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Kadokawa Shoten Cancels Its Tokyo Anime Fair Display (Update 3)

Shinichiro Inoue, the president of the Japanese media company Kadokawa Shoten, revealed on his Twitter account on Wednesday that his company has decided to cancel its display at next year's Tokyo International Anime Fair. Inoue said that his company cannot accept the stance that Tokyo has taken towards manga creators and people in the anime industry.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government submitted a revised bill to amend the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance at the end of last month. The current ordinance already prevents the sale and renting of "harmful publications" — materials that are "sexually stimulating, encourages cruelty, and/or may compel suicide or criminal behavior" — to people under the age of 18. The proposed Bill 156 would require the industry to also self-regulate the sale and renting of "manga, anime, and other images (except for real-life photography)" that "unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate" certain sexual or pseudo sexual acts. Another section of the revised bill would allow the government to directly restrict the sale and renting of the above images if the depicted acts are also "considered to be excessively disrupting of social order" such as rape.

On November 29, three manga creator groups — the Japan Cartoonists Association, the Copyright Network for Comic Authors in the 21st Century, and Manga Japan — announced their opposition to the bill.

Update: A half hour after Inoue made the Twitter post above, he thanked the many people who offered their words of support.

Update 2: Translator Dan Kanemitsu notes that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is part of TAF's executive committee, and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara also serves as the chairperson of that committee. Ishihara was a leading advocate of the previous amendment bill that was rejected in June, and he has been pushing the current revised bill.

Update: Motoki Watase, the editor-publisher of the magazine Manga Hihyō, reported on Thursday that another major publishing company besides Kadokawa has decided not to display at TAF. According to Watase, this second company is also part of TAF's executive committee.