Tokyo Otaku Talk @ Temple this Thursday

These are heady and head-aching times in Japan--economy tanking, government paralyzed, and otaku culture in the microscope as bills to censor manga and anime await approval. The sentencing last month of Chris Handley in the US for 'obscene manga' possession have inspired fits of anxiety here in Tokyo. Otherwise reclusive manga artists staged a protest press conference on Monday, and the bill gets voted on in a low-level committee in Tokyo on Friday. [**UPDATE: According to this report in Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, helpfully translated by the folks at Anime News Network here, the vote has been postponed--possibly till June. Think the protest was effective?]

Thursday night, I speak on these issues and more with Matt Alt ("Yokai Attack!"), Patrick Galbraith ("Otaku Encyclopedia") and Renata Rusca of Kyoto Seika Daigaku. I am honored to be in such vaunted company. Please join us.

Specs and info here: GLOBALIZING OTAKU

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