Some breathing room: Tokyo anti-loli law vote postponed

10:00 AM on 03.17.2010 // Josh Tolentino

  @unangbangkay

Whew. It seems that cooler heads have prevailed regarding Japan's disturbingly general anti-loli legislative proposals, as the scheduled vote has been delayed to facilitate further deliberation on the issue. Maybe now that they have a little more time to think about it, supporters of the bill might notice that what amounts to a blanket ban on characters that random people think look "underage" doesn't exactly foster creative endeavor.

And it was worse than we originally thought. The law was to be applied to pretty much every form of 2-D media, including games, anime and manga, not just adult material. No wonder so many mangaka and publishers came out to voice their opposition to the measure.

Doubtless these cultural heavyweights had some influence on the decision to delay the vote to June. Even some Japanese politicians didn't quite appreciate their peers working the "moral panic" angle.

That doesn't mean we should get complacent, though. The fight to maintain artistic freedom is a neverending one.

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