Pretty much says it all in the title. I’ve noticed lately that a lot of Japanese porn (presumably from Japan) is censored, with both male and female genitalia blurred out. But why? Is it some kind of regulation in Japan that internet streaming or down-loadable porn with Japanese actors and actresses is censored? The sites I usually go on don’t specialize in Japanese porn, nor is it something I go out of my way usually to view, but I’ve been puzzled about the occasional Japanese video that is censored, when it seems nothing else is.
Japanese law requires pornography to be censored regardless of its place of origin and manner of distribution.
If you pick up an imported issue of Playboy off the magazine rack, you’ll find that someone has taken a black marker and covered any exposed genitalia.
The question has already been answered so as a note of interest is that until the 90s, pubic hair was considered obscene and was forbidden as well.
Porn photos showing pubic hair are called “hair nude” in Japanese, an example of what is called “Wasei Eigo,” a sort of fake English where English word are put together to form a new meaning in Japanese.
Some companies tried using thin mosaics, where you could basically see everything, a few years back. However, I think the Japanese government eventually cracked down.
So, just to clarify, the censored porn videos I’m seeing are not just censored for internet and streaming video distribution, but are censored in all versions, including those presumably sold in Japan on physical media (such as DvD’s or whatever)?
Assuming that’s true, it seems…strange. After all, unless the Japanese government is using a national firewall (a la China) that censors the same porn I’m looking at, they aren’t really accomplishing much, except with their own, home grown porn industry.
And while it’s been a while since I was in Japan, I seem to recall that sex was much more open there, with stuff on their regular television that wouldn’t make it on the soft core, Playboy type channels here in the states. Granted, this was in the 80’s, but sheesh, there seemed to be a pretty healthy sex industry in Tokyo at least, that was orders of magnitude more open than here in the US.
It seems to only affect print (photos) and video. There are sites where you’ll find uncensored pics of the JAV women. Many have closeup of the “forbidden fruit” that the Japanese government doesn’t want you to see. I assume the photos were taken in Japan. However, there are also uncensored videos on the same sites. Maybe they do go elsewhere.
On a level, it’s a holdover from previous traditions, pre-WWII and post WWII. On another level, it’s just the way thigs are done. For example, mild nudity is common in mens magazine in Japan, or even teenage manga, sold over the counter, within reach of even kids. By censoring everying, even hardcore movies, they don’t have a stratified porn industry, that they have to block some content from some kids, and some further content from sensitive people. It’s all just “stuff that happens.”
But how do they block access to regular (non-Japanese, or Japanese American/European) porn? From memory, at least a segment of Japanese (male) society seems to enjoy watching anglo/European type women, and certainly THAT porn is pretty pervasive (and completely uncensored) to anyone with an internet connection. On one of the sites I frequent in fact there is a ‘Japanese’ section where just about all of the porn seems to be made in the US or Europe, though using Japanese actors and actresses, and I’d guess that 90% of it is uncensored.
I appreciate the answers btw…it’s been puzzling me for a while now because it’s so odd. Like I said, I’m not all that into Japanese porn, but the couple of times I ran across what seemed to be genuine Japanese porn they were all censored.
From what I can remember of my online japanese porn, while the areas were often pixellated, they were done in a way that those in the know could reversibly depixellate them using a separate programme.
They don’t attempt to block access to overseas porn. In fact, back in the dail-up days, a lot of Japanese got caught in scams from sites which would redirect your computer to directly dial oversea sites at exorbitant rates.
Correct.
As per above, they are not blocking overseas sites, so yes. However, it’s possible to purchase uncensored material (illegal, of course). Years ago I used to frequently get advertisements for uncensored ura videos in the mail box. I presume they can be found on the net now.
That is changing, and they are not letting as much soft porn on regular TV anymore. That went out in the 90s. I remember being very surprised to see women dancers with nude asses on a primetime show back in the early 80s. They would show rape scenes and such.
In the 90s, these were relegated to the late night shows such as Tonight Two with its regular feature on the quasi-brothel of the week and updates on Tokyo life including voyeur cafes and then have since disappeared completely.
Tokyo has increased regulation as well. Porn magazines sold over the counter now must be taped so they can’t be opened in the stores. I believe this is a local regulation and not a national law.
There was a case where the police busted a guy for selling a key to depixellate content on his site. My guess is that there isn’t a universal standard for pixelization so I would be surprised if one program could do all formats.
TokyoPlayer, thank you very much for the answers. I appreciate it, as it was definitely a puzzle. I assume these regulations are popular with a large segment of Japanese citizens, but I have to tell you that, at least based on my (somewhat outdated, granted) experience with Japanese males that I doubt they are very popular across the board. I remember one memorable trip to Guam where…well, some stories are probably best kept to ones self, I expect…
At any rate, thanks again for the information on this.
A while back there was a pedophile (in or from the US?) who (and I’m just going by vague memory here) had put up a picture on the Net of himself with a minor, but had used Photoshop or the equivalent to swirl his face. The police were able to unswirl it and identify him, so I guess that it depends on how the effects are done and if the original data is available.
Again, without knowing anything outside of news reports, for the person arrested for selling the key to depixel photos from his web-site, I would guess that it wouldn’t be that difficult to do.
They’re not really attempting to “block access” – the censorship is one of those hypocrisy-is-the-tribute-vice-pays-to-virtue things, it probably well pre-dates the Internet, the authorities probably shrugged when the Internet came along but aren’t too worked up about it but – being Japanese – weren’t about to change the rule just because circumstances had changed. And are they okay with the fact that bukkake and tentacle rape cartoons etc. etc. etc. are perfectly legal? Yes. Yes, they are.
Japan’s not the only place with archaic legal artifacts. Am I wrong in recalling that the U.K. has some fairly arbitrary rules about what (theoretically, again) can and cannot be shown in U.K. produced content?
Normal pixelation sure there is a loss of information. But if I wanted make pictures that looked pixelated when viewed with a normal jpeg viewer but then could be recovered by some algorithm I am sure I could come up with something.
