Lolicon - Wiki

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Legality and censorship

See also: Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors
Child pornography laws in some countries, including United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, have expanded since the 1990s to include sexually explicit depictions of fictional child characters, while those in other countries, including Japan and the United States, exclude fiction from relevant definitions.[4]

In 1999, Japan passed a national law criminalizing the production and distribution of child pornography.[108] The law's original draft included depictions of fictional children in its definition of child pornography; after "criticism from many in Japan", this text was removed in the final version.[109] In 2014, Japan's parliament amended the 1999 law to criminalize possession of child pornography;[108] the 2013 draft introduced by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which maintained the existing legal definition, included a provision for a government investigation on whether manga, anime, and computer-generated images "similar to child pornography" were connected to child sexual abuse, which would be followed by a later decision on regulation.[110] This provision was opposed by anime and manga artist and publishing associations, which argued that regulation would infringe on freedom of expression and negatively impact the creative industry[111] and cited a lack of existing evidence linking fiction and crime.[112] The provision was removed from the law's final version, which took effect in 2015.[113]

Lolicon media is a common target of local ordinances in Japan which restrict distribution of materials designated "harmful to the healthy development of youth",[114] which were strengthened throughout the 1990s and 2000s.[115] An amendment proposed in 2010 to the Tokyo law on material banned from sale to minors (described by Vice Governor Naoki Inose as targeting non-pornographic lolicon manga, writing that "We had regulation for eromanga, but not for lolicon"[116]) restricted depictions of "non-existent youths" who appeared under age 18 and were portrayed in "anti-social sexual situations".[117][u] Under massive opposition from manga creators, academics, and fans,[119][120][121] the bill was rejected in June 2010 by Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly;[122] however, a revision passed in December 2010 which restricts "manga, anime, and computer games" where any characters engage in "sexual or pseudo sexual acts that would be illegal in real life" depicted in a way that "glorifies or exaggerates" such acts.[123] In 2011, several manga were listed for restriction, including Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei [ja] ("My Wife Is an Elementary Student"), which had been previously criticized on television by Inose.[124] It was later published online by J-Comi, avoiding restriction.[125][v]

Sexualized depictions of young girl characters have also been subject to censorship and restriction outside of Japan. In 2006, North American publisher Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the manga series Kodomo no Jikan for release under the title Nymphet, but cancelled its plans in 2007 after vendor cancellations. In a statement, the company noted that the manga "cannot be considered appropriate for the US market by any reasonable standard".[127] In 2020, Australian senator Stirling Griff criticized the Australian Classification Board for giving ratings to manga and anime depicting "child exploitation", and called for a review of classification regulations;[128] later in the year, the board banned the import and sale of three volumes of the light novel series No Game No Life for sexualized depiction of young characters.[129][w] Some online platforms, including Discord and Reddit, ban lolicon content.[131][132]

Debate

Explaining the exclusion of lolicon from the 2014 amendment to Japan's child pornography laws, an LDP lawmaker stated that "Manga, anime, and CG child pornography don't directly violate the rights of girls or boys. It has not been scientifically validated that it even indirectly causes damage. Since it hasn't been validated, punishing people who view it would go too far;"[133] his statement echoes activist arguments.[134] Statistically, sexual abuse of minors in Japan has declined since the 1960s and 1970s while the prevalence of fictional lolicon has increased;[135] Patrick W. Galbraith interprets this as evidence that lolicon imagery does not necessarily influence crimes and argues that lolicon characters do not necessarily represent real boys or girls, but rather what McLelland calls a "third gender," [76] while Steven Smet suggests that lolicon is an "exorcism of fantasies" that contributes to Japan's low crime rates.[136] Galbraith further argues that otaku culture collectively promotes a media literacy and ethical position of separating fiction and reality, especially when the conflation of the two would be dangerous.[137] Drawing on his fieldwork as an anthropologist, he writes that the sexual imagination of otaku, including lolicon, "did not lead to 'immoral acts', but rather ethical activity".[138] A 2012 report by the Sexologisk Klinik for the Danish government found no evidence that cartoons and drawings depicting fictive child sexual abuse encourage real abuse.[139] Academic Sharalyn Orbaugh argues that manga depicting underage sexuality can help victims of child sexual abuse to work through their own trauma, and that there is greater harm in regulating sexual expression than potential harm caused by such manga.[140]

Legal scholar Hiroshi Nakasatomi argues that lolicon can distort readers' sexual desires and induce crime, and that it violates the rights of children,[141] a view shared by the non-profit organization CASPAR (founded after the Miyazaki case).[142] Some critics, such as the non-profit organization Lighthouse, claim that lolicon works can be used for child grooming, and that they engender a culture that is accepting of sexual abuse.[143][144] Guidelines released in 2019 by the United Nations Human Rights Committee encouraged state parties to include explicit drawings of fictional children in laws against child pornography, "in particular when such representations are used as part of a process to sexually exploit children".[145] Feminist critic Kuniko Funabashi argues that lolicon manga contributes to sexual violence by portraying girls passively and by "presenting the female body as the man's possession".[146] Legal scholar Shin'ichirō Harata argues that child pornography laws should not collapse reality and fiction together, but also that fans should not dismiss an ambivalence represented by lolicon. He describes the practice of keeping the two separated as the "ethics of moe", or "responsibility of otaku".[147]

Dilton Rocha Ferraz Ribeiro analyzes the debate over the legal status of lolicon works in Japan and finds that both the pro-regulation and anti-regulation coalitions are relatively stable, with each reacting to actions by the other coalition.[111] Catherine Driscoll and Liam Grealy argue that these debates, including international pressure on Japan to regulate these works, create a "discourse of Japanese exceptionalism" to international norms.[148]

Critical commentary

Cultural critics responding to lolicon generally emphasize it as distinct from attraction to real young girls.[149] Anthropologist Patrick W. Galbraith finds that "from early writings to the present, researchers suggest that lolicon artists are playing with symbols and working with tropes, which does not reflect or contribute to sexual pathology or crime".[23] Psychologist Tamaki Saitō, who has conducted clinical work with otaku,[150] highlights the estrangement of lolicon desires from reality as part of a strict distinction for otaku between "textual and actual sexuality", and observes that "the vast majority of otaku are not pedophiles in actual life".[151][x] Manga researcher Yukari Fujimoto argues that lolicon desire "is not for a child, but for the image itself", and that this is understood by those "brought up in [Japan's] culture of drawing and fantasy".[153] Cultural historian Mark McLelland identifies lolicon and yaoi as "self-consciously anti-realist" genres, given a rejection by fans and creators of "three-dimensionality" in favor of "two-dimensionality",[154] and compares lolicon to the yaoi fandom, in which largely female and heterosexual fans consume depictions of male homosexuality which "lack any correspondent in the real world".[155][y] Setsu Shigematsu argues that lolicon reflects a shift in "erotic investment" from reality to "two-dimensional figures of desire".[157] Queer theorist Yuu Matsura argues that two-dimensional characters are non-human "artifacts" and that desire oriented to such characters is not a desire toward humans.[158][159] Matsuura calls the marginalization of fictosexuals or Nijikon  "interpersonal sexuality centrism" (taijin seiai chūshin shugi)[160][159] and criticizes that considering two-dimensional lolicon as "child pornography" is interpersonal sexuality centrism.[161]

Most scholars also identify lolicon as a form of self-expression on the part of its male creators and consumers.[162] Sociologist Sharon Kinsella suggests that for lolicon fans, "the infantilized female object of desire [...] has crossed over to become an aspect of their own self image and sexuality".[163] Akira Akagi argues that lolicon manga represented a notable shift in reader identification from the "hero" penetrator common to pornographic gekiga: "Lolicon readers do not need a penis for pleasure, but rather they need the ecstasy of the girl. [...] They identify with the girl, and get caught up in a masochistic pleasure."[164] Manga critic Gō Itō views this as an "abstract desire", quoting lolicon artist who told him that "he was the girl who is raped in his manga", reflecting a feeling of being "raped by society, or by the world".[165] Kaoru Nagayama posits that lolicon readers adopt a fluid perspective that alternates between that of an omniscient voyeur and the multiple characters in a work,[7] reflecting an active reader role and a projection onto girl characters.[166] Writing in The Book of Otaku (1989), feminist Chizuko Ueno argued that lolicon, as an orientation towards fictional bishōjo, is "completely different from pedophilia", and characterized it as a desire to "be part of the 'cute' world of shōjo" for male fans of shōjo manga who "find it too much to be a man".[167]

Several scholars identify the emergence of lolicon with changes in Japanese gender relations. Sociologist Kimio Itō attributes the rise of lolicon manga to a shift in the 1970s and 1980s, when boys, driven by a feeling that girls were "surpassing them in terms of willpower and action", turned to the "world of imagination", in which young girl characters are "easy to control".[168] Kinsella interprets lolicon as part of a "gaze of both fear and desire" stimulated by the growing power of women in society, and as a reactive desire to see the shōjo "infantilized, undressed, and subordinate".[169] Media scholar Chizuko Naitō views lolicon as reflecting a "societal desire in a broader sense" for young girls as sex symbols in Japan (which she calls a "loliconized society").[170] Christine Yano argues that eroticized imagery of the shōjo, "real or fictive", reflects "heteronormative pedophilia" in which emphasis is placed on the ephemerality of childhood: "it is as child that [the shōjo] becomes precious as a transitory figure threatened by impending adulthood".[171]

Responding in 1982 to the popularity of Clarisse from his film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki criticized artists and fans who idolized her in what he considered a demeaning manner,[83] and said that he "hate[d] men who use the word lolicon."[172] Despite his apparent rejection, Saitō and Galbraith still find connections between Miyazaki and desire for young girl characters.[173] Interpreting Miyazaki's own words and his acknowledgment of eroticism as key to his creative process, Galbraith suggests that the distance between Miyazaki and the lolicon boom was about "shame": he criticized men who were open and playful about lolicon desire for having little shame, while he felt embarrassment about his own "longing" for girl characters.[174]