First, a brief update on the Christopher Handley case. A source who prefers to remain anonymous tells me that Handley’s sentencing is scheduled for August 18, though “the pre-trial probation officer said it might take longer to get their report done.”

And now some fun news, for a change.

On June 11, I had the enormous privilege of attending a party in Tokyo celebrating Moto Hagio’s 40th year as a professional manga artist. I’m guessing there were maybe 200 people at the main reception, maybe 60 or so at the post-party-party, and about 30 at the post-post-party-party.

The main reception was held at the Tokyo Kaikan. The hosts of the party included such luminaries as Galaxy Express 999 creator Leiji Matsumoto, Tomorrow’s Joe creator Tetsuya Chiba, and science fiction author Baku Yumemakura. One of the highlights for me was a performance by biwa musician Gessui Kuroda. Setting to music lyrics written by Hagio for her fantasy classic Gin no sankaku (”The Silver Triangle”), Gessui delivered a powerful and otherwordly performance that gave me goosebumps.

This was probably one of the few formal receptions I’ve ever attended that I can say I truly enjoyed. This sort of thing tends to (naturally) be attended almost exclusively by people involved in the manga industry, but at this party there were people from a dazzling variety of fields: theater (director Hideki Noda was there); science-fiction author Mari Kotani (who I hadn’t seen in ages!); film; music; fine art; et cetera.

I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in a long time (such as erotic manga artist Milk Morizono), and got to meet some people I’d never met before, such as: Patalliro! creator Mineo Maya (and his lovely wife and daughter); pioneering shoujo manga art Miyako Maki; sci-fi manga artist Reiko Shimizu; and Hagio’s three charming nieces, Ikue, Satomi, and Naoko. My friend and fellow shoujo manga critic Yukari Fujimoto was there, decked out in an original Comme des Garçon T-shirt that was a collaboration between Hagio and John Galliano.

You could feel the love and admiration for Hagio in the crowd (not to mention the quality of the company she keeps), and I felt honored to be included in their numbers. It was truly a night to remember. My biggest regret is that I learned later that Nodame Cantabile creator Tomoko Ninomiya was also there, yet I missed the opportunity to meet her! She was there with her baby son. (And she came down with appendicitis the next day, which means Nodame is once again on hold!)

Now let’s see if I can convince Wordpress to let me add some images.

The formalities	Gessui Kuroda playing The Silver Triangle on a biwa	Me with shoujo manga legend Miyako Maki	The star of the show
Note the tiara!	Me with Mineo Maya	Yukari Fujimoto, Mineo Maya, his daughter, Reiko Shimizu, and Mayas wife	Me with the Hagio nieces, Ikue, Naoko, and Satomi
Me and Hagio	Me with Chiho Saito

CNET Japan reports what was already known to those in the know: Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software has banned the production and sale of sexually violent computer games. Here’s my translation:

Screening Organization Bans Production of Sexually Violent Game Software

Emi KAMINO

2009/06/04 18:27

On June 4, the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), to which 235 computer game makers belong, announced that it would ban the production of game software that portrays sexual violence.

The controversy surrounding game software that portrays sexual violence began when software produced by a Yokohama-based game software maker was listed on Amazon.co.uk, without having been approved by the British Board of Film Classification. In February, 2009, the British Parliament began to take issue [with the software]. In response, foreign human rights groups protested, calling for a ban on the sale of the software in question, and increasingly vocal demands for reform began to come from many different sectors.

In this context, the maker voluntarily ceased sale of the software. On May 22, the EOCS asked its members to voluntarily cease the production and sale of sexually violent software, and in recent days they decided as an industry to create a rule banning their production.

The EOCS says they plan to begin working out the details of standards used to define sexually violent software.

So there it is. I’ve already expressed my own opinions on the matter in earlier posts, and frankly I’m tired of arguing about discussing it, but I felt obliged to report on the official announcement. This will probably be my last post on the topic.

I have taken the liberty of translating the entry posted to the blog of Abel Group by it’s president, KANNO Hiroyuki, last night. As of this writing, this is the only first-hand account of the proceedings. The links were added by me.

Production and Sale of Rape Game Software To Be Banned: Ethics Organization of Computer Software

The emergency gathering of the member companies just finished.

There wasn’t any major confusion, and, as most people expected, it was decided that the production and sale of rape game software be banned.

<snip>

Here are the details of the gathering.

About a hundred people gathered at Tsuda Hall.

Too many people showed up, so at the last minute they asked that Tokyo-based makers send only one representative each.

Those who travelled from other parts of the country and had tickets for two were allowed in, but, anyway, it was a lot of people.

Rape games will be banned.

I don’t know if this is surprising or not, but there was virtually no one who expressed opposition.

In way, there was this atmosphere of “What can you do?”, so, literally, maybe there was nothing to be done.

Of course, it was an informal meeting, so there wasn’t a vote or anything.

I think more than a few people who didn’t feel comfortable with it.

If there had been a secret ballot, I think there would have been a surprising number of votes against it, but, looking at the whole picture, there was a feeling that a restriction was unavoidable.

It’s not that people didn’t have opinions.

It seems the opinions of BABA-san of Visual Arts, and MORITA-san and YAMAMOTO Kazue-san of Ail stood out.

But no one came straight out and said, “Isn’t this wrong?”

What people seemed more concerned about was, “Exactly what is going to be off-limits?”

That makes sense. There are plenty of makers who are worried, “We’re working on this project right now, but is it okay?”

There were specific questions, like:

“What about tentacle stuff?”
“What about monsters?”

Seriously, how’s that gonna work out? LOL

It was decided that the rules have to be revised, but the details of what those revisions will be are yet to be decided, so there’s no way to answer those questions right now.

Well, I suppose it’s up to the EOCS staff for the time being.

In particular, I think there will be a clamp down on the wording and images of the packages that are the “face” of the games, starting as soon as tomorrow.

It seems there was a lively exchange of opinions, but someone suggested, “Maybe we can drop the label ‘bishoujo game’,” and apparently a few people nodded in agreement.

Candidates for alternative labels included things like “adult game.” I wonder how practical it is to try to change a name that is already a standard and widely used noun, but, surprisingly, people were talking about it with straight faces.

As a creator, I was a bit disappointed that the range of expression will be narrowed, but it seems everyone has been thinking that times have just changed.

Now that it’s decided, we have no choice but to follow the rules.

I’m eager to see how the revision of the rules progresses.

KANNO Hiroyuki
(President of Abel Group)

What surprised me was the calm, dispassionate tone of his report, which contrasts sharply with the foaming-at-the-mouth reactions of pitchfork-wielding fans of the genre on both Japanese- and English-language websites.

Curiously, it is foreign fans, not Japanese fans, who are blaming “those damned feminists.” Sankaku Complex mentions feminists six times in its reaction, e.g.: “bowed to feminist pressure”; “interfering feminist politicians”; “Feminist busybody group ‘Equality Now’”; “foreign feminists”; “avowed feminist”. And that’s just their official reaction. You should read some of the user comments; no shortage of illiterate, incoherent bile and vitriol there. One commenter in an earlier post of mine expressed skepticism at my assertion of the “potential for boiling over into actual violence.” Well, how about this comment for a concrete (no pun intended) example?

Comment by MaidNiac
03-06-2009 03:45

Now i would really love to Curb Stomp them and smash their face on a concrete floor.. Both those feminists and possibly the EOCS too, for being total pussies who let themselves easily stomp by those self-proclaimed protection idiots.
Enjoy your RL raep, b*tches.

In case the code went over your head, that last lines translates, “Enjoy your real-life rapes, bitches.” I wonder if MaidNiac’s, er, “aggression” stems from playing too many violent video games, or if it is an innate agressiveness that draws him to such games? Either way, I hope he doesn’t act on his violent fantasies.

Mr. Kanno, on the other hand–who makes a living producing erotic games and is apparently rather famous in the world of erotic games–seems to be taking the new ban in stride. He also implies that the ban will be a substantive one, and suggests that makers who think it might be limited to cosmetic changes–like changing the nomenclature–are naive. While he expresses disappointment, he acknowledges that times have changed, and it’s time to move on. Let’s hope the angry fans learn to move on, too.

P.S.: It looks like I translated this just in time–or too soon, depending on your point of view. Mr. Kanno has deleted his post, as well as a subsequent post on the matter, saying that as a member of the EOCS, it was not his place to voice his personal opinions on matters that the group has not yet made public. Now I’m torn about whether or not I should delete my translation… (-_-;) That would make this second post I’ve had to redact in less than two weeks. Arghh!!

P.P.S.: Actually, I just realized that Mr. Kanno’s blog entry has already been reproduced at at least four other sites. The cat is out of the bag. So, with apologies to Mr. Kanno, I’ll be leaving this translation up.

Though the news media has not picked up on it yet, and Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS) has not announced it on their website, at least one organization member who attended the June 2 emergency meeting of the group reports that the ban was passed with virtually no opposition. This is not a government ban, and effects only members of the EOCS, but, according to Sankaku Complex (whose opinion on the matter is pretty clear), “this accounts for most companies in the industry.”

I’ll write more later, but right now I have a doctor’s appointment I have to run to.

Here’s my translation of a report from the Yomiuri Shinbun Newspaper, dated May 29.

Ruling Coalition Aims To Strengthen Regulation of Sexual Violence Games, Creates Team to Consider Ways To Put Brakes On Circulation

As international human rights groups and others criticize Japanese-made computer games that simulate the rape, impregnation, and forced abortion of girls, the Liberal Democratic Party, on the 29th [of May], formed a team to consider ways to put the brakes on the current situation, in which such games are circulated in huge numbers.

The New Komeito Party created it’s own team in the middle of this month, and it now appears that the debate within the ruling coalition on the strengthening of regulations is shifting into high gear.

The team created by the L.D.P. on the 29th is called the “Study Group for the Regulation of Sexual Violence Games.” As Japan is accused of being one of the most lenient of the developed nations in the regulation of games involving sexual violence as well as child pornography, the relevant ministries will hold hearings on the matter. In a series of meetings to come, the necessity of strengthening regulations shall be considered.

Minister of Consumer Affairs [Seiko] NODA noted, “In Japan, barriers for the protection of children are extremely loose.” Upper House member Eriko YAMATANI, who chaired the meeting, said, “In terms of further developing Japan’s content industry, it is important that we not risk the loss of trust on account of these games.”

The New Komeito Party created it’s own joint project team to consider the problem of sexual violence games in the middle of this month. Party leader [Akihiro] OHTA and other Diet members conducted an inspection of game shops in Akibahara, and held a hearing of experts.

Additionally, representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported that the independent screening agency of the personal computer software industry has 1) requested software distributors to cease selling the sexual violence games in question, making them virtually impossible to purchase domestically, and 2) is considering the a ban on the production of sexual violence games known as “rape games.”

(Yomiuri Shinbun Newspaper, 23:20, May 29, 2009)

I think it’s safe to assume that pressure will be high on Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software to ban “rape games” when it meets on June 2. Politicians everywhere like to put a notch in their guns to show voters that they are “protecting children,” but I think what they are doing here is giving the industry a chance to regulate itself, much as the congressional hearings on the effects of comic books in the 1950s led to the creation of the (now all but defunct) Comics Code Authority. Most industries are smart enough to read trends in public opinion and reign in excesses before government intercedes. The manga industry has done a good job of playing this game for some 50 years. This is, in my opinion, the way it should work.

Defenders of Japanese rape games, both inside and outside Japan, have been demonizing Equality Now and other non-Japanese for supposedly “imposing their own values on Japan,” but the bottom line is that the international attention is simply making the general Japanese public aware of a genre that has been all but invisible outside the Akibahara bubble. What worries both politicians and industry insiders, ultimately, is not what foreigners say, but what Japanese voters and consumers will say.

If you search the Internet for Japanese-language discussion of this matter, you will find that, while it is male otaku supporters who are making the most noise about it, other Japanese are saying pretty clearly that such material should be restricted in some way. Most residents of Japan (including me) never even knew about the existence of this genre until the current controversy brought it to light.

Some comments in my last post on this matter challenged my description of such games as a form of “hate speech.” I admit that my viewpoint is subjective, and perhaps arbitrary. All I can say is that, to my mind, “rape games” cross a line that rape fantasies in manga (for either men or women) generally do not. I suppose it is the “active” versus “passive” aspect I see as fundamentally different. It is hard for me to see such games (though I have never played them or even seen the content beyond the box covers and product descriptions) as anything but an expression of a profound misogyny that has the potential for boiling over into actual violence.

We can argue about such distinctions till the cows come home, which is precisely why I oppose government censorship of any form of expression, unless that expression incites violence in a manner that makes the threat of violence immenent. But I am all for industries regulating themselves in ways that reflect that ever-elusive “common sense” that we all know of, yet cannot (and perhaps should not) define.

P.S.: Considering how quickly things have transpired this month, this is already “old news,” but here’s an English-language article from the Asahi Shinbun, dated May 14, that sums up the basic facts of the controversy, and includes comments by a representative of the Ethics Organization for Computer Software.

Regarding the TBS report on the apparent decision of Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software to ban “rape simulation” games I reported in my last post, Canned Dogs is now calling the the veracity of the report into question. None of the sources they cite is terribly reliable.

But TBS has deleted the page that carried the video and summary, and (The page was merely moved. Apologies.) though I’ve been watching TBS’ 24-hour news channel (”News Bird”) for several hours, the report has yet to be replayed.

Did TBS just jump the gun, or did they get it entirely wrong?

It looks like we’ll just have to wait for the outcome of the June 2 meeting of the EOCS.

As The Escapist and Canned Dogs have reported, Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software has apparently decided to ban the production and sale of computer games that simulate rape and other forms of sexual assault, effective June 2. The ban was reported on the 28th by Japan’s TBS News. As of this writing, no other Japanese news sources have reported on the ban, and the EOCS’s web site as yet to post an official statement.

For the past month, the international organization Equality Now has been pressing the Japanese government to ban such games.*

I personally am pleased with the EOCS’ decision. It is an important rejection of a deeply offensive form of expression.

I would not have been pleased if it had been the Japanese government that had decided to ban such material. There is a world of difference between government censorship and the rejection of certain forms of expression as unacceptable by private groups.

Rape simulation games are certainly of form of “hate speech.” Just the description on the package of “Rapelay,” the game that triggered the international reaction, is so sickening I wouldn’t want to translate it here. Just imagine a “lynching simulation game” in which the player attacks, tortures, and murders a random person of African descent, or a “holocaust simulation game” in which the player participates in the slaughter of Jews. “Rapelay” (a combination on the English words “rape” and “play”) is no different.

But in the U.S., at least, even hate speech is protected, unless it is deemed to be an incitement to violence in which the threat of violence is imminent. In the U.S., you could legally make the kind of games I described above. But you would have a hard time finding distributors and retailors. The EOCS’ decision to ban its members from producing and selling rape games will, I hope, help to create an environment in which the sale of such games would be seen by the general public, including gamers, as something shocking and unacceptable.

In an earlier post, I wrote that, “to support free expression is not just to defend expression you like, but rather to defend expression you despise.” Japan’s rape games are a sort of ultimate test of that sentiment. My gut tells me that if such forms of expression were banned by Japanese law, my reaction would be, “Good riddance.”

But that’s the slippery slope.

Banning hate speech only drives it into dark corners where it can fester outside of society’s view. And such expression is a symptom of the hate, not the source of the hate. There’s an expression in Japanese about “putting a lid on something smelly.” The lid protects your nose from the smell, but the source of the smell is still there.

As a supporter of Equality Now, I would prefer to see them focus on the concrete problems that affect actual women, in material ways, rather than pressing governments to put lids on smelly things.

* Note: Equality Now’s Action Report contains two very misleading statements:

The Anti Pornography and Prostitution Research Group, an organization based in Japan which has been working to stop the objectification of women, says it has difficulty in trying to educate a government that even allows real gang rape videos to be sold in the open market.

What are legal are live-action, pornographic videos featuring consenting adults that portray fictional rapes and gang rapes. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been legal to sell video recordings of actual rapes.

It was not until 1999 that Japan outlawed child pornography.

Child pornography–”any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes“–has never been legal in Japan. What was legal before 1999 was photographs, films, and videos of nude children that did not fit the above definition.

In my last post, I did a little play on words (”Law and (Gag) Orders”), but I just want to clarify that I myself am not subject to any legally-binding gag order, and as far as I know, no one involved in the Handley case is subject to a “gag order” in the strict sense of an order issued by the court. As I understand it, the conditions of the plea bargain Handley agreed to include a (rather standard, I suppose) restriction on what Handley or anyone of his surrogates can say about the case. (Obviously the prosecution is not going to be happy if they strike a plea agreement, and the defendant then tells the media, “I’m acually innocent, but I signed the plea agreement because I was threatened with a harsher sentence if I didn’t.”) The repercussions of violating those conditions, though, are very real, since the prosecution can withdraw the plea agreement, or ask the judge for a harsher sentence.

Can you say “coercive plea agreement“?

In the meantime, I am trying to find a list of the materials deemed obscene by the prosecution, preferably in Japanese, so that I can check it out for myself. (Remember that I live in Japan, where the material is quite legal.)

At this point, all we have are rumors and speculation. For example, a widely referenced article from MTV’s Splash Page contains this passage:

“There is explicit sex in yaoi comics,” Handley’s lawyer Eric Chase told MTV. “And the men are drawn in a very androgynous style, which has the effect of making them look really young. There’s a real taboo in Japan about showing pubic hair, so they’re all drawn without it, which also makes them look young. So what concerned the authorities were the depictions of children in explicit sexual situations that they believed to be obscene. But there are no actual children. It was all very crude images from a comic book.”

Based on this quote, many commentators have concluded that the problematic books were (at least in part) yaoi. The Splash Page writer herself draws the same conclusion when she says, “[Handley] was arrested in Iowa for possession of obscene material based on his private collection, which included lolicon and yaoi manga.” Yet a careful reading of the quote reveals that Chase does not say that the problematic material in Handley’s case was yaoi. His statement could also easily be read as simply offering an example of a kind of manga that could be mistaken for depictions of minors in sexual situations.

I myself concluded that the material must be explicitly pornographic, based on this description from the indictment (quoted here):

a copy of a book containing visual depictions, namely drawings and cartoons, that depicted graphic bestiality, including sexual intercourse, between human beings and animals such as pigs, monkeys, and others.

Yet things I have read and heard since have made me skeptical of this description. The bottom line is we cannot comment on the specifics of the material until those specifics are made public. And as far as I can tell, they have not.

But regardless of whether the manga in question are the kind of thing any manga collecter would have on her shelf or are explicitly pornographic, as long as the material passes the Miller Test (as even the most explicit legal pornography evidently does), the material should be protected by the First Amendment.

As in “gag orders.”

It seems that it is in the best interest Christopher Handley’s defense that I remove the correspondence I had posted yesterday.

It’s frustrating, obviously, but the last thing I want to do is anything that might result in a harsher sentence for Mr. Handley.

For what its worth, both Ms. Handley and I were acting in “good faith,” but you know what they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

I honestly don’t know what I can do or say at the moment that would have a positive impact on the proceedings, so I am just going to quietly continue to collect information and observe from the sidelines until Mr. Handley’s sentence has been handed down.

Yes, I’m still alive. For what it’s worth. Back when I started this blog, some kind soul raved about the number of images and said s/he hoped I didn’t end up suffering “blog burnout.” Well, I did. Until I find a much, much easier way to get images from the printed page to this page, I’m afraid there just won’t be as many images as I was uploading before.

So what brings me back from the Land of the Lost? The Christopher Handley case. To make a long story short: Handley was charged in May 2007 “with receipt of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children”; The visual representations were manga; The few court documents currently available make it clear that “There is no dispute that the images at issue in this case do not involve real children but instead depict cartoons of children”; on May 20 of this year, Handley “pleaded guilty [...] in Des Moines, Iowa, to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.”

For more detailed information on what actually happened and what it might mean, I recommend you read:

• Judge James. E. Gritzer’s response, dated July 2, 2008, to the Defense’s motion to dismiss
• The text of the law Handley is said to have violated
• The Department of Justice’s press release regarding the guilty plea
• The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s response to the guilty plea
• Jeff Trexler’s excellent legal analysis from Newsarama:
  • Comics, child porn and the law
  • Handley, Comics and Obscenity
  • Three Lessons from the Handley Case
• And this well-researched and rather thorough article by Lawrence A. Stanley from ComiPress

Any number of people have written better commentary on the case than I could, so I would like instead to describe my own very peripheral involvement in the case.

For legal reasons, I have been asked to remove the correspondence I had posted earlier. I apologize for the trouble.

I have never met Mr. Handley, and know nothing about him as a person, other than the image painted for me by his loving mother. But whether I would like him or not, or think he is a “nice guy” or not, is irrelevant. It’s also irrelevant that I personally find lolicon manga, and a lot of other hentai manga, to be offensive and disturbing. As others have pointed out, to support free expression is not just to defend expression you like, but rather to defend expression you despise.

The chilling bottom line is that an American may very well go to prison for acquiring and looking at drawings of characters who do not actually exist.