Pornography in Japan

Pornography in Japan is a large and intertwined business of adult entertainment with unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from Western pornography. Reflecting Japan's views on sexuality and culture, Japanese pornography delves into a wide spectrum of heterosexual, homosexual, and transgender sexual acts in addition to unique fetishes and paraphilias.

Starting with erotic stories and wood block prints from before the 20th century, Japanese pornography evolved into distinct subcategories with the media that in addition to pornographic videos and magazines featuring live actors, there are categories of pornographic manga (within Japanese comics), pornographic computer games (for both PC and game consoles), and pornographic anime (animated depictions of sexual activity).

By Japanese law, any lawfully produced pornography must censor the genitals of actors and actresses and up until the mid-1990s so was the depiction of pubic hair. Anuses are only censored at contact or penetration. This type of censoring also extends to comics, video games, and anime made for adults. In the attempts to circumvent this type of censoring (and to cater to particular fetishes), actors and producers have featured subject matter unseen or rarely depicted in western pornography. Bukkake, Gokkun, Omorashi, and tentacle erotica are a few uniquely Japanese genres known to western viewers. Lolicon and its contribution to the controversy regarding the regulation of pornography depicting minors has been a major issue concerning free speech inside and outside Japan.

Shunga or pornographic wood-block pictures were printed with all imaginable situations. Near the end of the Edo period when foreigners became widely known and seen, even sex acts with foreign males were drawn and sold, not to mention acts with animals, demons (both male (incubus) and female (succubus)). The actual uses of shunga in the period are still debated, but probably resembled modern uses of pornographic materials, including masturbation and shared viewing with a lover.

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