Sex sells, and everyone in the entertainment business knows it. From books to movies and music, pop culture is littered with risqué material. Now, a new report from Japan suggests several manga series are under fire alongside their magazines. After all, the Japanese Communist Party is looking to file a global complaint against manga’s use of ‘sexy’ women.
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The odd complaint was pieced together by Togetter blogger Misato Nakayama. It was there the fan discovered a survey about manga and magazines was going on in Shimbun Akahata, a newspaper published by the communist party. The group wanted to know if people were seeing adult-oriented manga and magazines in stores.
You can see why the survey surprised netizens, and that confusion only grew as they saw the poll’s list of suspect magazines. Weekly Young Jumpg, Young Animal, Weekly Shonen Champion, and other manga anthologies were included. As it turns out, the Japanese communist party has a bone to pick with the publications because of how they depict ‘sexy’ women in ads and in fiction.
“During our preliminary survey… we found that adult magazines at convenience stores, which we thought were banned thanks to our previous campaigns, have made a comeback in different locations. Now, we are conducting a full-scale nationwide survey. We will investigate whether there are adult magazines in store that treat women as sexual objects… We will also submit our report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.”
There is no denying how important women’s rights are, and that is why this new survey has left some netizens split. Plenty are arguing the report is a slap in the face to artistic expression that favors censorship over female empowerment. As for others, well – they aren’t quite sure where they stand on manga and its inappropriately sexualized heroines. So as this survey continues, manga readers will have to wait and see if anything comes from it.
What do you think about this wild manga update? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!
