For some strange reason, any erotic and pornographic material officially released in Japan has censorship on the intimate parts. They simply use pixels, strips, mosaics, and blurred squares to censor the intimate parts.
You breasts It is one of the few things that escape Japanese censorship. In this article, we will see why this law exists and what the industry does to work around it. Let's start by seeing how censorship started in Japan.
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How did censorship in Japan start?
To better understand why pornography is censored in Japan, we must go back to the Meiji Restoration which began in 1868. Prior to that time Japan had no sense of morality. Even today this sense is somewhat absent.
The views of the Japanese were very liberal regarding sexuality and prostitution was a common business in Japan. There were even erotic religious stories and records that involved samurai, geisha and even homosexual acts.
Read also: Geisha - Who are they really? History and Curiosities
In an attempt to modernize Japan, Emperor Meiji felt the need to adopt a Victorian English sense of morality that condemned sexual thoughts and art.
In 1907, Article 175 of the penal code prohibited the sale and distribution of obscene materials, which were subject to fines and imprisonment. It was interpreted that human genitalia and pubic hair were considered obscene, which led artists to decrease the creation of pornography out of fear of imprisonment.
Before the world war, censorship was much greater and even prohibited nudity. After World War II, the United States abolished all forms of censorship and control over freedom of expression.
However, article 175 was kept intact, continuing to prohibit any explicit display of private parts. At the end of the 20th century, several erotic works, including animations, began to appear and become popular.
Bypassing Japan's Censorship
The Japanese are not prohibited from drawing their erotic stories without censorship. They are prohibited from selling them without censorship within Japan. That's why in the 2000s it was common for Japanese works, especially hentai, to be sold to the West. Currently, it is increasingly rare for these works to go to the West without censorship.
To circumvent the censorship, in the 80s they began to use tentacles. The government was not able to forbid or enforce censorship on tentacles, or non-human creatures. That's why most Hentai have things as nasty as aliens and monsters.
Read also: Why do the Japanese like Tentacles?
Until the late 90s, it was prohibited to draw pubic hair, so to work around the law, authors began to draw young girls who did not have hair in their intimate areas. This is how the terms lolicon and shotacon began to emerge.
The popularization of sex objects in Japan such as masturbators and toys has grown enormously also because of the censorship of adult content. Both in hentai and in adult films, toys are often used to circumvent this law.
The Japanese have gotten used to censorship and don't usually complain about it. Some experts consider the stripes and mosaics a way for the Japanese reader to justify their habit and to soften the act of reading pornography or the acts represented there.
In the West we see something similar, where eroticism is accepted in films, as long as genitals are not seen. Still, the Japanese have several secrets of increasing sensuality and eroticism if two works without breaking the rules.
Japanese censorship gave a taste for other fetishes
Japan is known for its numerous and diverse fetishes, largely because of the censorship of adult content. As in official movies and anime, genitals are not shown, they need to focus and emphasize other things that have become fetishes.
The perversion of the Japanese has become so strange that they are willing to repair feet and also the small exposure between the thighs and legs of girls in miniskirts. There is even a name for this place which is Zettai Ryouiki.
See too: Zettai Ryouiki - Absolute Territory - Stockings & Thigh Highs
Who doesn't remember the strange fetish of licking doorknobs? Or worse, why do Japanese movies have so many squirts and bukkake? Because it's the only thing to see and excite with the massive censorship exposed in Japan's adult content.
Clothing and costumes have also become flashy in adult content. Sometimes it takes hours for the action to happen in Japanese adult films, because they spend a lot of time focusing on the clothes, curves and positions without letting it affect ratings.
Even the facial expressions of Japanese women in real life and in anime become prominent, creating another fetish called Ahegao. The Japanese take advantage of the mere glimpse of panties and put a lot of emphasis on breasts that are not censored.
Despite the censorship law, Japan is the country with the largest pornographic industry in the world, with a turnover of 20 billion dollars a year (against 12 billion in the US). Despite all this, it is confusing to understand the purpose of this law.
We recommend reading:
- Ahegao – All about weird faces in manga and anime
- Panchira, Pantsu and Shimapan – History of Panties in Japan
The article is still halfway through, but we recommend also reading:
Is censorship really that bad?
Throughout this article, the benefits of existing censorship in adult content, especially in hentai, were mentioned. This kind of forces the author's creativity to come up with new and different things that catch the viewer's attention.
Censored Hentai can be considered a Softporn or basically light porn. Mainly extolling the fantasy, mystery and history of the work, unlike the uncensored content, which only leads you to focus on the private parts.
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