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Japanese Government to Regulate Online Communication

Posted by Soulskill on from the best-of-luck-with-that dept.

Chris Salzberg writes "The Japanese government made major moves this month toward legislating extensive regulation over online communication. In a series of little-publicized meetings, two distinct government ministries pushed ahead with regulation in three major areas of online communication: web content, mobile phone access, and file sharing. Content regulation will cover anything on the web, including personal blogs and web pages. Upcoming mandatory filtering of mobile phone access is targeted at users under age 18, and will cover chat rooms, forums, bulletin boards and social networking services. File sharing legislation will initially target illegal downloads, but, according to critics, may ultimately broaden to include streaming media from sites such as YouTube."

6 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Before anyone cries censorship by dorpus · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is a way to make up for the deficiencies of Japan's legal system. Under the present system, people can post anonymously online , often through the "2ch" bulletin board, to make up false accusations about others, post their financial and medical records online, their bank account numbers, spew racist rhetoric, make death threats, etc. Japanese courts have shown no interest in enforcing the egregious violations of other people's rights. At present, there is a whole subculture of professional losers, the "NEETs" in their 20s and 30s who live at home with their parents and don't work, who spend their lives posting this stuff on the web.

    1. Re:Before anyone cries censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why don't you try generalizing 100 million people a little more; I don't think you were quite bigoted enough. "Lolicon" is a subset of manga and anime; in no way is your incredibly broad generalization accurate when it comes to the majority of drawn material of any kind. From my experiences in Akihabara, there is no shortage of street performers and costume play cafe advertisers, but certainly no 12-14 year old girls selling photobooks of themselves that I saw in 3 months of near daily visits.

      I'd stop taking everything you hear reported in sensationalist or biased media at face value before you go off Japan-bashing.

    2. Re:Before anyone cries censorship by DrLang21 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes because porn in America doesn't at ALL try to choose women who look younger than their age. You don't see it on the magazine racks, but there's a huge market for "barely 18" pornography websites out there. Don't be fooled, the "barely 18" is just another way to say "I want them younger, but I'de be a terrorist under US law if I said so out loud". The low age of consent in Japan prevents teenagers who have sex with eachother from getting put on child sex offender databases like we have here. Sure Japan isn't the utopian society that many people would like to believe it is, but we arn't doing much better in the good ol USA. And why is it that so many people here seem to think that simplistic drawings and photos of the same thing are on the same pornographic level? There are plenty of fine arts works in small museums out there that are down right pornographic. Yet when we talk about art in a museum, that is somehow different because suddenly people are somehow trying to interpret it.

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
    3. Re:Before anyone cries censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      First off this is Japan, not the US, so the laws aren't the same, nor is free speech treated the same. Also on this point, don't assume that Japan has as tight of a lock on medical records as the US does.

      I will illustrate with an example.

      I went to the doctor for a cold. Since I am a foreigner, I have to show my Foreigner Registration Card to see the doctor. This card has my work contact information on it. After my visit was over, the doctor contacted my work and told them I had visited and what I was diagnosed with.

      This has happened to other (foreigners) as well. I don't know if the same happens to Japanese people as well. But the point is, don't assume that there is a Japanese HIPPA.

      I am not an expert on the Japanese legal system, but I am quite aware that there are very few lawyers here compared to the US. Don't assume that you could just easily sue someone either. I'm sure its not that easy to do in the US, but I would be greatly surprised if the Japanese system was anything close to the US.

      I guess this whole point has nothing to do with the original topic at hand. Mainly it was to point out that a lot of the comments, not just this poster's, are rather ethnocentric in nature and shouldn't really be modded as insightful, since they are anything but.

  2. A real life bad example by Freaky+Spook · · Score: 2, Informative


    Just recently in Melbourne a newspaper journalist lifted comments posted on a forum and reported them as fact in a sensationalised article, without confirming or verifying with the authenticity of the comments, when in fact some of the comments on the forum had been made as satire.

    This was then published in Australia's highest selling newspaper.

    People may write unsubstantiated rubbish, but as soon as some lazy journalist finds it and treats it is fact in mainstream media, it can be very damaging for an individual or business.

  3. Nonsense. Censorship to close the society. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "This is a way to make up for the deficiencies of Japan's legal system."

    Nonsense. Dangerous nonsense.

    You don't attack subcultures with censorship. This is about ethnic cleansing before the old guard leaves the Diet. Anyone trying to close a society does the same things, censorship is just one of the steps taken.

    It's part of the Lock Down of Japan that is underway. If you don't believe that, you 1. don't live here and 2. don't understand the xenophobia the government is in the process of stoking up.

    - Fingerprinting (and if you don't give them they are "forcibly" taken, then you are deported... what does "forcibly" mean when the government uses that term?)
    - Random "Gaijin Ca-do Checku" (dirty foriegner passport or residency cards are randomly checked by cops... usually as you're trying to board a train making you late)
    - New Visa rules (which aren't clear)
    - Black vans with police protection broadcasting "Foreigners go home" from loudspeakers waking me up in the morning...

    I'd love to stay... they want everyone non-japanese to leave. And they want all foreign influence and opposition crushed.