Monday, March 18, 2013 12:47 AM

The Japanese have strange obscenity laws. I notice their porn videos pixelate the male genitals but not female.

Kevin

Monday, March 18, 2013 12:00 PM

@Kevin: maybe that isn't pixilation... maybe male Japanese genitalia are as strange as their obscenity laws? (JOKE... for the Politically Correct which means 95% of Toronto!)

This is the same problem as the Toronto Bath Raids..."found-ins of a Common Bawdy house"... a place where "indecent acts take place"...but Ontario law did not specify what an indecent act was, leaving that up to the (ahem) discretion of the police. With similar scandalous results. The real problem being: when will ANY nation finally decide to have enough balls to properly control their police?

Ken

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 4:49 PM

I lived in Japan for two years. Obscenity laws there have to do with the showing of genitalia more than they have to do with ideas of sexual exploitation. The actual age of the model is more important than the portrayal of a younger age. Therefore, if a book of male nudes that don't have genetalia airbrushed or pixelated out is put on the
shelf - serious jail time perhaps. If a video shportraying a teenage boy in a school uniform being fondled on a train, kidnapped, tied up and having simulated blood pouring out of his mouth while he is forcibly raped...well it's legal as long as the scenario was faked, the model is 18 (with the Yakuza running most of the porno industry one is never sure), and the genitals are matrixed out then you can shelve it and its legal. The gay porn tends to be limited to the gay districts in major cities (and unlimited on the net). The straight counterpart can be found in any adult video section in most neighbourhoods. So basically you have a very male dominated culture where public nudity is fine while bathing but not in a sexual portrayal of any kind. The ideas of rape, molestation, torture, bondage, incest, and teen sexual exploitation are not considered taboo. The gangs run most of the porn industry. The gay men in the Japanese book stores tend to be 'Westernized' and see the moralistic problems with genital censorship trumping the exploitation of young models throughout the nation. This bookstore staff may well be leading a sober campaign to make the laws more in line with the West's. That's not a bad thing in my opinion.

Stephen Emery

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 4:28 PM

Oh I should mention that in the year 2000 Japan tightened up its child pornography and sexual exploitation laws in general behaviour at the urging of the United Nations and its American ally. Before 2000 men and teen boys were not protected by sexual exploitation and rape laws in real life. (The ideas and portrays are still allowed in the porn that uses mostly poverty stricken or juvenile delinquent straight young men being initiated into gang life there). Many gay shops and bookstores are located in 'fun zones' that are hands off to police and controlled by gangs. If you want to have a gay bookstore in these districts its often a survival tactic to carry yakuza created gay porn). There is now a lot of gay community created material as well. Not surprisingly you will find community ads, dating ads, articles about gay Japanese history, and much more holistic, non-objectifying and sensual portrayals of actual gay MEN (not boys). Some of these publications are ignoring 'the matrix'. It is these publications the police are targeting, not the gang controlled dehumanzing smut. Are we getting the picture here?

Stephen Emery