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Pornography made by consenting adults is censored by the Japanese government. Japanese obscenity law is based on Article 175 of the criminal code of Japan (passed in 1907) that reads,
“A person who distributes or sells obscene writing, pictures, or other things, or publicly displays the same, shall be punished with penal servitude for not more than two years or a fine of not more than five thousand yen or a minor fine. The same shall be applied to a person who possesses the same for the purposes of selling it.”
This law has been in effect since the Meiji Era, and when the American occupiers took control of Japan, they didn’t change this part of the Penal Code. In the west, the world saw pornography as freedom of expression. In Japan, it is considered to be “injurious to public morals”, and one can still not buy a movie with uncensored content. This is why pornography made for domestic distribution in Japan has multiple types of censorship applied to it. The 1907 law is also the reason for the development of ways to get around the law like, controversial tentacle porn, black bar censorship, and pixilation. The largest problem of this law was that it was written in 1907, so it’s very broad when applying to today’s multifaceted media markets. According to Dan Kanemitsu a Japanese manga blogger, the standard for publishing manga in Japan before increased government interference and censorship was
“the industry standard was that obscuring the crown of the penis and clitoris, and instances of physical contact that constitutes sexual intercourse would absolve the depiction as being obscene. The police seemed also to reinforce this mantra, as they encouraged censorship of the kari (crown,) kuri (clitoris,) and the setsugou-bu (point of contact) and no more.”
In July 2013 the police seemed to amplify their standards for censorship when three editors of Core Magazine were arrested for publishing obscene content. They were arrested for selling 24,500 copies of the deemed “obscene” manga magazine, Comic Mega Store, because of its depictions of sex between a male and female. They were also charged with selling 36,000 copies of Nyan 2 Club, a magazine dedicated to reader submitted art. Both magazines had 18+ labels on their covers, yet were still prosecuted by the police. This has caused a widespread chilling effect on the publication of manga. Many publishers are now stepping up their self-censorship and editing, because if even one of their comics are found to be obscene it can cause the whole magazine to be shut down.