Bill 156

The Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths (東京都青少年の健全な育成に関する条例, Tōkyō-to Seishōnen no Kenzen na Ikusei ni Kansuru Jōrei) is a prefectural law passed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly in 1964. Its purpose is to promote the healthy development of people under the age of 18 by restricting their access to published material that is considered inappropriate. The restrictions are primarily carried out through self-regulation by the publishing industry.

The Ordinance was controversially revised in December 2010 to expand the definition of "harmful publications" and to give the Metropolitan government greater powers to enforce the law's provisions.

According to Michiko Nagaoko, director of a non-profit organization in Kyoto called Juvenile Guide, founded in 2003, approximately half of the 2,000 pornographic animation titles distributed in Japan every year, including films and video games, feature schoolgirl characters. On 11 March 2008, UNICEF Japan issued a statement calling for further tightening of child pornography laws in Japan, including the ban of sexual depictions of minors in manga, anime and video games. Such a ban was not considered by Japan's officials at the time.

Currently, works that are "restricted" under the ordinance bear a mark labeling them as "seijin" (成年, "adult") or "18-kin" (１８禁, "18+"); retailers are required to shelve such material separately from unrestricted works and to perform age-checks on purchasers of restricted material. Publisher self-regulation and retail compliance is administered by the Shuppan Ronri Kyogika (出版倫理協議会,, Council on Publishing Ethics), which is operated by the Japan Book Publishers Association.

On 24 February 2010, the Metropolitan government submitted a proposed revision to the ordinance that would restrict sexually provocative depictions of fictional characters who appear to be under 18 years of age, referred to in the bill as "non-existent youths" (非実在青少年, hijitsuzai seishōnen). This proposal was criticised by many manga authors and received strong opposition from the publishing industry, the Writers Guild of Japan and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, and was rejected by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on 16 June 2010. Voting on the bill was put on hold until June, and Shintarō Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, admitted that the bill's language needed revision.

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Wikipedia