A few days, a popular US news channel named VICE News uploaded a highly controversial video titled Inside the Pedophilic Manga Industry in Japan. Vice News’ Hanako Montgomery travelled to Japan to expose how the manga industry is encouraging paedophilia, during her visit, she points out several posters (of anime and manga) like Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid as ‘porn’ that damages real children.
To avoid any kind of Backlash, Vice News has restricted the video to not be shown in Japan, and the comment section of the video has been turned off. Although, you can still comment on the other YouTube videos posted by Vice.
The particular video focuses on artists who draw doujins which show young-looking characters. The primary purpose of this video was to target these artists and take their works to the upper authorities of Japan to make them say that the work of these artists harms children in real life and take action against the manga industry by making more rules on what to draw and what should be prohibited. We shall discuss the wrongs and rights of this article later in the report.
Details of the video
The video starts with the anchor of the News, Hanako Montgomery, who travels to Anime Japan, the largest anime convention in the world. She criticizes many posters that show child anime characters in tiny clothes, like Kanna from Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid & In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki characters.
She later meets a Doujin Artist, Shinji, whose work primarily focuses on drawing younger-looking characters and is only meant to be read by adults. Ms. Montgomery than inquired if his manga could cause real children to be hurt, and he stated that no such link has ever been established.
Later, she visits a welfare officer named Kazuna Kanajiri. This welfare association helps people who face sexual abuse and counsel them.
The anchor shows Kazuna one of Shinji’s works, and her reaction is terrible. Kazuna says that this media is promoting paedophilia in society.
The anchor now tries to visit an 18+ Doujin Store where filming isn’t allowed. However, Ms. Montgomery and her camera enter the store with a hidden camera, breaking several laws. The anchor then criticizes the whole store and how the works of paedophiles are displayed here. She even explains some doujins drawings to the viewers, which is unnecessary as we already know this store is not for people under 18.
The anchor is now with a convicted paedophile named Takashi Kato, who tells the viewer how he has done psychological damage to people his whole life and tells the viewers that the works related to Shinji’s work promote a paedophile to commit sexual assault.
Anchor is now with an elected Tokyo Official, who also happens to be a manga artist named Minoru Ogino. He starts by saying there is no reported case of the doujins promoting child assault in criminals. The anchor hands Minoru one of Shinji’s works and asks him if something is wrong. And Minoru pretty bluntly replied that there was nothing wrong with this work.
In the end, she gets accompanied by a Psychiatric social worker named Akiyoshi Saito, who targets these paedophilia-related mangas to tell the viewers that this work promotes paedophilia and should get banned in Japan.
“Rights” in this video
Shinji (the doujin artist) told the anchor:
Personally, I find it a deterrent.
If I can provide the job, I will have prevented a (real) crime
Shinji
This statement is pretty believable as backed up by the data gathered by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Shinji also comments on the comment that his work promotes child assault:
Well, if you can prove that, then I suppose it would have to be banned.
Shinji if there is prove that his work promotes paedophilia
On this, the anchor puts a question in front of Shinji:
But why do we have to wait until there’s proof?
Meaning that if proof has been found, that means a child became a victim.
The anchor
This statement is crucial and makes you think that works like Shinji’s should be banned before such a scenario even arrives.
Minoru Ogino(the politician) on these paedophile mangas:
Comics are not influencing people.
First of all, these crimes are already happening whether or not the manga exists.
There is no evidence that this material leads criminals to commit their acts.
When the State thinks of laws or regulations, there has to be a scientific basis
Minoru Ogino
This statement is fair because there is no need to stop an industry making much of the country’s economy that has no reported harm.
Minoru, when asked why Japan is the exception in not taking any move against this, as other countries tried to make laws to prevent such scenarios:
I think that these rules are influenced by the culture, the set of values ​​and the customs of each country.
There are countries that have prohibited the representation of same-sex couples.
It is based on the will of the people.
That is democracy
Minoru Ogino
This statement is also acceptable because a country’s official knows what is best for the economy and image of the country.
“Wrongs” in the video
The video is wrong as there is no need for another country’s media channel to cover this industry. But we will make some points on what was wrong with this video:
- The anchor is biased from the start as she gets offended by the drawings in the convection. No one invited her there, so she can avoid coming if she is that disgusted by such things.
- The narrative of the anchor is a problem throughout the whole video as she urges every person to say that “This media is promoting paedophilia”, which is pretty biased for a news channel that should act neutral and let the viewers make their own decision on what is right or wrong.
- Visiting a welfare officer for asking reviews about his work is like adding oil to the fire. The result has a targeted audience, and if you go to such officers, there will always be opposing thoughts regarding this work.
- Making a convicted paedophile appear in the interview was unfair to the original topic as he would regret his crimes on international media. Every person who appeared in the interview was to show the viewers a lousy picture of this industry.
- Recording and exploiting a Doujin Store when you already knew it was not accessible to the ordinary public was pretty harsh, and it is evident that they just wanted to target this genre.
- Some comments by Minoru (the politician) showed some ignorance and bias-ness because he was also a manga artist and wanted to protect the people who shared his profession.
Currently, the video has become a trend in Japan, and the comments on the video are turned off (for obvious reasons). Here at Anime Senpai, let us know your thoughts on this video. We would love to know your opinion on this!
Source: Youtube
