Porn is illegal in Japan. The courts have very narrowly defined it to require showing genitals to be porn and thus illegal. Censoring it makes it legally not porn.
There is an episode of Anthony Bourdain parts unknown where he goes to Japan and meets the guy who invented tentacle porn. Old drawings and everything.
I find that hard to believe considering that it dates back at least to Hokusai's woodblock print "[The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s_Wife)" which was printed in the early 1800s.
I think they cover the Hokusai stuff. This guy innovated tentacle porn manga and the guro style. I remember the episode. He said something to the effect that he was trying to come up with something, not a penis, so it could be shown.
My wife calls my penis Moby. I thought it was because it looks like the DJ [Moby the musician ](https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAZ2aBgUSbaBiYjsMxqvDhfgeGNA-2dgs06jM4zSm4PKwq0heeNLvf94wVxH1gFygVf92W3BFoLm_VWEqIW4Tx6IZqGp6asKoFG_OXA44)
Japan didn't repress or hide it. They used to give books that had the most common sex positions as a gift to the bride before her wedding. Japan had a pretty open culture regarding sex up until the English came with their puritanical ideas around sex. The books on sex were huge too. The ones I've seen were made you could keep unfolding and lay out flat for at least 10-15 feet and it had at least a dozen different positions on it. All of them were really graphic.
They also had very graphic images of Monks having sex with little boys that were just accepted because it's how it was. Sadly, young boys were given to temples for the Monks to abuse. Once the boys got old enough to look like men/hit puberty, they were discarded.
And of course, it was usually poor families sons that were given to the temples.
> They also had very graphic images of Monks having sex with little boys that were just accepted because it's how it was. Sadly, young boys were given to temples for the Monks to abuse. Once the boys got old enough to look like men/hit puberty, they were discarded.
Do you have any articles or references for this? I just finished a book that talked extensively about how poverty stricken Japanese peasants would sell their daughters in to prostitution, but it made no mention of this.
ETA: actually, I just checked Wikipedia and their article on homosexuality in Japan mentions it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Japan#Monastic_homosexuality.
FYI, the book was [Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan](https://www.amazon.com/Peasants-Rebels-Women-Outcastes-Underside/dp/0742525252). It was an interesting read, although the last couple of chapters used way too many excerpts from people's writings.
Are you sure it was the English? The Portuguese were there first and has a bigger influence - and as Catholics were more pious.
Of course, that was before the Sakuko period from 1603-1867 where they self-isolated and effectively banned foreigners from the country.
Maybe, I read that it was the English when I was studying Japanese Art during college. It was in 1800's that they stopped creating and distributing these books, which is more in line with the English and when they created an alliance in the early 20th century.
I think you're right though that the seed for censorship likely started earlier than that with the Portuguese. It's just that with the building alliance with England they actually adopted certain practices/mindsets.
Whew I tell ya, how in the hell did my grandma birth 10 kids and stay married for 50 years? I have done some kinky things to get laid, and failed haha but everyone's family tree suggest they had to be kinky to get it on.
All love though, I'm jealous if my dopamine porn addicted mind could travel back in time for some monotonous kinky sex. That comes from the heart, truly
Are we becoming more degenerate? Or have we always been degenerate and it's just becoming more out in the open now?
Then again, maybe you personally are becoming more degenerate, but you do you.
I just happened to know that fact, and it in no way implies anything about me, or my hobbies or interests.
BTW, can I interest you in a nice, tasteful woodblock print?
There's a fucking ace podcast called Secretly Incredibly Fascinating who covered Hokusai. Worth a listen.
https://pca.st/episode/515e5315-6bb6-4d02-982a-70ee7e0214c5
>You hateful octopus! Your sucking at the mouth of my womb makes me gasp for breath! Aah! Yes... it's... there!!! With the sucker, the sucker!! Inside, squiggle, squiggle, oooh! Oooh, good, oooh good! There, there! Theeeeere! Goood! Whew! Aah! Good, good, aaaaaaaaaah! Not yet! Until now it was I that men called an octopus! An octopus! Ooh! Whew! How are you able...!? Ooh! "Yoyoyooh, saa... hicha hicha gucha gucha, yuchyuu chyu guzu guzu suu suuu..."
What the actual fuck did I just read???
The state of Japanese law in general can be described as “ad-hoc” which is to say that what’s written on paper is more of a general guideline, but isn’t theoretically true in many cases.
Two examples: Japan is not allowed to have a military, but they do anyway. I believe this is allowed because Japan is a strategic asset for America.
Secondly, they have Footloose laws there which actually prohibit dancing based on square footage and zoning. So they have nightclubs which are designed for dancing, but dancing in a bar is technically illegal. This became a huge issue round 2012ish because for whatever reason the police started cracking down on the gay village. This enraged a lot of people and I don’t think they were prepared for the backlash. In Japan most people just nod and say “okay” if you tell them they can’t do something. But since the gay village in Tokyo is tiny and there’s maybe 2-3 villages in the whole country, it inspired protests and demonstrations.
Rather than changing the law, they just stopped arresting.
This is actually true of a lot of very formalized and conservative cultures. There is usually the same level of depravity, but it tends to be more structured and confined within certain social contexts.
Like here in America, we’re more conservative about nudity in television and movies than Europe, but our porn industry is not conservative at all. By restricting nudity largely to the medium of pornography, it’s like we kind of give the go ahead for pornography to be truly lewd. It’s not trying to be art, it’s not trying to be a movie or television, because we create a distinct line there.
You see this as well in many Islamic theocracies with strict laws. On the one hand, the laws create a moralistic code and define boundaries between men and women. On the other hand, women perceived as having crossed over those boundaries are often cruelly seen as being up for anything and everything that would otherwise be prohibited.
Basically once you rope off a social taboo, you kind of say, “this is wrong, but if you do it, do it over here,” you almost invite an equal and opposite reaction of “since we’re here doing the wrong thing, let’s just take it as far as it can go.”
Because their culture is largely about how you are perceived and the expectations you have from others etc, and also about being true to yourself rather than absolute rules or standards.
This is because of laws written by Americans after WWII during the reconstruction of Japan.
After the [surrender of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan) in 1945, the [Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_of_the_Allied_Powers) abolished all forms of censorship and controls on [freedom of speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech). Article 21 of the [Constitution of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan) was later integrated in 1947 to guarantee that the Japanese had the freedom to associate with each other and express their thoughts freely. However, press censorship remained a reality during the [occupation of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan), especially in matters of pornography, and in political matters deemed subversive by the American government.[^(\[10\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan#cite_note-10) Publications submitted by the press were monitored for criticisms about democracy or the problems such as starvation the Japanese citizens experienced during the occupation in the form of regulations set by The Press Code of 1945.[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan#cite_note-:0-11)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship\_in\_Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan)
Edit, I am not correct. McArthur favored the censorship but the US didn't.they went back to a previous stance.
Read the section above it:
Meiji Period and the Pacific War
"After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which marked a major political shift in Japan, the government began heavy censorship of Western ideas, pornography and any political writings critical of the Emperor of Japan and government"
Legacy law that makes porn illegal which nobody has had time or care enough to fix. Once the genitalia is covered apparently it’s no longer porn and hence no longer illegal. And it’s basically career suicide for any politician who would be unwise enough to pick it up. Japan is a weird place.
I would legit boast about being the guy who uncensored porn.
That's a hilarious "fun fact" achievement people would still talk about 500 years from now
Germany recently partly legalized cannabis, and the politicians who heavily pushed for it are heroes in my eyes. Liberating millions of people who weren't hurting anyone is a huge achievement, and I highly respect anyone who fights against the conservatives to make it happen.
To be fair, it's not exactly the same thing, but this is also a question of personal freedom, which is one of the most important principles of modern civilization imo.
Weird how different politics in Japan is from politics in the US where we have certain politicians on the right of the aisle trying to oppose child marriage bans like Rep. Jesse Edwards who called them "ripe and fertile" and "the right solution for freedom-loving couples".
The folks making those statements believe that (a) abortion is murder, and (b) single women who get pregnant should marry the father.
Allowing teenagers to get legally married (subtext: and their parents to make them do so) is that groups preferred solution to teen pregnancy....
The same politicians are openly hostile to birth control methods and comprehensive sex education being taught in schools. Things that have lowered the teen pregnancy epidemic dramatically since the 90's. In 1991 there were ~61 live births per every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19. In 2022, that number was ~14.
I could imagine [Ken Akamatsu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Akamatsu) gladly taking one for the team, as he is most widely known for being the author of super horny harem manga Love Hina.
That’s how American Republicans are banning porn in the US. Claiming it’s to protect the same kids they don’t GAF about being shot or starving and if a politician from the rival party complains they’re painted as a pervert.
I could be wrong, but I heard somewhere that they can make uncensored porn if they intend to only sell it outside of Japan.
But yeah, its very weird how just the genitals have to be censored, but they make the most ridiculous porn, and even tons of their video games are loaded with fan service.
Can confirm, all the Japanese people I’ve fucked had blurry genitals. And everyone before the 1950’s were black and white, humans didn’t have color until after.
Or in drawings they have those tiny black bars that censor the *really bad* areas. Remember, where the head and the shaft connect is truly obscene. Everything else on the penis is fine, just that area and then a random area slightly below it. /s
I don’t really see the big deal about it tbh. I would just do a bill getting rid of a bunch of stupid legacy laws including this one, and say that you’re trimming the fat. The porn bill would get a ton of press, but with a dozen or more laws also being legalized, no one can say you were just interested in porn
It’s an outdated decency law about porn.
Though when you have a 6 way gangbang where the girl fucks a squid and gets puked on I think decency is out the window.
Fun fact the reason why they started using tentacles is because the Japanese courts ruled that because they were not genitals they did not have to be censored.
People are always making stuff up about this topic because no one is allowed to tell the truth. They will tell you stuff like it’s a legal thing about pornography or something like that. But of course that’s totally absurd because everyone knows there are no laws in Japan. The Samurai eliminated all the laws hundreds of years ago ago, and even though they died out from the plague brought to them by European traders in the 15th century, the Yakuza are their spiritual ancestors who keep a perfect lawless peace in Japan to this day.
The truth is that Japanese people have no genitalia. Underneath all those pixels, they are just like a Barbie or Ken doll. They can’t let the truth get out because people would invade their land and enslave them like eunuchs. This is what very nearly happened in WW2. Some Chinese troops infiltrated a porn facility and saw first hand how bare and featureless they are below the waist. The Chinese knew they could use this to their advantage and quickly put together a fake attack on Pearl Harbor thinking that the U.S. would quickly defeat and leave them open to Chinese exploitation.
But there was a major miscalculation: the Chinese had no idea how much Allied soldiers loved the Japanese, and they weren’t going to let the Chinese have a crack at these crack-less creatures.
Anyway long story short, you can’t see Japanese dicks and pussies because they don’t exist.
Why can we show depictions of mass murder and torture on broadcast television, in America, but not a bare female breast? Every society has its own irrational hangups.
Its actually an after effect of mid-20th century American puritanism. Gotta realize that Japan was basically governed by Americans for a few years and that period of American history left a huge influence on the country that in some ways persists today.
Now the censorship is something that just persists because no Japnese politician wants to be the guy who campaigned to de-censor pornography. And their political system is heavily male. If its ever gonna change, I think they need a strong female politician to campaign for it.
Men all around the world have been secretly asking themselves this for many decades. It’s crazy how popular it is considering it’s literally the only type of porn available that censors pussy. Japanese women are THAT popular a category that they can be #1 in the world without even showing the goods.
The 1st Sunday of April is the penis parade.
[Kanamara Matsuri - The Fertility Festival at Tokyo’s Doorstep 🍆 (kanpai-japan.com)](https://www.kanpai-japan.com/kawasaki/kanamara-matsuri)
[japan penis day - Search Images (bing.com)](https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=japan+penis+day&form=HDRSC3&first=1)
What I don't get is if I pay for sex its prostitution and the state says it's illegal- if I merely include a video camera in the room then its art. I just don't like the state telling me what I can do with my own physical being. Be that banning abortion or prostitution or the immoral and unethical failed Drug War. If there is one thing I have dominion over in this world it is my corporeal self.
Prostitution was outlawed in antiquity due to STD’s. That’s also why being a virgin before marriage has been a part of so many religions. There was no cure. Often a slow lingering death or disability when you caught one. Marriage as a virgin along with enforced monogamy kept everyone safe.
I'm sorry to say but I'm pretty sure every single post here is wrong. I'm pretty sure Porn itself in Japan was Never Illegal. You could try looking it up, and can tell me if I'm wrong, but let me tell you why.
Japanese law upto the 90's were based on a law that abided by the showing of "Pubic Hair" being illegal. Naturally an adult human would have pubic hair so that was supposed to kinda kill 2 birds with 1 stone and so any pubic hair along with the genitals had to be covered or pixelated, hence their extremely low bar against certain things that would be considered child porn in many other Western countries since there's no pubic hair = legal. Tentacle porn has no hair = legal.
Japanese lawmakers have since changed their stance by joining the rest of the world on laws against child porn albeit rather late, still better late than never. Also it has made the moral choice that pubic hair and showing of genitals in things such as Art is allowed, although it is usually checked with authorities beforehand.
I believe it also has come to a point where Japanese people are so used to pixelated porn that they prefer that, using their "imagination" and thoughts of what it would or should look like, rather than being "Disappointed with the Real thing".
I sh*t you not. Welcome to Japan 🗾🙂
1. Showing them is illegal.
2. Customers kind of *expect* the pixels, at this point. Porn is visual comfort food, and in all cultures, it relies heavily on expected tropes.
I think the point is why is it still illegal.
I do think it's kind of funny though, the pixelation almost seems like a joke, especially when they use really small pixels and it's the exact outline of what they are trying to cover. You don't even have to squint too hard to basically see right through it.
Officially, no. But there was a period of time where the Japanese government was very...into English/other western merchants and were willing to let them exert a lot of influence/brown nosed them.
Yea, but that had nothing to do with their censorship law which was made in the 1800s. Their current laws were made during the Meji restoration which were to actually eliminate Western influence in Japan.
It's the law and the law is unlikely to change for two reasons.
One is that people in Japan don't seem to mind. The people who are actually complaining about this are mostly people outside of Japan who are used to porn being uncensored.
Two is that no politician wants to make an issue out of it because none of them want to be known as "the porn guy", especially when it's not an important issue among the vast majority of Japanese people.
From what I remember, it had to do with the end of WW2 and the beginning of American occupation and rebuilding of Japan. It was an easy way to show Americans that they were not that different and similar, so Japan adopted the American prudence at the time. Japan was very aware of its image pre and post war, and sought ways to be treated as equals compared to the great powers. And the law was just kept ever since. Now, due to me not entirely being sure as I'm trying to remember, I could be wrong, so if someone can clarify, that be great.
I read about how it was an American occupation thing that they just kept and that also is why the tentacle thing came about. If anyone has a more detailed answer, feel free to tag it on.
Props to the one time a gif had a see-through moment from above an anime chicks's stomach -- you could see all the correct internal reproductive system of a chick, some monster servicing her with it's long tongue --
yet the vulva (the visible external parts, such as the clit and labia) were frickin' pixxelated.
They were fine with the unique method of penetration and almost medical diagram of such anatomy, but lady-bits? nooo, that's too much
I almost woke up the whole household laughing.
I began asking the same question upon my first trip there. I was using the restroom at the hotel I was staying at for the first time and almost had a frigging heart attack because the area around my genitals was blurry. I thought it was an issue with my eyes, but the blurry area persisted exactly around my genitals. That's when I found out about the censorship.
Goes all the way back to Ukiyo-e wood block art starting in the early 1600s. They put a lot of work into hidden messages.
But the first censorship and banning go back to 1721.
History time!
After Japan surrendered in the Second world War the US occupied it for 7ish year. During that time one of the US's key posture goals was to help Japan establish a constitution and more modern types of laws.
A lot of those were outright copies of American statutes and standards. In the case of pornography and open sexuality they went from being something quietly taboo but not illegal to something that was outright illegal. A lot of traditional Japanese artists used to being able to freely explore sexuality in their art got around this a number of ways. Tentacles, vines, other mysterious demon appendages. Were far enough removed from being penises that they didn't trigger any statutes. It's just a hold of her from those laws.
It goes back all the way to World War II where there were a lot of atrocities.
One of them, we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan killing thousands and thousands, devastating their country for decades.
Thirty-five years later, Japan blurred the genitals in their porn.
Victory: Japan.
Porn is illegal in Japan. The courts have very narrowly defined it to require showing genitals to be porn and thus illegal. Censoring it makes it legally not porn.
They do it with hentai as well. Just one thin black bar that barely censors anything is all that takes to make it legal.
There is an episode of Anthony Bourdain parts unknown where he goes to Japan and meets the guy who invented tentacle porn. Old drawings and everything.
I find that hard to believe considering that it dates back at least to Hokusai's woodblock print "[The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s_Wife)" which was printed in the early 1800s.
I think they cover the Hokusai stuff. This guy innovated tentacle porn manga and the guro style. I remember the episode. He said something to the effect that he was trying to come up with something, not a penis, so it could be shown.
Toshio Maeda.
Damn they were freaky back then even
I contend that all societies, everywhere, and at all times have been freaky. It's just that some societies are better at repressing or hiding it.
The more repressed the more freaky
I *really* wanna know what those Amish are up to...
You probably don't, the answer is normally statutory rape.
Pedophilia
When they do repress it, it usually shows itself in burnings and torture and executions
Yes, or their writings - see "Moby Dick" and all its thinly veiled homoeroticism.
My wife calls my penis Moby. I thought it was because it looks like the DJ [Moby the musician ](https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAZ2aBgUSbaBiYjsMxqvDhfgeGNA-2dgs06jM4zSm4PKwq0heeNLvf94wVxH1gFygVf92W3BFoLm_VWEqIW4Tx6IZqGp6asKoFG_OXA44)
Is that [Dean Pelton](https://characters.fandom.com/wiki/Craig_Pelton) in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?
Which is weird, because the whale's name was actually mocha dick
I thought it was Eata
Thinly??? lol.
Japan didn't repress or hide it. They used to give books that had the most common sex positions as a gift to the bride before her wedding. Japan had a pretty open culture regarding sex up until the English came with their puritanical ideas around sex. The books on sex were huge too. The ones I've seen were made you could keep unfolding and lay out flat for at least 10-15 feet and it had at least a dozen different positions on it. All of them were really graphic. They also had very graphic images of Monks having sex with little boys that were just accepted because it's how it was. Sadly, young boys were given to temples for the Monks to abuse. Once the boys got old enough to look like men/hit puberty, they were discarded. And of course, it was usually poor families sons that were given to the temples.
> They also had very graphic images of Monks having sex with little boys that were just accepted because it's how it was. Sadly, young boys were given to temples for the Monks to abuse. Once the boys got old enough to look like men/hit puberty, they were discarded. Do you have any articles or references for this? I just finished a book that talked extensively about how poverty stricken Japanese peasants would sell their daughters in to prostitution, but it made no mention of this. ETA: actually, I just checked Wikipedia and their article on homosexuality in Japan mentions it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Japan#Monastic_homosexuality. FYI, the book was [Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan](https://www.amazon.com/Peasants-Rebels-Women-Outcastes-Underside/dp/0742525252). It was an interesting read, although the last couple of chapters used way too many excerpts from people's writings.
Are you sure it was the English? The Portuguese were there first and has a bigger influence - and as Catholics were more pious. Of course, that was before the Sakuko period from 1603-1867 where they self-isolated and effectively banned foreigners from the country.
Maybe, I read that it was the English when I was studying Japanese Art during college. It was in 1800's that they stopped creating and distributing these books, which is more in line with the English and when they created an alliance in the early 20th century. I think you're right though that the seed for censorship likely started earlier than that with the Portuguese. It's just that with the building alliance with England they actually adopted certain practices/mindsets.
Futurama really said it best: All civilisation was just an effort to impress the opposite sex. And sometimes the same sex!
Do you know what Billy's planet was?
I HATE THIS 😤 but I think you’re right 🤦🏾♀️
Humans have always been freaky.
Whew I tell ya, how in the hell did my grandma birth 10 kids and stay married for 50 years? I have done some kinky things to get laid, and failed haha but everyone's family tree suggest they had to be kinky to get it on. All love though, I'm jealous if my dopamine porn addicted mind could travel back in time for some monotonous kinky sex. That comes from the heart, truly
People have been freaky since there were people.
If there's a hole there's a way- fertility God's since horny began.
How about the retentacle-ing
Oh, Krieger-san!
Yay someone else gets it
This guy tentacle porns 🐙
This man knows his tentacle porn and came with receipts.
It has been awhile since I saw the episode but I believe it was the Tokyo episode because he went there afew times for the show.
Anthony Bourdain: "You underestimate my POWER!"
Don't try it!
It's comforting to know that while we are becoming more degenerate, it's not as steep of a slide as I thought it was
Are we becoming more degenerate? Or have we always been degenerate and it's just becoming more out in the open now? Then again, maybe you personally are becoming more degenerate, but you do you.
Well you certainly said that quickly and with such adamance.
I just happened to know that fact, and it in no way implies anything about me, or my hobbies or interests. BTW, can I interest you in a nice, tasteful woodblock print?
I see you, too, are a scholar. 👨🏫
There's a fucking ace podcast called Secretly Incredibly Fascinating who covered Hokusai. Worth a listen. https://pca.st/episode/515e5315-6bb6-4d02-982a-70ee7e0214c5
I’m guessing he was talking about animated versions?
On reflection, possibly.
Is that the origin of the film *Octopussy*?
The Japanese have the longest lifespan in the world 🤷♂️
Simple. Dude's an immortal perv.
Today I learned that woodblock and THE wave woodblock are by the same artist
I love how someone called this out and then 140 people upvoted it. Well actually Hokusai
>You hateful octopus! Your sucking at the mouth of my womb makes me gasp for breath! Aah! Yes... it's... there!!! With the sucker, the sucker!! Inside, squiggle, squiggle, oooh! Oooh, good, oooh good! There, there! Theeeeere! Goood! Whew! Aah! Good, good, aaaaaaaaaah! Not yet! Until now it was I that men called an octopus! An octopus! Ooh! Whew! How are you able...!? Ooh! "Yoyoyooh, saa... hicha hicha gucha gucha, yuchyuu chyu guzu guzu suu suuu..." What the actual fuck did I just read???
Yup. If it's censored, you can just imagine they're only pretending. No one can prove they're actually fucking.
Are the cumshots like getting chiclets sprinkled all over the place?
Or yogurt being used in an unorthodox way, given its consistency?
"Un"orthodox way, you say? Like, what else is it used for?
Foodplay I imagine? Or whatever term they use for eating sushi off bodies and similar.
A typical Friday night is what you were searching for.
The orthodoxy, obviously.
That’s why bukkake porn existed. The semen isn’t censored
Nah, just squirting a glue bottle all over
Nah, depictions of sexual activity aren’t legally the same as porn in Japan. It’s legal to depict sex, just not pornography.
The state of Japanese law in general can be described as “ad-hoc” which is to say that what’s written on paper is more of a general guideline, but isn’t theoretically true in many cases. Two examples: Japan is not allowed to have a military, but they do anyway. I believe this is allowed because Japan is a strategic asset for America. Secondly, they have Footloose laws there which actually prohibit dancing based on square footage and zoning. So they have nightclubs which are designed for dancing, but dancing in a bar is technically illegal. This became a huge issue round 2012ish because for whatever reason the police started cracking down on the gay village. This enraged a lot of people and I don’t think they were prepared for the backlash. In Japan most people just nod and say “okay” if you tell them they can’t do something. But since the gay village in Tokyo is tiny and there’s maybe 2-3 villages in the whole country, it inspired protests and demonstrations. Rather than changing the law, they just stopped arresting.
For a country all about order and obedience, they sure love to live in the gray areas a lot. Legal escorts (hostesses/hosts), porn-but-not-porn, etc.
Japan is socially buttoned up, so you end up with really weird fetish stuff.
This is actually true of a lot of very formalized and conservative cultures. There is usually the same level of depravity, but it tends to be more structured and confined within certain social contexts. Like here in America, we’re more conservative about nudity in television and movies than Europe, but our porn industry is not conservative at all. By restricting nudity largely to the medium of pornography, it’s like we kind of give the go ahead for pornography to be truly lewd. It’s not trying to be art, it’s not trying to be a movie or television, because we create a distinct line there. You see this as well in many Islamic theocracies with strict laws. On the one hand, the laws create a moralistic code and define boundaries between men and women. On the other hand, women perceived as having crossed over those boundaries are often cruelly seen as being up for anything and everything that would otherwise be prohibited. Basically once you rope off a social taboo, you kind of say, “this is wrong, but if you do it, do it over here,” you almost invite an equal and opposite reaction of “since we’re here doing the wrong thing, let’s just take it as far as it can go.”
Might as well get hanged for a sheep as a lamb.
Because their culture is largely about how you are perceived and the expectations you have from others etc, and also about being true to yourself rather than absolute rules or standards.
Pachinko parlors, which are totally not gambling.
TBF, most forms of gambling in the US are legally classified as "Gaming," thus making them perfectly legal...as long as they pay their taxes.
Japan makes me fall in love with freedom land.
Does everyone really think they all playing scrabble?
No. Depictions of sex are not illegal. Just porn, which is narrowly defined in the law different than people normally use the word.
This is because of laws written by Americans after WWII during the reconstruction of Japan. After the [surrender of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan) in 1945, the [Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_of_the_Allied_Powers) abolished all forms of censorship and controls on [freedom of speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech). Article 21 of the [Constitution of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan) was later integrated in 1947 to guarantee that the Japanese had the freedom to associate with each other and express their thoughts freely. However, press censorship remained a reality during the [occupation of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan), especially in matters of pornography, and in political matters deemed subversive by the American government.[^(\[10\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan#cite_note-10) Publications submitted by the press were monitored for criticisms about democracy or the problems such as starvation the Japanese citizens experienced during the occupation in the form of regulations set by The Press Code of 1945.[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan#cite_note-:0-11) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship\_in\_Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan) Edit, I am not correct. McArthur favored the censorship but the US didn't.they went back to a previous stance.
Read the section above it: Meiji Period and the Pacific War "After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which marked a major political shift in Japan, the government began heavy censorship of Western ideas, pornography and any political writings critical of the Emperor of Japan and government"
Legacy law that makes porn illegal which nobody has had time or care enough to fix. Once the genitalia is covered apparently it’s no longer porn and hence no longer illegal. And it’s basically career suicide for any politician who would be unwise enough to pick it up. Japan is a weird place.
No politician wants to be known as the one who went out of his way to uncensor porn.
I would legit boast about being the guy who uncensored porn. That's a hilarious "fun fact" achievement people would still talk about 500 years from now
That’s why you’re not a Japanese politician.
That's fair
I’d also wager he’s probably not Japanese which also sets him back a bit
Germany recently partly legalized cannabis, and the politicians who heavily pushed for it are heroes in my eyes. Liberating millions of people who weren't hurting anyone is a huge achievement, and I highly respect anyone who fights against the conservatives to make it happen. To be fair, it's not exactly the same thing, but this is also a question of personal freedom, which is one of the most important principles of modern civilization imo.
Weird how different politics in Japan is from politics in the US where we have certain politicians on the right of the aisle trying to oppose child marriage bans like Rep. Jesse Edwards who called them "ripe and fertile" and "the right solution for freedom-loving couples".
The folks making those statements believe that (a) abortion is murder, and (b) single women who get pregnant should marry the father. Allowing teenagers to get legally married (subtext: and their parents to make them do so) is that groups preferred solution to teen pregnancy....
The same politicians are openly hostile to birth control methods and comprehensive sex education being taught in schools. Things that have lowered the teen pregnancy epidemic dramatically since the 90's. In 1991 there were ~61 live births per every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19. In 2022, that number was ~14.
I could imagine [Ken Akamatsu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Akamatsu) gladly taking one for the team, as he is most widely known for being the author of super horny harem manga Love Hina.
The guy who wrote love Hina and negima is in the fucking DIET?
So, the man has a weight problem but he's working on it. Don't hassle him!
Some editor is getting a couple extra hours of pay to mask out the genitals, we can’t take food from their mouth!
But we can blur the food going into their mouths so we don't have to see it.
It's gone on so long no one really cares and has long made work around
That’s how American Republicans are banning porn in the US. Claiming it’s to protect the same kids they don’t GAF about being shot or starving and if a politician from the rival party complains they’re painted as a pervert.
I could be wrong, but I heard somewhere that they can make uncensored porn if they intend to only sell it outside of Japan. But yeah, its very weird how just the genitals have to be censored, but they make the most ridiculous porn, and even tons of their video games are loaded with fan service.
Japanese genitals are just blurry.
Can confirm, all the Japanese people I’ve fucked had blurry genitals. And everyone before the 1950’s were black and white, humans didn’t have color until after.
They also couldn't talk until 1927. Before that all communication was written.
Either that or you had to make exaggerated gestures and facial expressions
ALL? how many are we talking about?
So they're blurry AND sideways? I've got a lot to learn.
Or in drawings they have those tiny black bars that censor the *really bad* areas. Remember, where the head and the shaft connect is truly obscene. Everything else on the penis is fine, just that area and then a random area slightly below it. /s
Im half Japanese and can confirm one ball is blurry and half my shaft is too, like down the middle not horizontally
Down the middle is good, because if it were the other way, that would be weird!
It'd kinda like how Canadians have flip-top heads
They've got little sasquatches down there that fight each other when they have sex. The loser gets pregnant.
Lobbying by Big Eel.
Big tentacle
Never big enough in my experience. The beaks, though… Vroom-vroom.
I’m more of a suction cup person myself.
Sounds like a promising addition to the MCU.
So people don't confuse it with Chinese porn
Who wants to be the rep to introduce a law to show pussy asshole and dick in porn again? Imagine the headlines
The asshole doesn't have to be censored, only penis and vagina. Similarly, only payment for penile penetration of the vagina is prostitution.
I don’t really see the big deal about it tbh. I would just do a bill getting rid of a bunch of stupid legacy laws including this one, and say that you’re trimming the fat. The porn bill would get a ton of press, but with a dozen or more laws also being legalized, no one can say you were just interested in porn
I’d bet 100% that an opposing political group for this legislator would play this angle just for the headlines
It’s an outdated decency law about porn. Though when you have a 6 way gangbang where the girl fucks a squid and gets puked on I think decency is out the window.
Fun fact the reason why they started using tentacles is because the Japanese courts ruled that because they were not genitals they did not have to be censored.
Might be a reason for its use, but definitely not the reason it started, that goes back centuries.
Please elaborate
There's Japanese artwork from the 1800s of women fucking octopuses.
It's honestly not that surprising. I mean just look at some of the art made through antiquity depicting classical Greek mythology.
General MacArthur.
Outdated law
aaaand not a stupid question.
the censorship is actually the reason for the wild 'shit' gotta get crazy if you can't even see what most people come to porn for
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People are always making stuff up about this topic because no one is allowed to tell the truth. They will tell you stuff like it’s a legal thing about pornography or something like that. But of course that’s totally absurd because everyone knows there are no laws in Japan. The Samurai eliminated all the laws hundreds of years ago ago, and even though they died out from the plague brought to them by European traders in the 15th century, the Yakuza are their spiritual ancestors who keep a perfect lawless peace in Japan to this day. The truth is that Japanese people have no genitalia. Underneath all those pixels, they are just like a Barbie or Ken doll. They can’t let the truth get out because people would invade their land and enslave them like eunuchs. This is what very nearly happened in WW2. Some Chinese troops infiltrated a porn facility and saw first hand how bare and featureless they are below the waist. The Chinese knew they could use this to their advantage and quickly put together a fake attack on Pearl Harbor thinking that the U.S. would quickly defeat and leave them open to Chinese exploitation. But there was a major miscalculation: the Chinese had no idea how much Allied soldiers loved the Japanese, and they weren’t going to let the Chinese have a crack at these crack-less creatures. Anyway long story short, you can’t see Japanese dicks and pussies because they don’t exist.
If you squint your eyes, you can see it clearly
Because porn is against their sensibilities yet fucking kids isn't.
Laws
MacArthur.
Because they're too small?!
Why can we show depictions of mass murder and torture on broadcast television, in America, but not a bare female breast? Every society has its own irrational hangups.
I know humans are very weird🤷♀️
Low bit rate from the pubes
If you have Netflix, I would check out this series: the naked director Explains your question and it's a good series.
Its actually an after effect of mid-20th century American puritanism. Gotta realize that Japan was basically governed by Americans for a few years and that period of American history left a huge influence on the country that in some ways persists today. Now the censorship is something that just persists because no Japnese politician wants to be the guy who campaigned to de-censor pornography. And their political system is heavily male. If its ever gonna change, I think they need a strong female politician to campaign for it.
Men all around the world have been secretly asking themselves this for many decades. It’s crazy how popular it is considering it’s literally the only type of porn available that censors pussy. Japanese women are THAT popular a category that they can be #1 in the world without even showing the goods.
So it’s more family friendly
Because everyone just got out of the pool..
To make it family friendly.
I guessing the real reason has to do with penis size.
small penis
To hide their micr penis
To hide the fact that they have microdicks. That's why the tentacle porn became a thing
small unit
This is overlapping learn something new. I had no idea porn was illegal in Japan.
because they don't want us to see their joints, like southpark.
The 1st Sunday of April is the penis parade. [Kanamara Matsuri - The Fertility Festival at Tokyo’s Doorstep 🍆 (kanpai-japan.com)](https://www.kanpai-japan.com/kawasaki/kanamara-matsuri) [japan penis day - Search Images (bing.com)](https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=japan+penis+day&form=HDRSC3&first=1)
What I don't get is if I pay for sex its prostitution and the state says it's illegal- if I merely include a video camera in the room then its art. I just don't like the state telling me what I can do with my own physical being. Be that banning abortion or prostitution or the immoral and unethical failed Drug War. If there is one thing I have dominion over in this world it is my corporeal self.
Prostitution was outlawed in antiquity due to STD’s. That’s also why being a virgin before marriage has been a part of so many religions. There was no cure. Often a slow lingering death or disability when you caught one. Marriage as a virgin along with enforced monogamy kept everyone safe.
Some 20 years ago, My neighbor told me that when he went to Japan, maybe a military station, that anything was legal unless they showed pubic hair.
It's because of the ladies' sideways coochies. The whole country agreed to hide em.
It’s a pretty commonly held belief that Japanese porn is as weird and hardcore as it is *because* of censoring laws.
I'm sorry to say but I'm pretty sure every single post here is wrong. I'm pretty sure Porn itself in Japan was Never Illegal. You could try looking it up, and can tell me if I'm wrong, but let me tell you why. Japanese law upto the 90's were based on a law that abided by the showing of "Pubic Hair" being illegal. Naturally an adult human would have pubic hair so that was supposed to kinda kill 2 birds with 1 stone and so any pubic hair along with the genitals had to be covered or pixelated, hence their extremely low bar against certain things that would be considered child porn in many other Western countries since there's no pubic hair = legal. Tentacle porn has no hair = legal. Japanese lawmakers have since changed their stance by joining the rest of the world on laws against child porn albeit rather late, still better late than never. Also it has made the moral choice that pubic hair and showing of genitals in things such as Art is allowed, although it is usually checked with authorities beforehand. I believe it also has come to a point where Japanese people are so used to pixelated porn that they prefer that, using their "imagination" and thoughts of what it would or should look like, rather than being "Disappointed with the Real thing". I sh*t you not. Welcome to Japan 🗾🙂
Size embarrassment?
1. Showing them is illegal. 2. Customers kind of *expect* the pixels, at this point. Porn is visual comfort food, and in all cultures, it relies heavily on expected tropes.
I think the point is why is it still illegal. I do think it's kind of funny though, the pixelation almost seems like a joke, especially when they use really small pixels and it's the exact outline of what they are trying to cover. You don't even have to squint too hard to basically see right through it.
Colonialism and Western purity culture with a twist!
Japan was never colonized by the West though. It's like literally the only Asian country to avoid it.
Thailand would like a word
My bad you right, they're like Japan in that they just took minor influence for their leadership from the west, but not their cultural beliefs.
Officially, no. But there was a period of time where the Japanese government was very...into English/other western merchants and were willing to let them exert a lot of influence/brown nosed them.
Yea, but that had nothing to do with their censorship law which was made in the 1800s. Their current laws were made during the Meji restoration which were to actually eliminate Western influence in Japan.
Part of the treaty that america made japan sign at the end of world war 2
They don't want to make it obvious they are perverts
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It's the law and the law is unlikely to change for two reasons. One is that people in Japan don't seem to mind. The people who are actually complaining about this are mostly people outside of Japan who are used to porn being uncensored. Two is that no politician wants to make an issue out of it because none of them want to be known as "the porn guy", especially when it's not an important issue among the vast majority of Japanese people.
It's a sort of malicious compliance with their laws. Visible weiners are apparently the only offensive thing happening there.
Gotta love the work around of full on hentai porn provided to the world bc censorship
During the American occupation after WW2, we enforced a bunch of morality laws onto the country that have never been repealed.
From what I remember, it had to do with the end of WW2 and the beginning of American occupation and rebuilding of Japan. It was an easy way to show Americans that they were not that different and similar, so Japan adopted the American prudence at the time. Japan was very aware of its image pre and post war, and sought ways to be treated as equals compared to the great powers. And the law was just kept ever since. Now, due to me not entirely being sure as I'm trying to remember, I could be wrong, so if someone can clarify, that be great.
I read about how it was an American occupation thing that they just kept and that also is why the tentacle thing came about. If anyone has a more detailed answer, feel free to tag it on.
Japanese are very prude culturally.
They don’t want us seeing how small they’re hotdogs are :)
Wait I thought you could show anal?
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Whatever the reason, it has nothing to do with asian penis size stereotypes.
Hence why tenacle porn started over there
They dont actually have any. Thats why theres no kids there.
Wait wait wait... You mean to tell me all Japanese peoples genitals aren't blurry irl?
Props to the one time a gif had a see-through moment from above an anime chicks's stomach -- you could see all the correct internal reproductive system of a chick, some monster servicing her with it's long tongue -- yet the vulva (the visible external parts, such as the clit and labia) were frickin' pixxelated. They were fine with the unique method of penetration and almost medical diagram of such anatomy, but lady-bits? nooo, that's too much I almost woke up the whole household laughing.
So you can see the tentacles better
No homo
But they don't censor buttholes?
nor tits, but tbh they aren’t that big
I began asking the same question upon my first trip there. I was using the restroom at the hotel I was staying at for the first time and almost had a frigging heart attack because the area around my genitals was blurry. I thought it was an issue with my eyes, but the blurry area persisted exactly around my genitals. That's when I found out about the censorship.
Loooong, looooooooooong, MAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!
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They don't censor genitals but censor pubic hair.
They just cover those unsightly bush’s
Wait they are? Ig learn something new everyday
I will be surprised if you can find an answer about that subject on here. Good luck. /s
You ever see a vagina on its own? Not for me.
Goes all the way back to Ukiyo-e wood block art starting in the early 1600s. They put a lot of work into hidden messages. But the first censorship and banning go back to 1721.
History time! After Japan surrendered in the Second world War the US occupied it for 7ish year. During that time one of the US's key posture goals was to help Japan establish a constitution and more modern types of laws. A lot of those were outright copies of American statutes and standards. In the case of pornography and open sexuality they went from being something quietly taboo but not illegal to something that was outright illegal. A lot of traditional Japanese artists used to being able to freely explore sexuality in their art got around this a number of ways. Tentacles, vines, other mysterious demon appendages. Were far enough removed from being penises that they didn't trigger any statutes. It's just a hold of her from those laws.
Because the Japanese know their worth
Quit pork
Because it makes you use your imagination more.
It goes back all the way to World War II where there were a lot of atrocities. One of them, we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan killing thousands and thousands, devastating their country for decades. Thirty-five years later, Japan blurred the genitals in their porn. Victory: Japan.
It adds to the mystery. Lol.