Japanese manga retailers are reporting pressure from multinational credit card companies — many based in the U.S. and targeted by anti-porn religious conservatives — to censor their content if they wish to maintain their current payment processing arrangements.
7-Eleven Japan, along with another Japanese convenience store retailer, Lawson, both publicized today that they plan to stop selling adult-themed magazines and explicit manga comics by the end of August.
The U.N.’s special rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, has asked Japan to ban manga comics that have "extreme child pornographic content," a move that critics say would limit artistic freedom of expression.
Japan's upper house of Parliament passed a bill Wednesday that makes it the equivalent to a felony, with prison sentences up to a year and $10,000 penalties, for those found with explicit images of children.
The chief editor of manga magazine Comic Mega Store and two others were arrested today for allegedly distributing obscene images in two magazine both marked with 18+ labels.
Tokyo's manga porn crackdown was stepped up today as the city's Metropolitan Assembly's General Affairs Committee approved a proposed ordinance revision aimed at regulating sales and rental of manga that contain sexual depictions of minors.
