Japan bans eroge on advice of SGI; softhouses blame it on foreigners
Now, recall that RapeLay was released in 2006, but mysteriously became big news starting on May 28.
Yesterday the investigation culminated with EOCS changing its regulations, by brute force, without a joint vote, to outlaw naughty games.
Who could have such political sway?
Especially with Taro Aso being a bizarrely intense force for promoting anime and manga,
and the Diet in general being completely ineffective since Koizumi retired.
The softhouses came up with a creative answer to this question.
Somehow, somewhere, a cabal of foreign politicians had convened to ban rape games.
They decided this without any evidence whatsoever.
Furthermore, since there was no public evidence that anyone outside Japan cared, this must have been a secret conspiracy!
Nevertheless, the softhouses responded with angry English messages.
Minori, who had always been xenophobic, blocked access to their website altogether, saying:
Now we will tell you the short detail about the reason why blocking you to this website, because of we, all Japanese EROGE makers were facing at the problem, the crisis of “Freedom of speech”.
Currently, The bill that allows to limiting the content (It is censorship. Isn’t it?) to all EROGEs is being discussed in the Diet because intellectuals and politicians said “Japanese EROGE were being problem and troubled with the foreign country.
Without a shred of evidence for this claim, they blocked all foreign access.
Meanwhile, VisualArt’s, who could use a foreign intern to fix the grammar of their name, posted the following message on their website (or it was hacked by an angry wotaku with the same intention):
PLEASE PLAY THE GAME OF YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU PRAY FOR THE WORLD PEACE!:-)?
Apparently dooming us to Leisure Suit Larry for the covert actions of the secret conspiracy of foreign politicians.
But over on Canned Dogs a link was posted to New Komeito’s English news website.
The news story is dated May 30 and reads: “New Komeito is actively pushing forward a ban on video games featuring sexual violence, consulting with police and inspecting Akihabara, the so-called mecca of electronic gaming in Tokyo.”
New Komeito (rhymes with “tomato”) is the political arm of Soka Gakkai, known as SGI in the United States.
Soka Gakkai is a “new religion” (新宗教) in Japan.
They believe in many bizarre things. They think they are the only true branch of Nichirenism, which is itself a diseased form of Buddhism.
They must believe that if they ban some kinds of ero games, then Japan will have a pure Western/Godly/Buddha culture.
Yes, the Diet in general is ineffective, but Japanese people cannot deny that new religions are quite effective in what they do.
So, do not turn your sights on foreign fans of your games, who eagerly translate your games into their own languages.
Instead, I demand that eroge makers target Soka Gakkai with the same ferocity they have targeted foreign audiences.
Oh, what’s that?
You only want to criticize people who are far away?
You’re too scared to talk about people who live close to you?
Well, how about that!
July 1st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Your posts suck as always.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
My aim is that they should suck so bad that you will tell your friends about that.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 am
They may not be saying it right, but the fact is that it is foreign sensibilities that are being offended. The Japanese (politicians and companies) are trying to avoid foreign do-gooders turning censorship of Japanese media into an international issue. I think that’s why they are banning foreign IPs.
By the way, this post did not suck. Haven’t read any of your others yet.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:00 am
“My aim is that they should suck so bad that you will tell your friends about that.”
The post sucks at that too.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:43 am
I read SGI as something totally different.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 am
its too late to troll your way into this discussion, sorry :(
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 am
I THOUGHT THAT LAST BIT WAS A HACKER’S JOB :<
A Japanese hacker, but a hacker nonetheless.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Well, /I/ thought it was a nice post.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
>Western/Godly/Buddha culture
It’s crazy talk I tell you what.
>The post sucks at that too.
Well Shii posts sure always get more comments than kramson or astrange. But that’s another conspiracy.
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:18 am
No shred of evidence?
For a summary of what’s been happening with RapeLay:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/category/topics/rapelay
Equality Now’s petition campaign:
http://www.equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_3301_en.html
And lest we forget, UNICEF Japan has been performing a similar campaign for some time now.
The argument is being made that the games shame Japan before the world. One might understandably argue that this is merely a pretext being used to implement bans that have been in the works for years. But this doesn’t change the fact that foreign pressure is, in fact, being applied.
Minori’s actions are ultimately a futile gesture, of course (not to mention, due to proxies, completely ineffective). Pandora’s box was opened long ago. But worse, it is an inflammatory gesture. You have filed it under えらい釣り, yet you seem unable to resist doing a little trolling of your own with your parting shot.
But ultimately, is there anything the eroge makers can do? Do they have any real political power? Do they have any group willing to stand up for their freedom of speech? If the answer is no, then surely we can understand why they have done what they have done. An industry facing destruction — as the new guidelines recently unveiled could portend — is likely to make desperate moves.
If we expect an honest debate about this at all, we should at least try to be fair in our judgments and our criticisms. Sadly, the most reactionary and offensive opinions tend to have the widest reach. We’ve seen this recently with the recent bile-filled and hateful comments on a certain triangle-themed site accusing the Japanese of spinelessness and inaction in the face of foreign pressure. This poison has been spread far and wide on Japanese language forums as “proof” that foreigners are nothing but hateful robbers who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions.
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
>>Well Shii posts sure always get more comments than kramson or astrange. But that’s another conspiracy.
there is no one on this blog that posts under the name kramson, you dummy!! also, there’s no conspiracy here, only the sad realities of the internet :(