage.
Burusera
("Bloomers") : Fans of this genre collect panties, urine, socks and uniforms of actual schoolgirls.
Chikan Purei
("Play Molester") : It involves usually schoolgirls sitting in a stage constructed to look like a train car and act submissive while being groped by anonymous male.
Enjo kōsai
("Compensated dating") : Although available on video, this genre mainly applies to the market for girls 13–18 years of age. Girls are told they are going on a date.
Goukan Purei ("Rape play") : This genre involves simulated rape.
GV
("Gay Videos"): All male videos, primarily intended for gay
consumers, often with one partner playing role of "tachi" (top) and one playing role of "cat" (bottom).
Lolicon
(short for "Lolita complex") : This genre involves prepubescent and adolescent girls.
Ningyou ("Dolls") : Some fans of animation like to play with dolls of their favorite characters.
, but in Japan as "adult anime") is a popular genre in Japan and generally maintains the same style of animation seen in other popular forms of Japanese animation (anime
). Many of these anime are originally a game, manga, or a novel.
and G-Collections are translating dating sim
s and visual novel
s into English for the fledgling market outside of Japan. For adult video games in Japan, the rating of "18+" was coined by the Ethics Organization of Computer Software or Contents Soft Association. Rating of adult video games has not gone in Computer Entertainment Rating Organization
.
Many websites feature seasonal greeting pictures, often pornographic, from linked sites and friends who frequent their sites. A typical Christmas greeting picture on such sites features a santa-girl in various stages of undressing. The twelve zodiac animals of Chinese astrology
offer challenging and entertaining examples of Catgirl
.
, include nude images and photo spreads similar to page three girls featured in many western tabloids. So long as these images do not depict sexual organs or sex acts they are not considered pornographic and are freely sold in public.
Confessional writings by both genders are a popular topic in men's and pornographic magazines. Quite often, these writings are fictional stories written by professional authors. Other popular topics in men's and pornographic magazines are erotic manga and novels, reviews of pornographic videos, and reports of sex services.
with a pornographic content target both male and female audiences and both male and female manga artist
write pornographic works.
Many videos have a title that may suggest that they use minors or the actual recording of a crime, but no titles that are circulated with the approval of Eirin, a self-censor organization of productions, break any laws. A common ploy is to have a part of a title replaced with a character, or to use a phonetically similar neologism. For example, a video about "19 years old girls Sex Party!" may be sold with a title like "1X years old Girls Sex Party!". The word , lit. "High school girl," cannot be used as it would suggest a girl of 17 years or younger, who cannot legally act in a pornographic video. The homonymic neologism , which can mean a "girl student," is used in many titles to promote the product without breaking censorship laws. This fact may be seen in popular places of Japan such as Akihabara
or Den Den Town at Tokyo and Osaka respectively.
Japanese AV also caters to many more fetishes than might be imagined (or thought legal) by non-Japanese. Schoolgirl or uniform themed AV dovetails with the aforementioned "non-consensual" genre——are common. SM, rope bondage, bestiality, virgins, internal male climax or , , along with more eccentric fetishes (soap, office ladies, game shows) are all covered.
Before the 20th century
ShungaShunga
' is a Japanese term for erotic art. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. While rare, there are extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate the Ukiyo-e movement...
or pornographic wood-block pictures were printed with all imaginable situations. These often took the form of a book with sentences to describe verbal utterances of the partners, as well as to offer brief descriptions of a scene. Near the end of the Edo period when foreigners became widely known and seen, even sex acts with foreign males were drawn and sold, not to mention acts with animals
Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...
, demons (both male
Incubus (demon)
An incubus is a demon in male form who, according to a number of mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have intercourse with them. Its female counterpart is the succubus...
and female
Succubus
In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus is a female demon appearing in dreams who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus...
), and deities. The actual uses of shunga in the period are still debated, but probably resembled modern uses of pornographic materials, including masturbation
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
and shared viewing with a lover.
After the Meiji restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
in the second half of the 19th century, the publication of pornographic materials declined under government pressure. Yet even as Shunga production slowed, shunga were being exported and peddled as "erotic arts" to foreign markets. Pornographic novels were still produced underground, though the language barrier prevented them from becoming widely known abroad. Pornographic arts (now including photography) were still produced, but these came to be viewed as low arts.
In the 20th century
In the late Taishō periodTaisho period
The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...
and early Shōwa period
Showa period
The , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 through January 7, 1989.The Shōwa period was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor...
, an artistic movement called Eroguronansensu, literally "erotic-grotesque-nonsense," occurred influenced by decadence works of Europe. These words were used because they had an air of a new and modern feeling. Until the 1950s, pornography were still very limited in production. Open sexual expressions were permitted in novels and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, but a strict control was applied on photographs and films. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, pornographic materials were banned altogether.
Influenced by magazines like Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, pornographic magazines were printed soon after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. These magazines quickly branched out to cover all genres and featured pornographic novels as well as pictures. Playboy itself, however, did not succeed in Japan. Its articles were about the American lifestyle
Society of the United States
The society or culture of the United States is a Western culture, and has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, folklore, etc...
; women were mostly non-Asian, interviews were with people largely unknown in Japan, and fashion and sport were American. Instead, it spawned a fetish and a genre known as Yomono, literally "Western things." Playboy revamped its articles and style in the early 2000s in Japan by having Japanese writers write exclusively about Japan and dropping most of the original content.
In the early 1960s, several movie studios began producing "Pink films," to be exclusively viewed in adults-only movie theaters. With censorship laws prohibiting genitals from being seen but otherwise free to express anything, these movies quickly diversified to fill all genres, including rape and bondage. Throughout the 1960s, the "pink films" were mainly produced by low-budget, independent filmmakers such as Koji Wakamatsu
Koji Wakamatsu
is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...
. In 1971, the major studio Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...
entered the pink film genre with its higher production values through its Roman porno (lit. romantic porno) series. From the 1960s to the late 1980s, ambiguous censorship laws resulted in hundreds of cases regarding erotica and pornography. At midnight, television stations mostly aired soft-core pornographic movies until their ratings dropped due to the pornographic movies.
Starting in 1971, homosexually-oriented magazines began to appear. The first of these, Barazoku
Barazoku
is Japan's first male gay magazine commercially circulated.There had been a member-only magazine called Adonis and its extra issue Apollo in around 1960. It began publication in July 1971 by Daini Shobō's owner's son and editor , who is not gay....
, began publication in 1971 and continued publishing until 2004. Homosexual magazines tend to be tailored to particular segments of the population, such as Badi
Badi (magazine)
Badi is a monthly Japanese magazine for gay men. The title comes from the Japanese pronunciation of "buddy." Badi is published by Terra Publications....
, which features younger adult males, Samson
Samson (magazine)
Samson Monthly for Men is a monthly Japanese magazine for gay men.Gay magazines in Japan, along with much gay culture, are segregated by "type"; most are aimed at an audience with specific interests...
, devoted to chubby men, and G-men
G-men (magazine)
is a monthly Japanese magazine for gay men. Gay magazines in Japan, along with much gay culture, are segregated by 'type' ; G-men was founded in 1994 to cater to gay men who preferred "macho fantasy", as opposed to the sleeker, yaoi-inspired styles popular in the 1980s, and focuses on "macho type" ...
, featuring muscular men. The websites of these magazines also feature videos produced featuring these respective body types.
1980s
The proliferation of pornographic videos in the 1980s commonly called AV, short for adult video, eventually greatly diminished the market for pornographic movie theaters. Rental video stores offered pornography at a price far below that of movie theaters. Because most Japanese families now had at least two television sets and VCRs, more videos were sold. It is rumored, but not supported, that VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
became popular over Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
format because large numbers of AV were released in VHS format. Few AVs were sold in laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
format, but VCDs and later DVDs were used to distribute AV.
Computer games with no limitation on content except for censorship laws became a popular way to distribute pornographic games. Early VCDs and DVDs were viewed on personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s. Because so few Japanese people saw any reason to play games on these platforms, as opposed to video game consoles, playing computer games was sometimes viewed as being synonymous with playing Bishōjo game
Bishojo game
A , or , is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive anime-style girls". These games are a sub-genre of dating sims targeted towards a male audience....
s.
In the late 1980s, the Dōjinshi
Dojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
market expanded. It is estimated that about half of this market consists of pornography. Copyright problems plague the market, yet the dōjinshi market was a common place for one to start before making a debut in a professional magazine. Yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
began in the dōjinshi market. From the mid 1990s, the dōjinshi market also began making and selling pornographic games.
In the 1980s, magazines oriented towards a mature male audience began to offer more explicit content. This was not immediately a major social issue because magazines oriented towards a mature female audience already existed and their content was in some ways more explicit.
1990s
According to John Carr, a United Kingdom government adviser on Internet safety policy for children, two-thirds of all pedophilic images on the Internet in the late 1990s may have originated in Japan. He further commented: "We think that child pornography, in any form, promotes values and sends the message that it is OK to sexually abuse children. It helps pedophiles to justify their ideas or behavior and it desensitizes society as a whole." Since the law against child pornography in 1999, the proportion is now believed to be less than 2%. ECPATECPAT
ECPAT is an international non-governmental organisation and network headquartered in Thailand which is designed to end commercial sexual exploitation of children...
believes that many child pornography producers have simply turned to producing anime or films featuring adults dressed as children.
Censorship laws
In Japan, under Article 175 of the Criminal Code of JapanCriminal Code of Japan
The Penal Code of Japan was passed in 1907 as Law No. 45. It is one of the Six Codes that form the foundation of Japanese law.- External links :* - Japanese Ministry of Justice...
people who sell or distribute obscene materials can be punished by fines or imprisonment. Article 175 was included in the original document in 1907 and remains relatively unchanged. Showing pubic hair
Pubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
and adult genitalia was once considered obscene. It is not uncommon for pictorial magazines to depict nude women with their genitalia airbrushed over in black, and video pornography routinely depicts explicit sex scenes with the participants' genitalia obscured by mosaics
Pixelization
Pixelization is a video- and image-editing technique in which an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily used for censorship...
. The amount of censorship of the penis can vary, for example, the entire penis may be blurred, or as little as part of the glans. Until the 1990s, the entire pubic region, including hair, was deemed obscene and unpublishable. The publication of Waterfruit and Santa Fe by Kishin Shinoyama
Kishin Shinoyama
is a Japanese photographer.Shinoyama graduated from Nihon University. He worked with the Light Publicity agency while still a student, and freelanced after graduation....
marked the first widely distributed publications to feature pubic hair
Pubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
. Many video production companies belong to ethical associations which provide guidance on what is acceptable and what is not. NEVA
Nihon Ethics of Video Association
The , usually abbreviated as Viderin or Biderin , was a Japanese video rating organization. NEVA was founded in 1972 and had its headquarters in the Chūō ward of Tokyo. It was a voluntary organization to ensure adherence to Japanese obscenity laws which prohibit any display of genitals...
, EOCS and CSA are examples of three such organizations. Recent controversies have frowned upon both pubic hair and even genitalia itself being displayed in works of art and in educational settings.
There is also a thriving genre of underground pornography in Japan (called urabon) that ignores these censorship laws; it has become especially prevalent on the Internet, as there are no mechanisms in place to prevent its transmission from Japanese nationals to the outside world, or vice versa. On November 1, 1999, Japan introduced laws to outlaw child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
in an attempt to converge with the U.S. and other western countries.
Religion and pornography
Japan's indigenous religion, ShintoShinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
is based in animism
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
, with a belief that supernatural beings dwell in nature. The gods and goddesses of Shinto are not repositories of morality or perfection. Instead they exist within nature and thus, sexuality is an innate part of life itself. During the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
, religions like Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
served as ideological backbones to acts of rebellion. Later, religious organization was used by regimes for political purposes; for instance, the Tokugawa
Tokugawa
Tokugawa may refer to:*Tokugawa clan, a powerful family of Japan**Tokugawa Ieyasu, the most notable member of the Tokugawa clan and founder of its shogunate*Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime of Japan...
government required each family to be registered as a member of a Buddhist temple. In the late 19th century, rightists created State Shinto
State Shinto
has been called the state religion of the Empire of Japan, although it did not exist as a single institution and no "Shintō" was ever declared a state religion...
, requiring that each family belong to a shrine parish and that the concepts of emperor worship and a national Japanese "family" be taught in the schools. After World War II, the Japanese constitution instated a separation of church and state.
Child pornography
Distribution, production, importing, exporting, and possessing for distribution of child pornographyChild pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
is banned with criminal punishment in Japan since 1999.
Possessing without distribution has been a disputed point since the establishment of the law.
In the Diet, the Liberal Democratic Party
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)
The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...
and the New Komeito Party
New Komeito Party
The , New Kōmei Party, or NKP is a centre-right political party in Japan founded by members of the Nichiren Buddhist organization Sōka Gakkai. The leadership and financing of the two groups are currently independent...
proposed to
prohibit the possessing without distribution, the Democratic Party of Japan
Democratic Party of Japan
The is a political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several opposition parties. Its socially liberal platform is generally considered center-left in the Japanese political spectrum...
presented a counterproposal to prohibit the taking over from anyone. Since the House of Representatives of Japan
House of Representatives of Japan
The is the lower house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors of Japan is the upper house.The House of Representatives has 480 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 180 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation,...
was dissolved on July 21, 2009, the amendments to the law against child prostitution and child pornography on the table were withdrawn.
Sexual assault
Milton DiamondMilton Diamond
Milton Diamond is a retired professor of anatomy and reproductive biology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. He has had a very long and productive career in the study of human sexuality...
and Ayako Uchiyama observe a strong correlation between the dramatic rise of pornographic material in Japan from the 1970s onwards and a dramatic decrease in reported sexual violence, including crimes by juveniles and assaults on children under 13. They cite similar findings in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In their summary, they state that the concern that countries with widespread availability of sexually explicit material would suffer increased rates of sexual crimes was not validated and that the reduction of sexual crimes in Japan during that period may have been influenced by a variety of factors they had described in their study.
Sub-genres of Japanese porn
Among the various sub-genres of Japanese pornography are the following:Aka-Chan Purei ("Baby play") : This genre involves going back to the "baby days" where they had no responsibility and could depend on their mothers to take care of everything.
Baacharu Deito ("Virtual dating") : Shot from the point of view of the boyfriend, the porn actress takes him on a "date" which ends in a sexual scene.
Broken Dolls: This is a subgenre based on the popular medical fetish and involves young girls in hospital beds, covered in casts, splints, gauze, and fake bruises. It usually involves rape and forced bondage.
Burusera
Burusera
Burusera is a Japanese word coined by combining , meaning bloomers as in bottoms of gym suits, and , meaning sailor suit, the traditional Japanese school uniforms for schoolgirls.-Burusera shops:...
("Bloomers") : Fans of this genre collect panties, urine, socks and uniforms of actual schoolgirls.
Chikan Purei
Frotteurism
Frotteurism refers to a paraphilic interest in rubbing, usually one's pelvis or erect penis, against a non-consenting person for sexual gratification. It may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area. A person who practices frotteurism is known as a frotteur...
("Play Molester") : It involves usually schoolgirls sitting in a stage constructed to look like a train car and act submissive while being groped by anonymous male.
Enjo kōsai
Enjo kosai
means "compensated dating" and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship and, possibly, for sexual favors. The female participants range from primarily school-aged girls to housewives. A common misconception is...
("Compensated dating") : Although available on video, this genre mainly applies to the market for girls 13–18 years of age. Girls are told they are going on a date.
Goukan Purei ("Rape play") : This genre involves simulated rape.
GV
GV
- People :* Gianni Versace* George V of the United Kingdom* Getúlio Vargas, a former Brazilian president* Gore Vidal, an American author* Gino Vanelli, a Canadian musician- Places/businesses :* Globovisión, a Venezuelan news network...
("Gay Videos"): All male videos, primarily intended for gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
consumers, often with one partner playing role of "tachi" (top) and one playing role of "cat" (bottom).
Lolicon
Lolicon
, also romanised as lolikon or rorikon, is a Japanese portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex". In Japan, the term describes an attraction to underage girls or an individual with such an attraction...
(short for "Lolita complex") : This genre involves prepubescent and adolescent girls.
Ningyou ("Dolls") : Some fans of animation like to play with dolls of their favorite characters.
Dōjin and parodies
Dōjinshi, or literally "fan works," are widely known as often being pornographic imitations of popular anime, games and manga. They are technically a violation of copyright law and can be prosecuted if the owner of copyrighted material chooses to have them prosecuted. But in many cases, owners officially ignore their existence. This attitude is at odds with the concept of copyright. However, this practice is common as it is a good way to measure how large the core of consumers are. For instance, the number of dōjinshi published is representative of the number of consumers who would spend liberally on the title, and increase and decrease shows rise of interest and its decline.Anime
Animated erotica (known in the West as hentaiHentai
is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation, particularly those of Japanese origin such as anime, manga, and computer games. The word hentai is a kanji compound of 変 and 態...
, but in Japan as "adult anime") is a popular genre in Japan and generally maintains the same style of animation seen in other popular forms of Japanese animation (anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
). Many of these anime are originally a game, manga, or a novel.
Games
Adult-oriented games are a genre for computer games in Japan. The genre is somewhat unknown outside Japan because of several problems, cultural and translational, but their artworks are well known on internet websites often illegally copied and shown as "adult anime pictures." Known as "bishōjo games" or "pretty girl games" (alternately spelled "bishōjo" or "bishōjo") in Japanese, the games are known under several names used by English fans, including PC dating-sim game, hentai game/H game, and so on. Companies such as Peach Princess, JAST USAJAST USA
JAST USA is a licensor and distributor of English-language bishōjo games, some of which are as dating sims or eroge. It was founded in 1997 with Sakura Soft's Season of the Sakura and JAST's Three Sisters' Story as its first eroge titles...
and G-Collections are translating dating sim
Dating sim
Dating sims are a video game subgenre of simulation games, usually Japanese, with romantic elements. They are also sometimes put under the category of neoromance. The most common objective of dating sims is to date, usually choosing from among several characters, and to achieve a romantic...
s and visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
s into English for the fledgling market outside of Japan. For adult video games in Japan, the rating of "18+" was coined by the Ethics Organization of Computer Software or Contents Soft Association. Rating of adult video games has not gone in Computer Entertainment Rating Organization
Computer Entertainment Rating Organization
The is a Japanese entertainment rating organization based in Tokyo. rating video game content in console games with levels of rating that informs the customer of the nature of the product and for what age group it is suitable...
.
Internet
Fanfictions, commonly found in websites, are not limited to fictitious characters and often use real live people as well, though these works would make little sense to those who do not see Japanese TV programs. Dōjinshi writers typically use the Internet to market their products by offering previews of new works, a secret address where buyers can find additional works, and a sample of their games. They also recruit new writers and artists online. Several exclusively adult oriented search engines exist to let someone find a site they are looking for, without having to search through commercial websites that list all keywords. Many works of dōjinshi are featured in websites that collect the art and let people look for free.Many websites feature seasonal greeting pictures, often pornographic, from linked sites and friends who frequent their sites. A typical Christmas greeting picture on such sites features a santa-girl in various stages of undressing. The twelve zodiac animals of Chinese astrology
Chinese astrology
Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. The development of Chinese astrology is tied to that of astronomy, which came to flourish during the Han Dynasty ....
offer challenging and entertaining examples of Catgirl
Catgirl
A catgirl is a female character with cat traits, such as cat ears, a cat tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise human body. Catgirls are found in various fiction genres, and in particular Japanese anime and manga where they are more commonly referred to as Neko or Nekomimi , in...
.
Magazines
Magazines are, along with videos, popular media for pornographic materials. Magazines that contains pornographic manga or pictures are controlled, and feature age requirements for purchase. Many localities in Japan require pornographic magazines to be sealed when sold outside of adult bookstores. But it is not uncommon to find non-pornographic magazines that feature nudity. Many magazines, especially weekly tabloidsShukanshi
is a Japanese term for any weekly magazine, including controversial weekly tabloid newspapers.As noted by Watanabe and Gamble in the Japan Media Review, the genre is "often described as bizarre blends of various types of U.S...
, include nude images and photo spreads similar to page three girls featured in many western tabloids. So long as these images do not depict sexual organs or sex acts they are not considered pornographic and are freely sold in public.
Confessional writings by both genders are a popular topic in men's and pornographic magazines. Quite often, these writings are fictional stories written by professional authors. Other popular topics in men's and pornographic magazines are erotic manga and novels, reviews of pornographic videos, and reports of sex services.
Manga
MangaManga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
with a pornographic content target both male and female audiences and both male and female manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
write pornographic works.
Video
Pornographic video (called "adult video" or "AV" in Japan or sometimes "Japanese adult video" or "JAV" outside of it) covers wide themes and its only limit is censorship laws. It is GV for all male videos.Many videos have a title that may suggest that they use minors or the actual recording of a crime, but no titles that are circulated with the approval of Eirin, a self-censor organization of productions, break any laws. A common ploy is to have a part of a title replaced with a character, or to use a phonetically similar neologism. For example, a video about "19 years old girls Sex Party!" may be sold with a title like "1X years old Girls Sex Party!". The word , lit. "High school girl," cannot be used as it would suggest a girl of 17 years or younger, who cannot legally act in a pornographic video. The homonymic neologism , which can mean a "girl student," is used in many titles to promote the product without breaking censorship laws. This fact may be seen in popular places of Japan such as Akihabara
Akihabara
, also known as , is an area of Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to in Japan...
or Den Den Town at Tokyo and Osaka respectively.
Japanese AV also caters to many more fetishes than might be imagined (or thought legal) by non-Japanese. Schoolgirl or uniform themed AV dovetails with the aforementioned "non-consensual" genre——are common. SM, rope bondage, bestiality, virgins, internal male climax or , , along with more eccentric fetishes (soap, office ladies, game shows) are all covered.
Magazines
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Weekly Playboy also known as or WPB is a Japanese weekly magazine published by Shueisha since 1966.This magazine is not a regional edition of the American Playboy magazine; the Japanese edition of that magazine was published as Monthly Playboy by Shueisha until its cancellation in January 2009.-People in... (Shueisha Shueisha is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,... ) - big seller |
Urecco was a monthly men's magazine published in Japan. The title is a play on the Japanese word which literally means "popular girl" or "girl who is/are much sought after... (Mirion Shuppan) Video Boy is a Japanese monthly men's magazine which has been published since 1984. It has been called "probably the most popular AV mag in Japan" and was described by Peter Payne, proprietor of J-List as an "excellent magazine...to keep up with...AV stars" The magazine specializes in nude photos of popular... (GOT Corp.) |
Publishers
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Wani Books is a Japanese publishing company focused on manga-related publication, including magazines and books. The company was established in November 1979. It publishes one manga magazine Comic Gum.- Wink Up : is an idol magazine published since July 1988.... |
Studios
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H.m.p. (Japan) h.m.p. is a Japanese company which is involved in adult entertainment including the production and sales of adult videos and the marketing of adult toys and sex aids.-Company information:... Hokuto Corporation The is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, Hokuto was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it the... Hot Entertainment is a Japanese adult video production company which has its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and specializes in works featuring amateur actresses in "reality" videos.-Company information:... Japan Home Video is a Japanese media corporation which produces and distributes film and video products and is also involved in TV programming and game software. It uses the label for its adult video production.-Company history and finances:... KM Produce is a Japanese adult video company located in Shibuya, Tokyo.-Company information:KM Produce became an independent AV production company under that name using the "Million" label for its videos in April 2002 in competition with other major AV companies such as Soft On Demand and Moodyz... Kuki Inc. is a Japanese adult video company which has its headquarters in Ebisu Minami in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo. The company is involved in the production and distribution of videos, satellite and cable TV, and a large internet site, X CITY.-Company history:... Madonna (studio) is a Japanese adult video studio which specializes in the "mature woman" or "madam" genre of Japanese pornography.-Company information:Madonna is an AV studio located in Tokyo, Japan which is affiliated with the large AV conglomerate Hokuto Corporation which distributes its videos through the DMM... Max-A is a Japanese adult video studio which is especially known for videos made under its Samansa and Calen labels which produced a number of innovative and quality AVs in the late 1990s and early 2000s.-Company information:... Million Film was one of the early independent studios which produced pink films. Along with OP Eiga, Shintōhō, Kantō and Kōji Wakamatsu's production studio, Million Film was one of the most influential on the genre during its first decade... Moodyz , formerly known as Mr. President, is one of Japan's largest adult video producers, featuring an extensive catalog of video titles.-Company information:... |
S1 No. 1 Style or just S1 is a major Japanese producer of adult videos which has its offices in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.-Company Information:S1 is one of the many affiliated companies in the giant Hokuto Corporation group. Hokuto distributes the studio's videos via retail sales and online through its DMM website... Try-Heart Corporation The is a Japanese adult video company best known for videos produced under its label.-Company information:Try-Heart began releasing videos under the Pink Drug label at least as early as December 1995, and with production codes of the type SEA-xxx for the Sexia studio as early as April 1997 with... Soft on Demand , often known as SOD, is a Japanese adult video group of companies which has its headquarters in the Nakano ward of Tokyo. SOD was founded in December 1995 by Ganari Takahashi, who retired from the company in March 2005 and is currently working in agriculture... Total Media Agency is a Japanese adult video company located in Tokyo, Japan.-Company information:TMA, founded in October 1990, has offices located within Tokyo's Toshima ward... V&R Planning is a Japanese film production and distribution company based in Tokyo which specializes in adult videos .-Company information:V&R Planning was founded in April 1986 by Kaoru Adachi who had previously worked in TV, mostly as an import agent. The V&R stands for "Visual and Retail"... - includes V&R Products & V&R International Wanz Factory is a Japanese adult video production company located in the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan.-Company information:The company was founded in March 2000 and presently employs 20 people. Their adult videos are sold in more than 3000 stores nationwide in Japan... |
Personalities
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Azumi Kawashima , born August 8, 1979 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese idol and adult video actress.-Life and career:Azumi Kawashima was born in Tokyo on August 8, 1979. Her debut video was Promise released under the Try-Heart Corporation's Sexia's label in December 1998. In January 1999, Kawashima starred in Naive,... Bunko Kanazawa is a prolific Japanese adult film actress, who has been called "one of the biggest AV idols in Japan."-Debut - Cosmos Plan:Bunko Kanazawa was born April 4, 1979 in Kanagawa prefecture). She reports that as a child she was good at mathematics and science, but horrible in Japanese and English... Chocoball Mukai Hiroshi "Chocoball" Mukai is a Japanese male pornographic actor and a former professional wrestler.-Life and career:... |
Hikaru Koto is a former Japanese AV idol and model.-Life and career:Koto made her adult video debut at age eighteen in the September 2003 release, on the h.m.p./Platinum Tiffany label... Keiko Nakazawa , born September 9, 1965, is an award-winning Japanese AV idol and pink film actress who gained popularity among AV viewers during the mid-1980s. She was described as "the most popular video queen in 1987".- Life and career :... Maria Ozawa , who used the name early in her career, is a former Japanese adult video actress known in Japan as an AV idol.-Early life:Ozawa was born in Hokkaidō, Japan. Her mother is Japanese and her father is Canadian. Since she always attended an international school, she claims that her English reading... |
Riko Tachibana is a popular and award-winning Japanese adult video idol . Taller than average, Tachibana debuted in 2003 and starred in many adult videos which emphasized her height. An extremely prolific actress, Tachibana had performed in over 200 AVs when she was awarded for Most Appearances at Japan's Adult... Sakura Sakurada is a Japanese actress, model and adult video star who has also used the name for still photo shoots. Her long and prolific career and international recognition mark her as an AV Idol.-Early career - "Uncensored Movies":... Sakura Sena is a big-busted Japanese glamour model and adult actress. Until March 2002 she used the name in her adult video career.-Life and career:Sena was born January 31, 1975 to a middle-class family in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture... |
Sora Aoi is a Japanese AV idol, nude model, and media personality. In addition to being a multiple award winning actress in the AV field, she has also attained mainstream media recognition.- Early life :... Yua Aida is an award-winning former Japanese model and AV idol.-Early life:Yua Aida was born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on 12 August 1984. Aida was an active girl and involved in many sporting activities during primary and middle school. Tennis was her strongest sport throughout middle school. In high... |
Genres
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Gokkun is a Japanese term for a sexual activity in which a woman consumes the semen of one or more men. It also refers to the sexual act of swallowing semen after performing fellatio or participating in a bukkake... Group sex Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Group sex can occur amongst people of all sexual orientations and genders...
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Japanese bondage ' means 'tight binding ' which literally means 'the beauty of tight binding'. Kinbaku is a Japanese style of bondage or BDSM which involves tying up the bottom using simple yet visually intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope–often jute and generally around 6 mm in... |
Lotion play , also known as gookkake, gluekkake, ecto-porn, is a popular form of Japanese erotica and prostitution involving the use of copious amounts of sex lubricant which in the Japanese language is referred to as "lotion"... |
Sexual fetishism Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
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Exhibitionism Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers... Tamakeri Tamakeri is a sexual fetish and sub-genre in which a female kicks, knees, punches, grabs or twists a man's testicles. This act is shown in some Japanese horror films, such as Busted Balls.... |
See also
- Chronology of adult videos in JapanChronology of adult videos in JapanThis is a chronological history of the AV industry in Japan. The main events relevant to the AV industry are discussed for each year, as well as notable debuts. Notable AV actress names are in bold font...
- EirinEirinis the abbreviated name for , Japan's movie regulator. Eirin was established on the model of the American Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America's Production Code Administration in June, 1949, on the instructions of the US occupation force...
- Pornography in the United StatesPornography in the United StatesIn the United States, there have been several notable court decisions relating to the definition of pornography and obscenity, personal possession, and its relation to prostitution. The total market value of pornography in the U.S. is estimated between $2-$13 billion per year...
- European pornographyEuropean pornographyPornography in Europe has been dominated by a few pan-European producers and distributors, the most notable of which is the Private Media Group that had successfully claimed the throne of Color Climax Corporation in early 1990s. Most European countries also have local pornography producers, from...
External links
- "Why is Japanese Porn Censored?" A Japan Probe article (January 31, 2006 2:51 am).
- "A Star is Porn", by Kjell Fornander. Tokyo Journal, July 1992. An overview of the Japanese pornographic film and video industry.
- Anti Japanese Pornography (pro-censorship)