Japan Diet members seem to be holding firm in the face of U.S. government demands to make possession of child pornography a crime in Japan. According to the U.S. Japan’s current Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and for Protecting Children possession of child pornography for the purpose of selling or supplying it crimes, without criminalizing possession for personal use.
Sources said that senior U.S. government officials met with Foreign Ministry executives and other Japanese government officials, along with influential lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party between April and May. U.S. government officials said “hundreds” of Japanese names were included in image purchase records in child pornography cases that have been uncovered by U.S. investigative authorities.
U.S. government officials explained that current laws in Japan which do not ban mere possession of child pornography are creating a market for such material.
Japan and Russia are the only G-8 member countries where personal possession of child pornography is not a crime.
In an interview with the Mainichi, U.S. government officials said there was a “huge contradiction” in Japan, where it is illegal to sell child pornography, but it is legal to buy it.
“This legal loophole creates a massive demand for these images,” an official said.
Though there are voices in the Japanese Diet that are calling for criminalization of child porn possession, others are resisting “over fears that this will lead to the abuse of authorities’ investigative powers.”
[…] countries where personal possession of child pornography is not a crime. JP reports on the debate on the suggestion of criminalization of child porn possession. Share […]
It’s like so many things in Japan: half-a*#ed.
NHK has the legal right (the constitutional right, no less) to charge TV owners a fee, but TV owners are not legally bound to pay it.
Traffic “laws” — or many of them, anyway — are little more than “etiquette.” (When was the last time you saw a cop pull someone over for blowing past a red light?)
At first, those with libertarian leanings might think that it’s good to have a modicum of government “interference,” but in fact it just fosters an environment in which people do whatever they feel like. This is especially true on the road. Red light? Whatever. Blinking traffic signal? What, me stop? Yeah, right. Yield? You yield! I had a more pleasant driving experience in Cairo.
Kudan: “It’s like so many things in Japan: half-a*#ed.”
Another example is taxes (especially residential) and public dues (like health insurance and pension premiums). Apparently, evasion - unless it’s pretty egregious - isn’t pursued with particular vigor by the parties responsible for collection (usually local governments).
[…] Japan standing firm on child porn purveyor rightsJapan Diet members seem to be holding firm in the face of U.S. government demands to make possession of child pornography a crime in Japan. According to the US Japan s current Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and … […]
Maybe Japan just knows better than to waste law enforcement resources doing something that won’t make children any safer. America should try backing up its claims with some actual evidence.
[…] in Japan’s child pornography law, Mainichi Shimbun; This was blogged at Japundit. In Japan possession of child pornography is not illegal. The only other G-8 member who has not […]
Paul, how about this: you show us definitive evidence that allowing people to freely produce, sell and possess child pornography results in:
1. the eradication of child pornography
2. reducing the damage done to children forced to perform in the videos.
Thanks!
Clearly we need to stop the freaks who abuse and exploit children, plus the punters who supprt that industry.
But as a side not, I was reading an article on the BBC site last week, which claims that a high percentage (forget the numbers) on men in the UK, said in a survey that they would not opt to mentor a child out of fear of being perceived as a pedophile.
Most western countries have built the protection systems, but they’ve also built a paranoid culture of fear.
In the case of Japan, if we’re talking about sites like J-List (see sponsor link above), you’d probably need to arrest an awlful lot of hentai otaku and confiscate there lolita fetish comix.
Riki:
In some countries computergenerated or drawn pedophile imagery is illegal. In Denmark, where I live, only pictures and movies of pedophilia is illegal, so one does not need to target comics. Anyway, it seems a bit crazy to me, that a drawing can be illegal. After all, it is just fantasy and no child was injured during the making of the drawing.
Daniel, that is also the law in the US, and it’s quite scary. There are prosecutors who want to jail people for collecting children’s clothing catalogs for the wrong reasons. Basically, thought crimes.
In this case, though, they should clearly make the purchase of such material illegal, as it contributes to its production. I am not so sure about criminalizing possession though, unless they can show a connection to the actual production of the material.
It’s an emotional issue, and easy for politicians to take advantage of it. Laws should be made reasonably, not hysterically.
So far as the people who use children this way, and then sell the vids, I think they should be buried alive. Reasonable enough, no?
US Law: § 1466A. Obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children:
(a) In General.— Any person who, in a circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that—
(1)
(A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and
(B) is obscene; or
(2)
(A) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and
(B) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be subject to the penalties provided in section 2252A (b)(1), including the penalties provided for cases involving a prior conviction.
(bold italics are mine)
Ref: Cornell U.’s law site: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001466—A000-.html
So… I don’t get it (the law, not the anime, etc., stuff). By the legal definition, *a lot* of this Japanese-imported cultural phenomenon is, de facto, against the law. I really don’t understand how stores selling these things (including large chains like Amazon, translating and publishing and distributing it haven’t been hit with the laws.
Do I agree with the law? M’eh. The theory is fine but, frankly, I’ve seen this stuff and I’m not moved enough by it to be too bothered (although I do have what I could call ‘moral ennui‘ stance on the whole thing). But, if I was in the States, does that make my admission illegal or what?
Or is it just a case of having a law on the books and not bothering to enforce them (which sounds like a pretty Japanese solution).
This huge contradiction of what costitutes ‘child pornography’ doesn’t seem to be a Japan-only legal and legislative quagmire, it seems.
I came to US as political refugee on human rights violations in former USSR
I am russian jew, and I got a lot of discrimination in USSR
My parents are Holocaust survivors
But I got the worst thing in USA, never possible in communist country.
I was set up with my computer, convicted as a sex offender for computer p..rn.
Now I do not have job and can hardly survive under police database
supervision, named sex offender registration. Nobody want to hire me,
I think because of police database.
And I have family. Who cares? Dirty polititians are playing their
dirty games for more power.
I would like to send you some links to publications about my criminal
case. I was forced to confess to the
possession of internet digital pictures of porn in deleted clusters of
my computer hard drive. My browser was hijacked while I was browsing
the web. I was redirected to illegal sites against my will. Some
illegal pictures were found on my hard drive, recovering in
unallocated clusters, without dates of file creation/download.
I do not know how courts can widely press these charges on people to
convict them, while the whole Internet is a mess.
This is my story in inquisition21.com. There is all
information about case written by Irish writer Brian
Rothery. You can see a lot of violations of law by police
http://www.inquisition21.com/article~view~7~page_num~3.html
This is publication in Wired news
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63391,00.html
This is publication in Theregester
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/13/browser_hijacking_risks/
Article in Globe and Mail newspaper
http://ctv.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040617.gttwhijac17/tech/Technology/techBN/ctv-technology
Article in ZDnet
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5344831.html
This is article in Washington Times, May 22, 2004
There is information about my case.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2050
Article in Crime research center:
http://www.crime-research.org/news/07.22.2004/506/
Article in Dallas, TX Newspaper
http://www.crime-research.org/news/24.12.2004/862/
This law was declared unconstitutional in Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA’
http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=11750
“I came here to the US as political refugee from the former Soviet
Union, and, now like many other people in the US, I feel shame that
all of this can happen in the US – supposed to be the greatest
democracy in the world.”
I worked in USA for Mitsubishi Electric Automation
in Vernon Hills, IL
http://www.meau.com
These japanese set up me with child porn possession.
When i was fired, they took my laptop, and after 4 weeks
reported me to police in another state.
They printed some child porn, copied it to floppy,
and mailed. Then they took out hard drive and mailed it via UPS. because possession of CP is not illigal in japan, i think they had some to set me up.
I would rather personally object to the idea that it is a “legal loophole” that personal possession of child pornography isn’t a crime. To control well under the Japan’s current law is the first thing to do. Why are there many people who are producing or selling child pornography without being arrested ?
As for Estrin 1959, Bringing the case into a court seems to be the only solution.
Definitely PC and Internet are helping pedophile porno business. And ironically, abuse of authorities’ investigative powers would attack on personal possession of child pornography in the PCs. Anyway, careless use of PC and Internet could lead to scary and serious consequence.
Sorry, but you are very naive, and beleive in justice
The problems is I pleaded guilty. If somebody did not want to plead guilty in US court, prosecutors can hit him with additional counts. For example police recovered
50 small pictures from unallocated clusters of my hard drive. They can charge me with 50 counts posession on child porn, each of them can carry 5 years in Prison.
This is 250 years in prison.
Sorry, but any person in the world will plead guilty
in this case.
This is example abuse of power. The law of child porn posession is very dangerous to play with.
Also I do not have resources to fight this, and I need at least 500,000 dollars. lawyers are very expensive in US, and nobody can afford justice.
Also i was prosecuted under unconstitutional law.
Minnesota Supreme court just ruled child porn law unconstitutional
Here you can find explanation
http://fimafimovich.blogspot.com/2007/04/partly-unconstitutional-law.html
My lawyer told me he can vacate my conviction, but then DA will charge me again to get a new trial, and will charge me with 50 counts of posession of Child porn. i already was in jail for 6 month, and this is big risk, so i give up.
Do not be so naive, please.
My case was mentioned in this article
http://thejuliegroup.blogspot.com/2007/06/revolution-is-solution.html#links
This article was writted by antivirus and antispyware industry representative.
Many computer security professionals were involved in teacher Julia
Amero porn case.
She got a new trial recently.
Article is very big, and there are a lot of thoughts. It was written by
Chris Boyd, Director of Malware Research, FaceTime Security Labs
This is quote from this article:
[…] I might as well link to a recent piece discussing the current status of child pornography in Japan. […]
[…] virtual shoelaces for underwear, and in poses that…well, you get the idea. Considering that Japan still remains a place where posession of child pornography is not a crime though (the other is Russia), then there still is much that needs to be done […]
[…] up until the law went into effect, then Japan remains one of the only countries in the world where the posession of child pornography is still legal, the other being that last bastion of […]
I believe Japan is right to keep this stance, and I hope they maintain it. Possession should not be illegal. People shouldn’t be attacked for looking at something someone else makes available.
There is a happy medium that maintains this freedom, while eliminating a market for it. It is not as aggressive as what the United States is requesting. The medium would be to criminalize not only sales, but buying, as well. Funding is what creates a market, not viewing.
I would also only keep sale criminal, not ’supplying’ it. If obtaining freely is not wrong, then sending freely should not also be wrong. What ’supplying’ means is very easy to interpret differently, like with torrenting systems or fileshring networks. Sales, however, are an exchange of assets, and more concretely defined and understanded in law.