Foomy – Well said. Though let’s be frank, thought crime has been with us as long as there has been society.  It just hasn’t always had the weight of law.

The entire point of Kodomo no Jikan is that, given the roles typically assigned in the genre, the girl is supposed to be innocent and pure, and she is not.  You have just proved my point about cultural awareness.  If you do not read the work with the expectation that the girl will act in a certain manner, then the work cannot contradict your expectations, and thus its literary significance in challenging those expectations is lost.  Kodomo no Jikan, in subverting the conventional roles, asks why the roles exist.  Missing this point and asserting there is no literary merit is akin to suggesting the Song of Solomon is merely a bawdy tale rather than an allegory of divine love.

There is another legal principle that I did not mention above, and it is that the law should not cast too wide a net.   You are very cavalier about all the non-pornographic manga and anime that may become illegal under this act.  A great many include fanservice moments, which could be said to be “sexual situations,” even if in context they are meant as comedy, as with Love Hina, Excel Saga, or Negima.  Under this bill it is quite easy for an overzealous prosecutor to send even the typical non-H anime fan to trial.  Is this an improvement of existing law?  I submit that it is not.

“Fantasy is one thing; reality is something else.”

That is precisely what is wrong about this law.

Martin – Of course it is good that some celebrities are speaking up for what is reasonable, but can you truly expect every judicial agent to display the understanding and open-mindedness shown by Mr. Gaiman?  (I follow his twitter myself, incidentally.)  More to the point, should it come down to that?

I think your assessment is correct.  Generally, hastily conceived and framed legislation is to some degree driven by media furor.

The writer Neil Gaiman (whose opinions I hold in very high regard) made a good post on his personal blog about the issue, proving that some people here like to think rationally. It’s called “Why defend the freedom of icky speech?” for those curious.

Sadly he’s right that we don’t have the same freedom of speech that you stateside folks do: I disapprove of lolicon as much as he does but the heavy-handed and thoughtless way in which this legislation is being pushed through saddens me. How can it defend people’s rights when innocent people are being dragged through the courts and given a criminal record on what is merely a technicality rather than a genuine crime? It’s making a big show of effectiveness when the errors will outweigh the benefits…a common scenario in Britain today!