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Japanese ESRB Bans Rape Depiction In Games
eldavojohn writes "The Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), now 233 companies strong, and met in Tokyo yesterday to ban a controversial title from Japan known as RapeLay, an eroge game (something much more adult than the more popular dating simulators). It's gotten a lot of press as reviewers have noted at one point the player must force sex on a 12-year-old. More importantly, the large ($353 million annually) adult game industry in Japan will now need to stay away from rape in their games if they wish to remain a member of EOCS. RapeLay seems to be available on Amazon's UK and JP sites, sparking outrage and causing a former US Ambassador to Japan to write an editorial criticizing Japan, saying, 'Only Japan allows people to possess these hideous images without penalty. Six of the G-7 countries have found ways to protect the innocent from being prosecuted for possession of child pornography. Is it not time for Japan to find a way to punish the guilty?' Singapore's Straits Times has more details, pointing out that it's still not illegal to possess these materials in Japan. We discussed this and other games last month in an editorial."
Penn Jillette speaks about Rape Lay:
http://www.crackle.com/c/Penn_Says#id=2473058&ml=o%3D12%26fpl%3D360812%26fx%3D
I think I agree with him, especially on the parts about fantasy game violence.
"Let's go back to the old NES days. The only thing that ever made people do was eat mushrooms and beat the shit outta turtles. Those were the days, young prepubescent CGI girls could safely wander the streets."
You must've missed the game "Custer's Revenge", a game where you specifically went around raping native american women tied to a stake.
- Custer's Revenge game play clip
Disturbing stuff...
8==8 Bones 8==8
This is Japan. You can maybe sort-of convince them to give up their rape porn. But schoolgirl porn? No deal. It's a cultural tradition, don't you know?
There's a translation patch though, but that doesn't matter because I can't get it to work under Wine, and it won't run under VirtualBox either because it's 3D. :(
Not posting as AC because I don't really care if Slashdot knows I like rape eroge.
It's not Slashdot's fault.
The mainstream media picked up the "RapeLay controversy" some time in early 2009 when some focus-on-the-family groups in the US noticed it and started complaining about it.
But the game is years old, and I think it was mostly a popular Bittorrent target after this 2007 Something Awful review.
Ah, 2007. George W. Bush was president, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was above 12,000, credit was cheap and homes were expensive, and no one but forum goons knew about RapeLay. Those were good times.
Maybe it's because Japan has one of the lowest rape per capita countries.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita
Hence the need to relief these urges virtually. That would be a good thing, no??
The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't
"The right to fantasize, daydream, and drool over violating people and committing crimes? I'm pretty sure I missed that right when reading the constitution."
The right to breathe isn't in the US Constitution either, but people have the right to do it. Lawmakers decide what people can't legally do, however they don't list everything that a person can legally do. The probable reason for the right to fantasise about crime being absent from the Constitution is that its authors couldn't comprehend the existence of a society where people tried to dictate what others could fantasise about.
"Things that depict abuse."
Violence and other abuses are frequently depicted in video games, on TV, etc. The UK media recently showed images of a baby who had been beaten to death by his parents.
Millions of African children die each year from a lack of food and water, however you seem to be more concerned about people who play video games where depictions of non-existent people are harmed. Please stop trying to dress prudism as a genuine concern for childrens' welfare.
"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free" ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four
A lot of people here seem to be saying that drawn Japanese porn or Japanese porn in general is mostly rape, but they (and you) are all quite wrong. It's certainly popular, but the majority (and it's a very large majority) is still very much consensual.
As for the ban, it's a half-assed ban by a voluntary industry organization. It will affect absolutely nothing at all (besides getting people to back off) and likely won't lead to any sort of real action at all.
Of course, everyone fails to mention that Japan has the lowest rape rate per capita [nationmaster.com] in the world.
Besides the potential gender bias that other commentors have mentioned, it should also be noted that crime statistics in Japan should be taken with a very large grain of salt. This news article from a couple years ago talks about how many deaths which were obvious murders were classified as things like "heart disease" to make police statistics look better:
Photos of the teenager's corpse show a deep cut on his right arm, horrific bruising on his neck and chest. His face is swollen and covered with cuts. A silhouette of violence runs from the corner of his left eye over the cheekbone to his jaw, and his legs are pocked with small burns the size of a lighted cigarette.
But police in Japan's Aichi prefecture saw something else when they looked at the body of Takashi Saito, a 17-year-old sumo wrestler who arrived at a hospital in June. The cause of death was "heart disease," police declared. ...
But Saito's case has given credence to complaints by a group of frustrated doctors, former pathologists and ex-cops who argue that Japan's police culture is the main obstacle.
Police discourage autopsies that might reveal a higher homicide rate in their jurisdiction, and pressure doctors to attribute unnatural deaths to health reasons, usually heart failure, the group alleges. Odds are, it says, that people are getting away with murder in Japan, a country that officially claims one of the lowest per capita homicide rates in the world. ...
Japan's annual police report says its officers made arrests in 96.6% of the country's 1,392 homicides in 2005.
But Saikawa, who says he became disillusioned by "fishy" police practices and in 1997 left the force in disgust after 30 years, claims that police try to avoid adding homicides to their caseload unless the identity of the killer is obvious. "All the police care about is how they look to people; it's all PR to show that their capabilities are high," Saikawa says. "Without autopsies they can keep their percentage [of solved cases] high. It's all about numbers."...