It was a shocking find: crudely made DVDs with images of grown men having sex with children as young as 12. Until this year, the men who bought those images faced little more than a slap on the wrist. But police in Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, decided for the first time during the summer to pursue criminal charges against three male customers in a country widely seen as much too lenient on child pornography.

The police campaign is largely the work of Kyoto's prefectural Governor, Keiji Yamada. During his fight for office two years ago, Mr Yamada pledged to roll out an ordinance banning the buying and possession of child porn – still legal under Japanese law, unless there is proven intent to sell or distribute. Even if the makers are arrested, the images circulate for years on the internet and in secondary markets.

Child porn-related crimes have grown fivefold in Japan through the last decade, according to the country's National Police Agency. At least 600 children a year fall victim to paedophile directors and photographers. "The internet is probably the biggest factor," said Akira Koga, spokesman for the Kyoto Police. "It's very difficult to monitor and control." A new police cyber patrol uncovered the trail back to the three men from the DVD producer in Tokyo.

Japan has long been considered a hub for the production and possession of paedophile images. It is the only OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) nation that has not banned possession of child porn, partly to protect its manga and anime industries, which churn out thousands of titles every year that sail close to the legal wind. A government survey in 2002 found that 10 per cent of Japanese men admitted to owning child porn at some stage.

Bookstores and convenience stores across the country stock magazines carrying semi-naked pictures of pubescent and pre-pubescent children. Many underage girls have built careers as so-called "junior idols", posing in suggestive poses. In the electronics district of Akihabara, Tokyo's capital of geeky cool, tourists gawk at cartoon images of children in various stages of sexual distress, all perfectly legal. One of the nation's most popular pop groups, AKB48, features a revolving cast of members, some as young as 13, persuaded to pout in adult lingerie for videos and magazine covers.

The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation traced nearly 16,250 websites depicting child abuse back to Japan in 2006, enough to put it third on a global watch list. In 2009, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection placed Japan fourth among the top five countries hosting websites with child abuse images, according to ECPAT International, an NGO that fights to end the commercial exploitation of children.

Campaigners engaged in a cat-mouse-game with paedophiles across the world say a new approach is long overdue. "The US is very frustrated with Japan," says Jake Adelstein, a journalist and board member with the Polaris Project Japan, a non-profit organisation that combats human trafficking and sexual exploitation. "The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations give Japan's police hundreds of tips on child pornography makers and distributors every year and none of them are acted upon."

Police complain that they do not have the legal resources to fight the problem. Japan only banned the production and distribution of child porn in 1999, mandating punishment of up to five years in prison. Kyoto today is still the only one of Japan's 47 prefectures that threatens prison for possessing child porn. Since Governor Yamada's ordinance, possession carries a maximum one-year jail term or a fine of up to 500,000 yen (£4000).

One reason for the reluctance to roll out new national legislation is the fear that police may use it too liberally, threatening freedom of creative expression. Conservative politicians have long demanded a clampdown on pornographic images. Two years ago, Tokyo's metropolitan assembly banned the sale or rent of comics and anime movies depicting younger characters engaging in "extreme" sexual acts, including rape.

But the ban was resisted by Japan's biggest publishers, who produce hundreds of risqué manga a year featuring fetishism, incest and "Lolita porn", along with more mainstream fare. The Tokyo Bar Association also criticised the wording of the legislation, warning that it could be the thin edge of the censorship wedge against sexualised images of any kind. The association and many legislators want the police to continue targeting producers and distributors of child porn, not consumers.

Opinion polls suggest that most Japanese voters want stricter laws. But with parliament essentially gridlocked ahead of a general election, widely expected this autumn, there is little appetite for a messy political fight over what is seen as a relatively minor issue. The ruling Democratic Party (DPJ) has shelved a 2008 draft law that would have banned any involvement in child pornography. Their conservative opponents, the Liberal Democrats, have promised a tougher line.

Until then, say campaigners, paedophiles will continue to have the upper hand. "Child pornography prosecutions almost always involve images contained on computer hard drives or start with an internet protocol (IP) address that is known to have accessed child pornography material," said a spokesperson for ECPAT International. "The fact that Japanese courts cannot grant search warrants based on IP address information hampers the fight against child pornography."

The organisation warns that Japanese police cannot coordinate with international sting operations because domestic law is out of sync with most of the developed world.

As if to underline the legal challenges ahead, Kyoto police say prosecutors have declined to press charges against the three men, citing a lack of evidence. The three bought the DVDs from a dealer in Tokyo after seeing them advertised on the internet. Police raided the dealer's house and found transaction records showing many more customers around the country. Unfortunately for the victims, few of the men can be prosecuted, even when the law works well.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/pressure-on-japan-for-stronger-laws-on-child-pornography

When police in Japan’s old historic capital of Kyoto nabbed three men this summer for buying child pornography DVDs online, they made history: for the first time, someone in the country faces the possibility of jail time for possessing such material.

Japan is the only OECD nation that has not universally outlawed possession of child pornography and activists say the new, tougher local laws in Kyoto will not change that overnight.

With various manifestations of a fascination with the young and innocent as sex objects, from graphic versions of manga, or Japanese comics, to the “junior idol” industry featuring child models in bikinis, Japan has a considerable way to go to shed an image of pornographers’ safe haven.

Out of Japan’s 47 prefectures, only Kyoto bans possession of child pornography and prescribes a jail sentence. Neighboring Nara is the only other province to deem it a crime, but it has only financial penalties. It has arrested several people for possession of child pornography, but authorities could not give a number since several were charged with other crimes.

In 1999, Japan outlawed production and distribution of child pornography as well as possession with the intention to pass it on, and offenders could face fines and prison terms of up to five years. However, simple possession, without an intention to distribute, remains legal, except in Kyoto and Nara.

Kyoto’s new ordinance that came into force in January imposes fines for possession of child pornography and introduces a penalty of up to one year in jail for buying or downloading such material.

“It will be a big wake-up call for the parliament,” says UNICEF Japan spokesman Hiromasa Nakai.

But there may not be any quick action.

There is no national debate on the subject at the moment as major parties brace for general elections expected later this year. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan has reservations about extending the Kyoto law nationally, while the opposition is for it, lawmakers told Reuters.

Sanae Takaichi, from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, says the initiatives taken in Nara, and later in Kyoto, inspired her to campaign for a possession ban at the national level.

“I’ve been trying to bring such local initiatives to state politics since Nara, my hometown, put the ordinance into effect following a tragedy in the prefecture where a little girl was killed by a child porn lover.”

The DPJ, however, has argued that local initiatives were going too far and making owning child pornography a crime could lead to abuse of police powers and that investigators should focus on those who make and distribute the material.

They have also voiced concern that a blanket ban could be extended to comics and animation, which in turn could infringe on the freedom of expression.

A rare endorsement for tougher laws from Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA), which usually avoids positions on legislation and policy, could however help revive the debate.

The NPA says child pornography is spreading on the Internet at an “unprecedented pace” so those who buy and possess it should be severely punished to curb its supply.

“Child pornography producers are making DVDs because there is demand, yet we are not able to arrest buyers,” the agency said. “Furthermore, some makers are encouraged by pedophiles to make increasingly brutal products that involve rape of children, and thus such buyers should be prosecuted as heavily as possible,” it said in a written response to queries from Reuters.

Police data show a steady rise in cases of child pornography production and distribution—there were a record 1,455 cases in 2011, up 8.4% from 2010. This year is likely to be another record with 1,016 cases by the end of July, nearly a 10% rise.

There is no comparable international data, but the latest U.S State Department human rights report describes Japan as an
“international hub for production and trafficking of child pornography.”

The report also says the lack of a ban on possession of child pornography in Japan “continued to hamper police efforts to enforce the law effectively and participate fully in international law enforcement.”

A 2002 cabinet office survey showed that 15% of Japanese men polled have seen child pornography and 10% admitted to owning it.

In Kyoto’s landmark case, police checking for illicit content online found a site selling DVDs featuring girls under 13, a local police spokesman said. Through transaction records they found the buyers: two 20-year old students and a 19-year-old office worker, who were brought in for questioning and now await charges. Their names have not been released.

LEGISLATIVE LIMBO

Advocates say only by bringing national laws into line with other major nations can Japan join the global crackdown against child pornography’s rapid spread over the Internet.

Russia is another exception, where production and distribution is a crime, but possession remains legal.

Japan signed a U.N. protocol in 2005 that bans all forms of involvement in child pornography, including its possession, and a 2007 government survey showed 90% of the Japanese public favored tougher laws.

Yet a 2008 draft law and its later versions got stuck in a legislative limbo amid frequent government changes and political trench warfare in a divided parliament.

The resistance came from lawmakers, many in the DPJ that won power in 2009, who feared the laws could be abused to frame political opponents and only proposed punishing those who buy the material “repeatedly.” Japan’s bar associations also opposed the possession ban, concerned it would give police too much leeway.

“There is the possibility that the police will use this law to investigate further into different cases that are completely unrelated to the possession of child pornography,” said Yuri Kawamura, a lawyer representing the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, an umbrella group.

Keiji Goto, a police officer-turned lawyer who campaigns for tougher laws, dismisses such concerns.

“It’s for the sake of the children, not the police’s investigative powers,” says Goto, who until 2005 investigated child pornography while in charge of a cyber crime unit.

“If simple possession is illegal, there will be less people buying and selling it, and as a consequence, there would be fewer victims of such abuse.”

Yet, the bar association’s arguments come amid criticism of Japan’s detention laws by rights groups. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have opposed the system under which judges routinely allow investigators to hold suspects for up to 23 days before they are charged.

Others who wield considerable power in the debate are manga publishers and fans, who fear that anti-porn laws could hit their genre, exposing it to censorship, and so oppose changes to current laws.

In 2010, when Tokyo authorities banned sales of sexually extreme manga and anime films to minors, publishers hit back at the ban as an infringement on free speech and 10 major publishers threatened to boycott an annual anime fair.

Some children’s rights advocates also say the portrayal of minors as sex objects has become so commonplace that the public has grown to accept it as normal. One instance is the so-called junior idol genre that features child models in DVDs and photo books striking provocative poses.

Annual sales of this industry concentrated in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district are estimated at 60 billion yen.

“Child pornography cases appear to be perceived as “crimes of images or movie scenes” not crimes with real-life victims,” says UNICEF’s Nakai. “Therefore the public opinion has yet to turn into political pressure on the Diet.”

jools posted:

like saying something is weird suggests shoulder shrugging and going HWuhhHHH??? about something as if it has no obvious cause or no cause at all, you know?

nah i think you're looking to deep into an offhand comment jools

jools posted:

its not really weird, in that capitalist masculine adulthood is defined by sexual dominance of literally everything possible, so child porn is obviously going to happen as a result, but its bad

this explains why goons always go after asian chicks

Goethestein posted:

jools posted:

like saying something is weird suggests shoulder shrugging and going HWuhhHHH??? about something as if it has no obvious cause or no cause at all, you know?

it must be nice to be able look at everything thats bad and say its capitalisms fault somehow

certainly nicer than looking at everything and saying its caused by all humans being inherently turds

jools posted:

Goethestein posted:

jools posted:

like saying something is weird suggests shoulder shrugging and going HWuhhHHH??? about something as if it has no obvious cause or no cause at all, you know?

it must be nice to be able look at everything thats bad and say its capitalisms fault somehow

certainly nicer than looking at everything and saying its caused by all humans being inherently turds

nicer, perhaps, but not as substantiated

Maoist_Third_World_Sex_Tourist posted:

jools posted:

like saying something is weird suggests shoulder shrugging and going HWuhhHHH??? about something as if it has no obvious cause or no cause at all, you know?

nah i think you're looking to deep into an offhand comment jools

Oh and MIght i just add, the ironing is delicious....

jools posted:

Goethestein posted:
jools posted:
like saying something is weird suggests shoulder shrugging and going HWuhhHHH??? about something as if it has no obvious cause or no cause at all, you know?
it must be nice to be able look at everything thats bad and say its capitalisms fault somehow


certainly nicer than looking at everything and saying its caused by all humans being inherently turds

Two arguments which are actually the same.

"Humans are douchebags!"
"No humans are awesome its all capitalism's fault!"

And who, exactly, came up with capitalism?

all in all humanity is making great progress and with a little luck after the next great extinction our society will transform into one that is not a disgrace. inshallah.