A new report from the United Nations has claimed that manga, anime, and video games produced in Japan promote gender stereotypes and violence against women and children. The report followed an in-person review of Japan’s progress in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Free speech advocate and politician Yamada Taro mentioned that the Japanese Cabinet Office Gender Equality Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the contents of their meeting with CEDAW but didn’t elaborate further on the current state of Japanese media.
The report claimed that stereotyped gender roles are a root cause of violence against women based on gender or sexual orientation. The report also expressed concerns that media like manga, anime, and video games “could potentially encourage gender-based or sexual orientation-based violence against women and girls.”
Right, because watching anime floods me with an unparalleled urge to go outside and throw punches at women.
The recommendation is for Japan to adopt “effective legal measures and monitoring programs” to control the production and distribution of such content.
Fortunately, the Japanese government has been slow to cave to outside pressure on media censorship. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for its corporations, who seem all too eager to self-censor, stripping out attractive female characters from games to fit Western standards for diversity and inclusivity.
For now, though, free speech is still protected by Japanese law, with only a few exceptions.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the United Nations hasn’t so much as lifted a finger when it comes to the supposed “sexualization” and discrimination against women in Western media.
Shows like Big Mouth, which sexualizes fictional minors in far more graphic ways than what’s portrayed in Japanese anime, get a free pass, as does hip-hop culture and trends like twerking, which are hugely popular with young women in the U.S.
Speaking of twerking, have you heard of a neat little documentary by the name of “Cuties”?
This is actually the second time the U.N. has set its sights on Japan, trying to rein in its manga and anime industry in the name of preventing child exploitation and now, apparently, violence against women as well.
For years, the United Nations has voiced concerns over certain anime and manga content that it believes could depict child exploitation or promote harmful attitudes toward minors.
Much of this push comes from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has urged Japan to reconsider its laws on anime and manga that depict “minors” in explicit or suggestive ways, regardless of the fact that these are fictional characters.
Japan’s legal system often treats illustrated and animated content differently than real-life imagery, sparking debates around freedom of expression, cultural norms, and fiction’s role in society. But, of course, foreign countries apparently have the right to lecture Japan on the morality of…drawings.
Peter Newell, a former consultant and major contributor to UN child protection policies, was arrested in 2018 on charges of sexually abusing minors.
His crimes included multiple counts of rape and sexual assault, dating back decades. Newell’s case stunned many, given his high-profile role advocating for children’s rights worldwide.
Yet, he’s just one more example of those loudly insisting that fictional “children” need safeguarding, only to turn out to be a sick pedophile himself.
This arrest brought renewed scrutiny to the UN’s own internal systems and raised serious questions about accountability within organizations meant to protect children’s welfare.
Over the years, the United Nations has been exposed multiple times for showing little genuine concern for the wellbeing of children in war-torn countries or those enduring severe poverty.
Instead, they often seem to exploit the vulnerable, committing horrific acts under the pretense of safety and intervention, while turning around and telling Japan that anime and manga somehow put actual children at risk, despite the fact that general crime and especially crimes against children are far lower compared to say America or the United Kingdom.
The United Nations’ push to censor anime and manga faced immediate backlash, not just from fans but also from Yamada Taro, a politician dedicated to defending freedom of expression in anime, manga, and other creative forms. He garnered strong support from fans and industry advocates who viewed his stance as a stand against both international and domestic policies aiming to tighten regulations on content labeled inappropriate, especially when it comes to fictional portrayals of “minors.”
Yamada has argued that anime and manga deserve protection as cultural expressions, stressing that fictional content doesn’t translate to real-life harm.
He shared concerns about a UN report from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which claimed that Japanese media, including anime, manga, and video games, could contribute to violence and gender-based stereotypes against women and girls.
Yamada contends that this report could unfairly pressure Japan into implementing restrictive policies on these media, viewing it as an attack on artistic freedom. He’s even considering challenging CEDAW’s conclusions, demanding transparency on how they reached their judgments and potentially asking for a retraction.
Yamada has garnered political support by positioning himself as a champion of anime or Japan’s cultural industries if you want a more modest term, especially in the face of international pressure. This stance resonates with many in Japan who see these media forms as culturally valuable and distinct from real-life exploitation issues.
Let’s not forget that Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country notorious for its lack of respect for the rights and freedoms of its women is the latest nation to chair the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). In other words, a country that scrutinizes women’s rights is now chair of the U.N. council focused on women’s issues as well as human rights, isn’t that just fantastic?
Avid anime and manga fans quickly recognize that the UN’s nonsensical plea to censor and purge such content under the guise of protecting real children and stopping violence against women is just a sham. The UN itself abuses women and children daily, yet they want to control Japan’s booming anime and manga industries, which have exploded in growth and now bring in tens of billions in exports each year.
This is all about the UN trying to grab hold of Japan’s media empire, similar to how BlackRock aims to exert political influence over major Japanese corporations to push DEI and ESG initiatives and have been mighty fucking successful in doing so.
Just like Blackstone buying out Japan’s largest e-manga distributor and gaining the power to dictate what gets sold, effectively limiting what creators can produce all for the sake of profiting from Japan’s booming empire as anime and manga continue to spread globally.
Because, of course, you need to understand the real enemy, the foreign invaders trying to culturally control Japan and sanitize its creative liberties because it doesn’t fit their standards. Japan still hasn’t bothered to respond to or discuss the issues the United Nations has thrown at them.
Meanwhile, their big-name game corporations are totally under the sway of progressive DEI initiatives, aiming to wipe out femininity in gaming by ditching sex terminology for some ridiculous inclusive body-type nonsense just to appease non-binary individuals.
And don’t get me started on how Japanese anime has been completely consumed by progressive Western corporations, tearing it apart with “localization.”
Japan’s now former prime minister, Fumio Kishida, was practically begging BlackRock and their “forced behavioral changes” to invest in Japanese corporations so they could jump on the chance to gain easy access to the dwindling well of globalization by shifting priorities away from commercializing products to consumers but rather pushing politically correct ethical agendas.
All roads point to the inevitable collapse of Japanese anime and manga to satisfy the demands of foreigners who claim that drawings are pedophilia, regurgitating the narratives and beliefs fed to them by the United Nations, which has its own shady track record of molesting children.
For now, it’s a safe bet that Japan will ignore the U.N.’s ridiculous pleas again, with people like Yamada Taro standing up for creative freedom. Personally, I’d love for Japan to put its foot down and outright ban the licensed distribution of Japanese-produced animation in foreign countries, shutting down companies like Crunchyroll to restore some honor and pride to a medium that’s hitting its stride.
It’s frustrating to see it being exported to a crowd that wants to impose their own sanitized ethical guidelines onto it, people who can’t distinguish between creative themes like gender-bender and modern political bullshit like transgenderism, who assume racial identities for tanned fictional characters and get offended when an artist depicts them a shade lighter.
Japanese anime is only beginning to boom abroad, with over 20% of the industry’s profits now coming from outside Japan, and expectations for growth climbing as giants like KADOKAWA already seem to be leaning into global censorship as fewer ecchi adaptations are greenlit as a whole while companies like Netflix license more shows, they’re funding their own series, unavoidably adding localized terms and censorship as part of the package.
Japan has become deeply invested in its expanding global market, and economic pragmatism often wins out over idealism. It’s unlikely they would turn down billions in potential revenue to uphold cultural values alone.
Many Japanese game companies, once renowned for their unique creative vision, have already adapted to international standards to maintain global reach. Likewise, companies like KADOKAWA are progressively accommodating censorship demands to accommodate global market preferences, setting a tone that may well signal a shift over the next decade.
Cultural identity and creative freedom could continue to be reshaped as industries like anime and gaming lean further into globalization, at least until then Japan will likely tell the U.N. to fuck off.
