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Question about the Japanese Legal System


HentaiWriter

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I'm only making a topic for this as I feel it does impact quite a few devs and potential buyers of games that might visit this board that are currently living in Japan, etc.

So if the creator of a game in the west gets their game translated into Japanese, they're obviously wanting their game to be bought by/played by native Japanese speakers/residents.

Now we all know that you have to censor your game for sale on DLSite, nothing new there etc.

However, if the creator of a game were to provide Japanese as an additional language in their game, like through the option menu, and then they attempted to sell it on other sites that did *not* require this censorship to be inherent in the game;

1) Would they get in trouble with the Japanese government in any way?
2) Would they get the people buying the game in trouble in any way, assuming they live in Japan?
3) Would they get anyone who links to their game or blogs about it in Japan in trouble?

This may seem like an over the top or silly question, but I haven't found any answers for it anywhere, so I was hoping some people living in Japan would be able to shed light on this, for all h-game devs wanting to eventually add in translation (because while it does cost money, given the size of the h-game market in Japan, it's a really good investment!)
 

Serifyn

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

I can't speak specifically for Japan, but laws are typically enforced more heavily at a source. A big vender like DLsite is something an Agency charged with enforcing such a law would be keeping a close eye on and in order to avoid trouble with authorities, DLsite would ensure that the content they put up there meets certain criteria.

A foreign website which isn't under the same scrutiny can do whatever they want.

I would try to read the law in Japan on uncensored hentai, read whether or not it actually is illegal for an individual to possess, that would be my first step if i were you, if it isn't illegal for a person to possess there there are no issues for the user and it would be more of a rule for businesses. I should add that in the year 2017, if any resident of japan wants access to uncensored pornography or hentai, it is available within seconds on the internet.
 
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HentaiWriter

HentaiWriter

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

If any resident of japan wants access to uncensored pornography or hentai, it is available within seconds on the internet.
Yeah, I was actually curious about this; I know China of course outright blocks other internet sites and you have to use proxies to access them, which carries a stiff legal penalty if you're found out.

But how does Japan deal with a similar thing with sex visual censorship?
Do they have any sort of internet-wide blocking mechanic for western porn sites that you have to use proxies to bypass, do they monitor activity from Japan to said sites at all, or is it more of a "we're not going to arrest you for this unless you're an idiot and slap a cop in the face while telling him you're doing it" type law?
 

ɹǝʞoſ

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

The law in Japan requires anyone who distributes porn / hentai in Japan to have it censored. That's why some H-doujins artists in Korea or Taiwan censor their works before shipping it to Japan.

As far as online platforms go, that's trickier but the way I see it, any platform that sells to a certain country will have to abide by its laws. If you're trying to use a platform that will sell to a Japanese audience then I would say you'll have to censor your work; most of the time, the platform itself actually checks for that before even allowing to sell your content through them though.

On the other hand if you're using a platform that sells internationally and doesn't particularly tries to sell to Japan more than another country, then I think you wouldn't need to censor it. Still, I don't know what platform you're looking at in particular but any website that deals with Japan would usually be extremely careful with the censorship of its content (for instance DLsite actually checks your content and won't allow you to upload content that's uncensored).

Looking at the Japanese consumers, I don't think they are blocked from accessing any kind of non-censored porn. The law concerning censorship only applies to people selling or distributing porn, not the consumers themselves.

Looking at it from another perspective, Pixiv (basically Japanese Deviantart) allows for uncensored hentai content despite being a Japanese platform. That's because you don't have to be Japanese to post there.

All in all, it's pretty complex and the legal system is a headache to understand when looking at it as a foreigner. I don't even know if there's really a good answer to your question. But personally, I'd censor your work if you intend Japanese customers to be a major part of your audience. I mean, if you censor your work anyway, you literally can't go wrong. At the end of the day, "censoring" is literally only just a pixelated dick and vagina.
 
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Serifyn

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System



"In July 2013, three people were arrested for selling "obscene images" with "insufficient censoring."

Apparently there have been 'very few' arrests linked to this law and the few that have are from creators or vendors, as a foreigner, you are obviously not under their jurisdiction.

If i was a Japanese resident with uncensored porno and i didn't go around bragging about having it or showing it to everyone i met, i'd probably be fine, but 'probably' is the key word here.

DLsite is an easy target if someone wants to raise a fuss.
 

Serifyn

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

The law in Japan requires anyone who distributes porn / hentai in Japan to have it censored. That's why some H-doujins artists in Korea or Taiwan censor their works before shipping it to Japan.

As far as online platforms go, that's trickier but the way I see it, any platform that sells to a certain country will have to abide by its laws. If you're trying to use a platform that will sell to a Japanese audience then I would say you'll have to censor your work; most of the time, the platform itself actually checks for that before even allowing to sell your content through them though.

On the other hand if you're using a platform that sells internationally and doesn't particularly tries to sell to Japan more than another country, then I think you wouldn't need to censor it. Still, I don't know what platform you're looking at in particular but any website that deals with Japan would usually be extremely careful with the censorship of its content (for instance DLsite actually checks your content and won't allow you to upload content that's uncensored).

Looking at the Japanese consumers, I don't think they are blocked from accessing any kind of non-censored porn. The law concerning censorship only applies to people selling or distributing porn, not the consumers themselves.

All in all, it's pretty complex and the legal system is a headache to understand when looking at it as a foreigner. But personally, I'd censor your work if you intend Japanese customers to be a major part of your audience.
Japan has no authority over a foreign business, artists who self-censor probably do so in order to sell their content on a provider such as Dlsite. If a content creator such as Kyrieru wanted to make uncensored content for Nutaku, the japanese government isn't going to get in the way. If a Japanese Citizen wants to buy uncensored Eroico from Nutaku rather than the censored version from DLsite, i seriously doubt the Japanese authorities would do anything to it's customers for merely possessing uncensored content, the law in question is dated and barely enforced as it is.
 

imercenary

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

Ask an international lawyer that specializes in whatever country you live in-and-Japanese law relations.

Everything, everyone here is telling you is complete and utter bullshit.
 

IPetr

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

www%2Ejapaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=1960
第百七十五条
わいせつな文書、図画その他の物を頒布し、販売し、又は公然と陳列した者は、二年以下の懲役又は二百五十万円以下の罰金若しくは科料に処する。販売の目的でこれらの物を所持した者も、同様とする。

Article 175
A person who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2 years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine. The same shall apply to a person who possesses the same for the purpose of sale.
1) Would they get in trouble with the Japanese government in any way?
2) Would they get the people buying the game in trouble in any way, assuming they live in Japan?
3) Would they get anyone who links to their game or blogs about it in Japan in trouble?
I'm not a lawyer (consult one if you must be sure), but the general knowledge is that Japanese jurisdiction for non-citizens ends at the Japanese border, minor exceptions aside.
So based on the law quoted above:
1) No unless the dev has Japanese citizenship and/or is located in Japan at the time of the sale.
2) Possession for personal purposes is not forbidden, so as long as the buyer does not distribute porn he bought, he does not violate the law. See 1) for the seller.
3) No if they censor images which lack censorship themselves if they choose to post them at all. Uncensored images must not be hosted on servers in Japanese jurisdiction, obviously.
 
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Scherzo

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

Do they have any sort of internet-wide blocking mechanic for western porn sites that you have to use proxies to bypass, do they monitor activity from Japan to said sites at all, or is it more of a "we're not going to arrest you for this unless you're an idiot and slap a cop in the face while telling him you're doing it" type law?
Since I don't know the particulars of Japanese laws I can't answer most of your questions with any finality, but this one I can. (I used to live in Japan for a while, so that's what I'm using for reference)

Japan does NOT have any blocks or censorship on their internet access, for porn or otherwise. There is absolutely nothing stopping a Japanese citizen from accessing uncensored western porn online. I imagine a lot of Japanese people stick with their censored porn for many of the same reasons WE bother to view their content, it caters more to certain preferences.


It's not like the cops are going to randomly search people's computers for uncensored porn either. So if you're storing it, you're probably only going to get in trouble for it if they already have reason to seize your PC.

I have no idea what type of penalty exists for possession, if any, so I'm just guessing it's the kind of thing where they might tack it onto whatever else you're being charged with if they want a reason to up your penalties. As in "Hey, we're writing up this guy for possession of weed, and while searching his PC for records of drug deals we found some 'obscene materials' so we can add an extra year to the prison sentence" sort of thing.

And the law mainly goes after distributors, and they can't touch you on that unless you're operating in/from Japan.


In practical terms, for what YOU intend to do, you're safe. You're not going to randomly get some kind of summons from Japanese law enforcement, and any of your Japanese customers are highly unlikely to see any kind of penalties either.

The one situation I could potentially foresee backlash, is if you were to ever apply for a Japanese business license or the like and had something like this held against you. And that's really only if the particular bureaucrats dealing with your case want to find an excuse to snub you, I mean, if companies like Mangagamer can get the uncensored art for original Japanese H-games and give them official western releases, you should be fine.
 

marcus3708

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

I heard something once about hentai artist, some of them intentionally make the censors easy to remove for the users supposedly.
 

Serifyn

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

Ask an international lawyer that specializes in whatever country you live in-and-Japanese law relations.

Everything, everyone here is telling you is complete and utter bullshit.
You don't need an "International lawyer" to put uncensored hentai on the internet, hes not importing Toyotas or Shipping Steel, hes trying to put the Japanese language into his games to make them more accessible to Japanese but not necessarily directed at them specifically.
 

namomo

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

The nature of distributing uncensored hentai is very similar to pirating games in the west. The police knock down torrents sites and main distributors, but usually would not do anything with the downloaders. Yes, it's illegal for procession of uncensored adult entertainment. No, the police will not knock on your door just because you've downloaded a few hentais on your computer.
So the only thing you'll have to worry about is how you're going to distribute your work. If you're going to put your game on oversea server such as mega, people cannot take it down because your game is subject to New Zealand's law but not Japanese's. But if you're going to sell your game through a Japanese company, such as dlsite or dmm, chances were your submission will get rejected because they can't afford to do such thing on Japan's soil.
 
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PeanutGallery

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

You will obviously want to consult a lawyer if you plan on doing business in Japan, because we're all armchair ones (at best).

I do know that regardless of the law, if you're not a Japanese citizen or spending time in Japan, it doesn't matter - Japanese law does not apply to you.
 

Manamana

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

So based on the law quoted above:
1) No unless the dev has Japanese citizenship and/or is located in Japan at the time of the sale.
2) Possession for personal purposes is not forbidden, so as long as the buyer does not distribute porn he bought, he does not violate the law. See 1) for the seller.
3) No if they censor images which lack censorship themselves if they choose to post them at all. Uncensored images must not be hosted on servers in Japanese jurisdiction, obviously.
This.
BTW, Japanese language has nothing to do with the mosaic censorship: you can create content in Esperanto and it would be the same legislation if you sell the game in a company based in Japan.
 

imercenary

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

You don't need an "International lawyer" to put uncensored hentai on the internet, hes not importing Toyotas or Shipping Steel, hes trying to put the Japanese language into his games to make them more accessible to Japanese but not necessarily directed at them specifically.
Ah yes. The "I'm not located in Japan, therefore its 100% legit"-defense.

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
 

Serifyn

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

Ah yes. The "I'm not located in Japan, therefore its 100% legit"-defense.

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
What the hell does being located in Japan have to do with it? This is understanding how laws are enforced which clearly you have no idea about.
 

habisain

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

Ah yes. The "I'm not located in Japan, therefore its 100% legit"-defense.

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Well, that's just the thing. Japan doesn't have jurisdiction in that case, and very few western countries have laws in place that would require censorship to that degree - important as the only way Japan could forcibly get a hold of the person doing the selling is through an extradition treaty, which generally speaking requires dual criminality (the act is a criminal offence in both countries). Or to put it another way, Japan hasn't gone after websites like Nutaku, Mangagamer, or Pornhub for failure to censor, because simply put, they can't.

Not there are one or two provisio's here. First off, it's worth checking the laws on pornography in your own country (e.g. The UK is strict on extreme porn). Violate those and Japan could theoretically extradite you, although you'd probably be more in trouble with your own authorities. The second is that if you're involved in the sale of uncensored pornography, you probably shouldn't go to Japan.

As to the other points in the OP: The general consensus on point 2 is probably correct i.e. there is no law (to my knowledge) that prohibits owning uncensored pornography in Japan - although if you're talking about getting art from a Japanese artist, then they could get in trouble as the commercial transfer of the uncensored stuff would likely count as a sale. Point 3 is much more fuzzy. I have a suspicion that a Japanese blog linking uncensored content could be charged with making it available, and therefore get in trouble. So I wouldn't try that one out.

Or alternatively to all of this: don't ask questions about the Japanese legal system in a forum discussing adult games! You aren't going to get much concrete advise here!
 

kittenmittens

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

However, if the creator of a game were to provide Japanese as an additional language in their game, like through the option menu, and then they attempted to sell it on other sites that did *not* require this censorship to be inherent in the game;

1) Would they get in trouble with the Japanese government in any way?
You're essentially asking if some entity can hold a monopoly on a language. Japan's laws don't govern the world, and they can hold no international legal authority or control over the use of a language even if it's their native language. That'd be like expecting anything in English to follow the laws of England, in which case most hentai artists would be in trouble considering the UK's recent, idiotic anti-porn legislation.

Now, if the distributor is specifically selling to a Japanese market and not following the laws of that market, they could absolutely get slapped with a fine or have their services terminated in Japan. But none of that is on the creator; the only potential consequence for you in that case would be that you can no longer sell your game in Japan through that site. They should be aware of all the applicable laws of whatever markets they're serving and act accordingly.

Though, I hope it goes without saying, you should disclose all the contents of your product when selling it to a distributor. If they aren't aware your game doesn't meet certain censorship standards when they distribute it in Japan and end up receiving a fine or etc., they can possibly sue you for damages, even though it's a matter of due diligence on their part - unlikely to hold up in court, but you probably don't want to be in court in the first place. Make sure they know for their sake and yours, and have some kind of proof that they knew just in case; anything brought against you will be thrown out immediately.

Of course, even if they aren't officially serving that market, there are plenty of ways for someone in Japan to purchase from non-Japanese sites just as there are ways for non-Japanese to purchase from Japanese DLSite, which leads us to:

2) Would they get the people buying the game in trouble in any way, assuming they live in Japan?
3) Would they get anyone who links to their game or blogs about it in Japan in trouble?
If they're breaking the law, maybe. I really don't see how it matters, though, because you aren't responsible for their actions. Someone in Japan could illegally purchase your game in English just as easily. Translating it to Japanese might give them more incentive, but you're not holding a gun to their head and forcing them to do it. As far as I'm aware it's not even illegal (and if it were, it wouldn't be enforceable) for them to buy and possess uncensored porn from overseas, it's just illegal for them to distribute it (whether freely on a blog or for profit). If they're posting images from your game on a blog they should have enough knowledge of their own laws to slap a censor bar on it. Nowhere does the onus fall on you to make sure people in Japan aren't breaking any laws to buy or post your smut.
 

dienow

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

Ah yes. The "I'm not located in Japan, therefore its 100% legit"-defense.

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Japanese laws do not apply to non-citizens living abroad. They do not apply to products sold abroad by non-citizens.

As far as I've seen on the subject: if you sell a censored game in Japan, and then turn around and OFFER the uncensored game in the same venue targeting Japanese citizens, then it's possible you could be doing yourself a frighten.

If you host the uncensored game outside of Japan, but people in Japan can still access it, and they can still play it, then it has nothing to do with you if they download it.

For instance, Kyrieru sells the censored versions of Eroico and Kurovadis in Japan through a few vendors online. The same key allows you to download the international version to play it uncensored.

Two or more degrees of separation.

They also can't really stop you from hosting an uncensor patch for free. But you want to host it from an international server not located in Japan, for legal reasons.
 

N.R.

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Re: Question about the Japanese Legal System

I personally did a lot of research on this because I am also developing something to sell in Japan at the moment and there isn't a definite clear answer yet but here's my two cents.

The basic rule is if you are selling to Japanese customers using a Japanese platform (and therefore subject to Japanese law), then yes it was compulsory to censor. Enty (the japanese equivalent of Patreon) did not have a clear guideline about this and I've seen Twitter posts about sellers getting into trouble when they try to use it to distribute uncensored material, actual details are kept obscure though.

Possessing uncensored stuff itself is not going to get anyone into trouble (as long as no showing off in public or stuff like that), you can't censor stuff without first drawing the whole thing after all, and obviously Japanese developers do keep uncensored source materials of their own work, they are just not allowed to distribute it in uncensored form within Japanese border.

Overall:
1) No. If a site or platform does not require censorship they would be unable to operate in Japan legally, otherwise they will not be in Japan and therefore not subject to Japanese law.

2) No. Any Japan citizen into H stuff should be smart enough to know censorship laws, no risk unless they don't keep to themselves for whatever stupid reason and this has nothing to do with distributor that doesn't operate in Japan in the first place. See 1)

3) This one can depend on what "links" and "blogs" could mean, and where it is hosted at. Merely linking/blogging wouldn't have much risk (worst they just get taken down), but trying to earn affiliate income off it, then maybe not.
 
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