Tokyo's 'Virtual Porn / Nonexistent Youth' Law going down


Via ANN & Asahi--("Are they talking about ghosts or something?"):

The General Affairs Committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly has voted down the bill to regulate sexualized depictions of "nonexistent youths." The bill would prohibit sexualized depictions of "nonexistent youths" — such as in manga, anime, games, and other materials — from being sold to minors. Committee members from the Democratic Party of Japan (the largest faction in the assembly), the Japanese Communist Party, and the Tokyo Seikatsusha Network party voted against the bill. According to the Asahi Shimbun paper, the bill also faces defeat before the entire assembly on Wednesday.

The bill is supported by the Liberal Democratic Party, which is the second largest faction in the assembly and the party of Tokyo's current governor, Shintarō Ishihara. The LDP and its New Komeito Party ally introduced a second version of the bill that attempted to clarify its vague, convoluted language. Among other changes, the second version replaced the newly invented term "nonexistent youth" with "depicted youth"; Governor Ishihara himself said in May that the term "nonexistent youth" makes people wonder, "Are they talking about ghosts or something?" However, the second version of the bill was also voted down in committee.


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