UN Challenging Japan’s Treatment of Women

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here is the UN attempting to ban media that mistreat woman from nichegamer:

UN Challenging Japan’s Treatment of Women, Suggests Ban of Erotic Japanese Games

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), will be examining (SOURCE, our mobile URLs show up the same as regular text – working on a fix) Japan’s record on women’s rights.

The reason this has gotten onto our radar is that one of the possible talking points is the “banning of the sale of video games or cartoons involving sexual violence against women.”

The wording of the phrase could imply that they’ll be discussing banning eroge games like Rapelay (or other games of that nature), but with no clear guidelines as to what “sexual violence” entails, it feels like the definition can be used to include games that aren’t even eroge.

The discussion will be broadcasted live on the Treaty Body Webcast site.

www.treatybodywebcast.org/

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Feb 13, 2016 2:22:30 GMT -5 Nyu Nozomi Hyuga said:

Here is the UN attempting to ban media that mistreat woman from nichegamer:

UN Challenging Japan’s Treatment of Women, Suggests Ban of Erotic Japanese Games

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), will be examining (SOURCE, our mobile URLs show up the same as regular text – working on a fix) Japan’s record on women’s rights.

The reason this has gotten onto our radar is that one of the possible talking points is the “banning of the sale of video games or cartoons involving sexual violence against women.”

The wording of the phrase could imply that they’ll be discussing banning eroge games like Rapelay (or other games of that nature), but with no clear guidelines as to what “sexual violence” entails, it feels like the definition can be used to include games that aren’t even eroge.

The discussion will be broadcasted live on the Treaty Body Webcast site.

www.treatybodywebcast.org/

I'm so sick of this crap. We knew it would get worse and worse and of course it is.

[Great Dark Hero]

Saw this on Free Step Dodge (DOA FG Forum).
Luckily these schmucks don't any real influence on how the Japanese handle thier entertainment. Plus, this is silly: The UN is talking about "women's rights" or justice for.. fictional characters. Fictional characters. Fictional characters. Fictional characters. 

SPOILER: Click to show

Fictional. Fucking. Characters.

SPOILER: Click to show

Shouldn't these guys be worried about other important subjects? I mean, if I was in that position of power in the UN... Let's just say that video games and worrying about how others entertain themselves... would not be relevant. If people want to play... DOA or MKX for whatever aethetics they have to offer... so be it. There is NO crisis or issue with this.
#Priorities

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Feb 13, 2016 6:38:40 GMT -5 Great Dark Hero said:

Saw this on Free Step Dodge (DOA FG Forum).
Luckily these schmucks don't any real influence on how the Japanese handle thier entertainment. Plus, this is silly: The UN is talking about "women's rights" or justice for.. fictional characters. Fictional characters. Fictional characters. Fictional characters. 

SPOILER: Click to show

Fictional. Fucking. Characters.

SPOILER: Click to show

Shouldn't these guys be worried about other important subjects? I mean, if I was in that position of power in the UN... Let's just say that video games and worrying about how others entertain themselves... would not be relevant. If people want to play... DOA or MKX for whatever aethetics they have to offer... so be it. There is NO crisis or issue with this.
#Priorities

Why don't they do something about all of the men who are butchered and killed in graphic ways in entertainment and how this is acceptable. They have all of these feminists showing up. Can't they find something better to do?

[magicattack]

Feb 13, 2016 6:45:16 GMT -5 The Big Daddy C-Master said:

Feb 13, 2016 6:38:40 GMT -5 Great Dark Hero said:

Saw this on Free Step Dodge (DOA FG Forum).
Luckily these schmucks don't any real influence on how the Japanese handle thier entertainment. Plus, this is silly: The UN is talking about "women's rights" or justice for.. fictional characters. Fictional characters. Fictional characters. Fictional characters. 

SPOILER: Click to show

Fictional. Fucking. Characters.

SPOILER: Click to show

Shouldn't these guys be worried about other important subjects? I mean, if I was in that position of power in the UN... Let's just say that video games and worrying about how others entertain themselves... would not be relevant. If people want to play... DOA or MKX for whatever aethetics they have to offer... so be it. There is NO crisis or issue with this.
#Priorities

Why don't they do something about all of the men who are butchered and killed in graphic ways in entertainment and how this is acceptable. They have all of these feminists showing up. Can't they find something better to do?

I wish that we lived in a world, where the most important thing to concern ourselves with is what tragedies happen to make believe characters.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

We'd all be mass sinners if that's the case. Murderers all of us!

[JACK-2]

More proof that the UN is a joke organization. This is the same organization that has China as a permanent member of the security council and then discusses human rights.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Feb 14, 2016 15:41:47 GMT -5 JACK-2 said:

More proof that the UN is a joke organization. This is the same organization that has China as a permanent member of the security council and then discusses human rights.

Form over substance.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Heres an update from nichegamer:

Female Japanese Representative Refutes UN Suggestion to Ban Media Depicting Sexual Violence

If you may recall, we reported on the United Nations discussing the possible banning of games and manga that depict sexual violence against women, in Japan.

Now, Kumiko Yamada, representative of the Japanese wing of the Women’s Institute Of Contemporary Media Culture, has responded to this, and she had quite a bit to say regarding the subject.

Her response (Editor’s Note: first translated by reddit user RyanoftheStars; we’ve verified the translation’s accuracy) can be found below:

Our Formal Opinion on the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women's "Protecting Women's Rights in Japan - Proposal to Ban the Sale of Manga and Video Games Depicting Sexual Violence"

Introduction:

This year, on February 16th, 2016 the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women held a "Protecting Women's Rights in Japan" conference. We would like to share our opinion on the "Proposal to Ban the Sale of Manga and Video Games Depicting Sexual Violence."

Opinion Summary:

We are absolutely in agreement that the protection of the rights of women in Japan is important. On the other hand, we think it should be carefully and seriously evaluated whether the measures taken to ensure those protections are valid ones or not. If we are asked to consider whether "Protecting Women's Rights in Japan" requires us to "Ban the Sale of Manga and Video Games Depicting Sexual Violence," then we must reply that that is an absolute "no."

Reasons for Our Opinion:

Reason #1 - The so-called sexual violence in manga and video games is a made-up thing and as such does not threaten the rights of actual people; therefore, it is meaningless in protecting the rights of women.

Reason #2 - In Japan, and especially when it comes to manga, these are creative fields that women themselves cultivated and worked hard by their own hand to create careers for themselves. If we were to "ban the sale of manga that includes sexual violence," it would do the opposite and instead create a new avenue of sexism toward women.

Detailed Explanation of Reasons:

About Reason #1 - It goes without saying that the rape and other crimes of actual real people who experience sexual acts from partners without consent is an actual violation of their rights concerning sexual violence and should obviously be forbidden by law, and that it's necessary to protect and support victims. However, the figures in manga and video games are creative fictions that do not actually exist, and thus this is not a violation of any real person's human rights. We should focus on attacking the problems that affect real women's human rights as quickly as possible.

About Reason #2 - In Japan, and especially when it comes to manga, these are creative fields that women themselves cultivated and worked hard by their own hand to create careers for themselves.

Already in the 70s there were women-focused manga magazines and many talented women manga writers came from them.

In this way, before the Equal Opportunity Employment Act for Men and Women passed in 1986, there was already a space where women flourished and had established the "shoujo manga" genre. And of course, within women's manga, sometimes the topic was of romance and sex.

Among the manga for women in our country, there were titles that took up the history of women's sexual exploitation and slavery. "The Cliff For Those Would Be Parents" by Fumiko Sone was one such work. Against the backdrop of the real history, it is a work that paints the life of a girl who lived in poverty and was sold into service as a prostitute for the Bakusai Harem in Hokkaido's Muroran, and how she lives through the experience.

For the people who live in these times, it is manga like this that creates an opportunity for people to imagine the pain of women living in that era. However, because this work contains depictions of sexual violence, if we employed a ban on the sale of "manga that depicted sexual violence," it would go out of print and eventually people would lose that chance.

If we were asked to give similar examples of manga that would go out of print and be unavailable if the ban on sales of "manga that depicted sexual violence" were in effect, there would be no end to the examples we could give, but "The Poem of the Wind and the Trees" by Keiko Takemiya and "BANANA FISH" by Akimi Yoshida would probably be listed among the examples. (Note that while both listed works contain sexual violence toward men, sexual violence is not a problem limited to only women, and therefore should not be treated as exclusively a women's rights issue.)

In this way, it can be predicted that if we were to ban the sale of "manga that depicts sexual violence," a great deal of publishers would cease publication of a huge amount of works. In the creative field of manga, the effect would be that women who have worked so hard to create a place for vibrant careers would have that place shrink right in front of them, as well as have their efforts negated. In addition, if we were to put ourselves in the places of manga readers the chance to know about the history of the sexual exploitation of women would be lost, as well as a method for them to come to know about it. If the creative fields of manga were attacked, trampled on and destroyed with such prejudice, it would damage not only the women manga writers, but also spread to other women creators in the field, as well as the female readers. This would be a sexist punishment that only narrows the career possibilities of Japan's women.

It is noted that on the other hand when it comes to "manga that depicts sexual violence" a certain segment of people are going to find it unpleasant. Nevertheless, to ban expression and commerce unilaterally based on feelings of whether or not something is unpleasant, or viewpoints on what should be moral, is a practice not to be condoned. The basis for feelings about what is or is not repulsive, and moral viewpoints, will differ based on the individual or their region and that culture's segmented local society. The basis for the values in Local Society A and the basis for the values in Local Society B are not necessarily going to match.Therefore it stands to reason to suddenly use one local society's standards as the standards of a society as a whole would only prompt a massacre of discord in conflicting values among the people in the greater society.

If we are to aim for the smooth operation of society as a whole, then there might be workarounds we can implement so that a certain type of person can avoid suddenly running into "unpleasant expressions" they don't want to see, but these should be limited to regulations in zoning and circulation only. We should not ban any manga that depicts "unpleasant expressions" under content guidelines that enforce moral standards unilaterally on society.

Conclusion:

As stated above, we cannot say that banning the sale of manga and video games that "depict sexual violence" is valid, even if we were to agree that the goal of protecting the rights of women is correct.

There is nothing to be gained from regulating fictional sexual violence. However, while you're trying to fix the rights of fictional characters, you're leaving the human rights of real women in the real world left to rot. As well, in Japan, the entire reason we have a media genre such as manga that developed to take on themes such as the sexual exploitation of women came from an attitude to tolerate "drinking the pure and the dirty without prejudice." It's because we had the freedom to express our views and with that to express the view of a world of humans that live and die, that there are pure and wonderful things and dirty and nasty things mixed with each other.

Manga is a field where women have put in their hard work and effort to cut forward paths and cultivate a place of their own. We believe that in order to protect this place from being trampled on, it will need our continued hard work to pass it on to the next generation, and it is this effort that will link to the greater freedom and rights of women.

The End

February 28th, 2016

Kumiko Yamada, Women's Institute of Contemporary Media Culture Representative and Designer

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

When are they going to ban violence against men? Guess they can't do that because there would be no "entertainment".