Otaku Harassed as Sex-Crime Fears Mount

[tsukaesugi]

Otaku harassed as sex-crime fears mount
Spa! (Feb 1.)

The kidnap-murder of a 7-year-old Nara Prefecture girl last November raised the inevitable question: What sort of human being would do such an inhuman thing?
Ideas flew thick and fast -- for how could so appalling a crime fail to stir thought? The perpetrator, it was said, would be socially withdrawn, unemployed, wrapped up in computer games and cell-phone photography and other hyperelectronic pastimes. Real life would have passed him by. His sexual orientation would be uncertain, focusing on children, dolls and manga characters.

So went the newspaper and TV talk-show speculation. Once more, it seems, it was open season on otaku, that swelling population of mostly young, male, disengaged "maniacs" ("nerds" is another frequent English translation) who devote themselves, usually quietly and harmlessly but with a single-mindedness that in extreme cases can distort the personality, to hobbies and fantasies the bustling outside world has no time for.

Are otaku dangerous? Or are the media and others merely scapegoating easy targets, irresponsibly provoking public aversion toward unconventional lifestyles?

Several weeks after the child's murder, police arrested a 36-year-old newspaper sales agent named Kaoru Kobayashi -- a past sex offender, apparently, but no otaku as the term is commonly understood.

Somehow, says Spa!, that has not let otaku off the hook. "Otaku-bashing" continues. Local governments call for restrictions against "otaku-media" -- ero-games, ero-dolls, ero-manga and so on. Police, notably in Tokyo's Akihabara, go "otaku-hunting," Spa! claims, rounding up otaku-looking individuals on the slightest pretexts and subjecting them to questioning or arrest.

And yet "there is no scientific evidence that anime and manga lead to sex crime," says a lawyer working with an otaku support group.

Maybe not, but public impressions are not formed by scientific evidence alone, and when, back in 1989, serial child-killer Tsutomu Miyazaki was found in possession of thousands of pornographic anime and slasher videos, a connection was made that has proven indelible.

Is it false?

It is at least oversimplified, Spa! believes. People have been quick to conclude, on the basis of a handful of sensational sex-murders, that Japan is awash in child pornography. Measured in terms of the number of child porn Web sites, that is not true, Italian researchers have found lately. The United States might have a serious problem in that regard -- its child-porn sites, numbering 10,503, constitute 61.72 percent of the world's total. Japan ranks eighth, with 165 sites comprising 0.72 percent of the total.

Does the cartoon eroticism of otaku-oriented manga and games cause crime? It could just as easily prevent it, maintains journalist Nobuto Hosaka -- by providing an outlet for anti-social compulsions that might otherwise demand expression on the streets.

Furthermore, argues Hosaka, "if manga catering to the Lolita complex are harmful, what about historical dramas, with people getting killed right and left? Why not ban suspense movies? How come gang-war films aren't a problem?"

They probably are, though not a widely acknowledged one. Mainstream entertainment has this advantage over fringe entertainment: Few question its right to exist. Does the revulsion inspired by hard-core otaku ero-entertainment have any basis in objective reality, or is it mere blind prejudice, amounting, in Spa!'s view, to "persecution?"

"People have come to think," said an Aichi Prefecture assembly representative of the effects of otaku cyber-culture on the young, "that death can be undone simply by pressing the reset button." The assembly is debating a bill that would require "harmful" labels to be affixed on certain game software.

It's the age-old conflict, in post-modern, 21st-century dress, between the claims of freedom and the claims of public order, heightened by the increasingly blurred boundary between fantasy and reality. No ultimate solution is in sight.

The Japan Times: Feb. 6, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20050206tc.htm

[RAINBOW PONY]

OTAKU WILL BE CUT

[Jedite]

Anime is just another that people place blame on, because since they can't blame themselves. So, instead they make a scapegoat, and blame it on that, just like Video games. What's next? American cartoons support terrorism?

[roker]

ok

I'm going to express some unpopular, non-liberal views:

Is it safe to assume that expressing a view that conflicts with the freedom of speech may be an unpopular endeavor?

Besides the obvious, "We should have the freedom to make our own decisions, etc.) Don't you think violence and sex sells? Would it also be safe to assume by offering a substantial opposing voice, profits could see a decrease in the areas of TV, Film, Music, Literature, etc.

You could say there is a lot on the table per se. If you're a representative of a company that makes millions from this stuff, are you going to let some people with opposing views ruin it? I'm not saying it leads to violence, I just like to ponder the other aspect of it.

Personally I think a person with a warped view on reality will remain so if not properly guided by a parental or role model figure. Then again, that's only in a perfect world.

I'm pretty dual-sided. I don't like to stick to one side of an arguement, as it can cloud your judgement.

[bokmeow]

Don't prevaricate about the bush tsukaesugi, just start pointing fingers and say DashK did it. :kekeke:

[sQuareh4t3r]

That's some heavy news. I didn't hear anything about that, and I have close friends in Japan from my time spent in Nara. I'll have to ask them about that incident, although I assume they will be rather tight-lipped on the matter. Crazy.

[jethrek]

Originally Posted by roke stAr

ok

I'm going to express some unpopular, non-liberal views:

Is it safe to assume that expressing a view that conflicts with the freedom of speech may be an unpopular endeavor?

Besides the obvious, "We should have the freedom to make our own decisions, etc.) Don't you think violence and sex sells? Would it also be safe to assume by offering a substantial opposing voice, profits could see a decrease in the areas of TV, Film, Music, Literature, etc.

You could say there is a lot on the table per se. If you're a representative of a company that makes millions from this stuff, are you going to let some people with opposing views ruin it? I'm not saying it leads to violence, I just like to ponder the other aspect of it.

Personally I think a person with a warped view on reality will remain so if not properly guided by a parental or role model figure. Then again, that's only in a perfect world.

I'm pretty dual-sided. I don't like to stick to one side of an arguement, as it can cloud your judgement.

Have we not seent he exact same trend in Americ? It is quickly asserted and I think it's not unreasonable to say it doesn't get shot down enough. Remember Columbine? What was the first thing we heard about?

Video Games.

Now, video games actually teach you nothing about holding a gun. In fact, if all you do is play video games, no matter how violent, there's absolutely no way you're shooting people.

And even with gun culture, which the left has tried to blame, it's equally unfounded. A study of Columbine shows that the problems were problems WITH THE KIDS. Not problems with pop culture.

Of course, there is no question culture affects individuals, however even in the strictest and most controlled societies you can find sex trade, violence, and rape. Is it not more reasonable to conclude that entertainment is a very little piece of a big picture, and that the media is quick to look for scapegoats instead of addressing more important societal problems?

Case in point, Columbine. There were attempts to blame video games, gun culture, trenchcoats, and military gear. Nobody ever wanted to look up and ponder the rift in our society between jocks and geeks that led to a near gang-war just prior to Columbine that would have existed even if two of the Trenchcoat Mafia hadn't lost it and gone on a rampage.

Perhaps it's just because so much of an important concern is too complex to sum up the way scapegoating video games can be stuck in a sentance and be totally trasparent.

Japanese society sees a great deal of problems concerning youtht and introversion, including a horrific suicide rate. "Otaku"ism may in fact give these trouble youths an outlet that prevents them from killing themselves or others. Here, video games may in fact give an outlet for frustrated teenagers to take out their anger without harming anyone. I think this possibility that entertainment provides an escape, just like it's supposed to, is extremely important to remember.

[kobylka68]

Otaku aren't dangerous. Wierd..yes, but not dangerous.

[oldschool]

Originally Posted by tsukaesugi

Otaku harassed as sex-crime fears mount
Spa! (Feb 1.)

...Measured in terms of the number of child porn Web sites, that is not true, Italian researchers have found lately.

The Japan Times: Feb. 6, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20050206tc.htm

Shit...our main man Shito is already hard at work on this case. More details to follow...

[TonK]

Originally Posted by oldschool

Shit...our main man Shito is already hard at work on this case. More details to follow...

Very well executed...

[CTwitty]

Originally Posted by kobylka68

Otaku aren't dangerous. Wierd..yes, but not dangerous.

Have you been to an anime convetion?

THESE PEOPLE DO NOT BATHE!

Being in the Otakon Game Room surrounded by these people can be quite dangerous indeed.

[barf]

no more eroero games in akihabara (Osoft was 90% of pc software in there when i left japan) ? then there won t be PC games anymore in there

They should first clean up the ressha ads (remember lots of loli and idol) btw.

[Curt]

Now Loading is dangerous... very dangerous.

[beelzebubble]

Originally Posted by DashK

OTAKU WILL BE CUT

i cant think of anything worse than humorless spam... youve cornered the market too.

[kobylka68]

Originally Posted by JHendrix

Have you been to an anime convetion?

THESE PEOPLE DO NOT BATHE!

Being in the Otakon Game Room surrounded by these people can be quite dangerous indeed.

That is true, the smell coming off them is dangerous

[NeoTheranthrope]

Public service message:

Always dispose of your used lolis in a responsible manner