Misconceptions and deliberate hyperbole about manga and anime are nothing new, but a CNN segment that aired in June was so impressively wrong that our piece on it was one of the most visited on the site this year. In…
Although production and distribution of underage pornography have been illegal in Japan for (only) 15 years, possession of it currently is not. That will change later this month, when a law passed last week by the country’s House of Representatives…
Over the past few weeks, the popular Japanese cooking manga Oishinbo has come under fire from residents and government officials of Fukushima Prefecture, who say that it inaccurately depicts the effect of radiation exposure on visitors to the nuclear plant…
We’re slowly getting more details on last week’s news that Keiji Nakazawa’s manga Barefoot Gen had been banned from yet another Japanese school district. According to major sources including Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun, Izumisano City officials planned to return…
An anime series featuring erotically charged scenes between stepsiblings will be moved from 10:30 p.m. to the early morning hours on Japanese TV after the non-governmental Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO) launched an investigation into complaints about “heavy…
The climate of the video gaming industry has long been riddled with controversy on the content of various titles: Are they too violent? Are they capitalizing on war as a form of entertainment? Are they objectifying women? While these may…
Earlier this month, CBLDF received word that editors of the popular Japanese comics publication Core Magazine pleaded guilty to charges of obscenity. The conviction marks an escalation in the assault on free expression in the Japanese manga industry by Tokyo…
In July, three people, including Akira Ōta, who heads the editorial department at Core Magazine, were arrested in Japan amid accusations of obscenity. According to CBLDF’s source in Japan, the Core Magazine case went to court, and despite predictions of a…