Japan must crack down on child porn: activists

Japan is considered a major global source of child porn — in part because, while production and distribution of child pornography are illegal, its possession is not.

Keiji Goto, head of the lawyers' Forum Against Child Pornography, said he did not understand why the center-left government in power since last year has not cracked down on images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors.

The National Police Agency this year reported that law enforcers took action in a record 935 child porn cases last year, up 38 percent from 2008.

Goto also called for a ban on child pornography in the form of manga cartoons and computer graphics, which are now legal, saying they “are as realistic as the child pornography in the form of video and photography.”

“One of the worst cases of those animation images depicts a graphic scene of the rape of an infant,” Goto said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. “Tolerating this means our society tolerates child pornography.”

A group of Japanese cartoonists in March protested against a Tokyo metropolitan government plan to tighten rules against sexual images of minors in comics, animation and computer game software.

The cartoonists said the measures would “violate freedom of expression.”

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email