Last spring, Rurouni Kenshin creator Nobuhiro Watsuki was charged with possession of child pornography. Yesterday, Nikkan Sports reported that he was fined ¥200,000 ($2384) for violating the country’s child pornography law.
Image: Hulu
Debuting in 1994, Rurouni Kenshin has sold over 70 million copies and went on to spawn a hit anime and several live-action films.
Kotaku previously reported that investigators discovered several DVDs that showed nude under-15-year-old girls at Watsuki’s Tokyo office. Similar DVDs were also reportedly found at his house. Watsuki was quoted as telling authorities, “I liked girls from the upper grades of elementary school to around the second year of junior high school.”
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6 responses to “Rurouni Kenshin Creator Fined For Child Pornography Possession”
Japan penalizes production much more heavily than possession, but even then the maximum penalty is 1 million yen and/or a year in prison, so this seems like just a slap on the wrist.
Japan’s CP laws are… weird. They’re also very differently enforced depending on a number of factors. Hell, their porn laws as a whole are super weird.
Just wait till Olympics 2020 and watch lolis get discriminated against.
Japan only adopted Child Pornorgaphy laws in 2004. A lot of Japan does not see the harm of CP.
Depends on what you mean. Some laws came in 1997. Even before that they had CP laws, but they were not well enforced and were very open to interpretation.
Saying a lot of Japan doesn’t see the harm isn’t really a true statement. Basically all of Japan believes that CP is child exploitation and is wrong, but there are differing opinions on what constitutes porn, what age is appropriate, and whether it depicts real people or not. Then there’s the cultural weirdness around a massive number of small side issues like prostitution, what counts as sex, and other things that all just add to a huge ball of strange.
Japan has a fucking complicated relationship with sex.
Well he has been punished by their legal system. Now we can enjoy the show again with a guilt free conscience.