Amazon Japan bans two Dr. Stone books at the request of local prefecture government

[Ebicentre]

The Tottori prefecture government, under its revised policies around youth development, requested Amazon Japan to ban two books authored by the science consultation team that collaborates with Dr. Stone's mangaka. Their job is to verify the accuracy of the science used in the story.

You'd be forgiven to assume they were banned because some of the science shown in the manga can actually be dangerous (there's literally a tutorial on how to create gunpowder) - but nope, it's because of fanservice. From Bounding Into Comics:

'To this end, Arenai Medical Encylopedia was removed under “Article 13, Paragraph 1, Item 1 (stimulation of sexual feelings), Item 2 (inducing roughness & cruelty), and Item 3 (encouraging drug use)”, while Arenai Craft Encylopedia fell victim to Items 1 and 2 as well as worry that it my “hinder healthy growth”.'​

Japan seems to be experiencing a resurgence of moral panic over the (perceived) psychological effects of media on children. It's no wonder Ken Akamatsu became a politician.

 

[Scornful Gaze]

The truly insidious part of this is that it's a 'soft ban' with corporate compliance rather than a 'hard ban' with legitimate government enforcement, so it's much harder to fight it on constitutional grounds- especially so given that their obscenity law is both stricter (while at the same time being vague as fuck) and with a lower bar of application than the US. I recall back when the Tokyo Youth Ordinance was being revised back in 2010 that people scoffed at critics and the Tokyo bar association for warning that such measures would expand in scope and affect other ares of legitimate speech. Ten years later and what do you know? Now the debate is on something far less fringe.

Also, lmao, a book teaching children how to experiment with chemistry is 'unhealthy to a developing mind.' What a joke. I'd trust the kid who made a spicy mixture for homemade fireworks and set his back yard on fire far more than I would trust the weirdo who played it straight and narrow his entire life. One might accidentally make a bomb and the other is likely so high strung that he's likely to go off like a bomb. You don't raise a healthy mind in a padded cell.

 

[grapedApe]

Goddamn september is refusing to stop being shit. Every day so for has had another stupid fucking thing happen.

There's barely any fanservice in Dr. Stone yet they focused on that. That means we could see a takedown of every manga that isn't just slice of life junk, I doubt this will remain isolated to amazon japan.

edit: Fully read it after the red left my eyes, its two science books made by consultants that helped with the science accuracy in Dr. Stone. It's still not a good thing that this happened.

 

[Ebicentre]

The truly insidious part of this is that it's a 'soft ban' with corporate compliance rather than a 'hard ban' with legitimate government enforcement, so it's much harder to fight it on constitutional grounds- especially so given that their obscenity law is both stricter (while at the same time being vague as fuck) and with a lower bar of application than the US.

There's an argument to be made that because the books can't be sold in that prefecture, this actually is a form of government censorship (which the Left insists is the only definition that ever exists).

 

[Hexasheep93]

The truly insidious part of this is that it's a 'soft ban' with corporate compliance rather than a 'hard ban' with legitimate government enforcement, so it's much harder to fight it on constitutional grounds- especially so given that their obscenity law is both stricter (while at the same time being vague as fuck) and with a lower bar of application than the US. I recall back when the Tokyo Youth Ordinance was being revised back in 2010 that people scoffed at critics and the Tokyo bar association for warning that such measures would expand in scope and affect other ares of legitimate speech. Ten years later and what do you know? Now the debate is on something far less fringe.

Also, lmao, a book teaching children how to experiment with chemistry is 'unhealthy to a developing mind.' What a joke. I'd trust the kid who made a spicy mixture for homemade fireworks and set his back yard on fire far more than I would trust the weirdo who played it straight and narrow his entire life. One might accidentally make a bomb and the other is likely so high strung that he's likely to go off like a bomb. You don't raise a healthy mind in a padded cell.

Even so there has to be something they can do about it right? Would appealing to the people of the prefecture help?

I dont know about japanese politics but I know about politicians in general and I know they seldom represent the interests of the people, and I can guarantee that most people dont even know of the ban let alone support it

 

[Nehir]

I fucking hate censorship. Good thing I only use Amazon JP to buy sunscreen. Even my cica I get from Korea.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Censorship in any and all kinds is total caner and dr.stone is pretty good imo.