Japan's laws on censorship have become a more frequent topic of discussion among anime fans in the past few months. Between companies striking down YouTubers and even trying to copyright basic patterns, the world of anime censorship laws has become more mainstream and scrutinized as of late. One artist, in particular, has decided that the time for talk was over and the time for action is now. That artist is Ken Akamatsu, creator of Negima!? Magister Negi Magi and Love Hina.
Akamatsu has announced his intentions to run for Japan's House of Representatives with the platform of "free speech." More specifically, he wants to change censorship laws regarding what artists can and cannot depict in their works. The announcement, which was made public on December 16, 2021, has received mostly positive feedback from fans and supporters. Akamatsu intends on running for a position within the upper house in the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors. Despite the mostly positive reaction, some fans are worried because of which party he has decided to run under.
The Liberal Democratic Party, LDP for short, is one of the biggest political parties in Japan and has held the majority seating with a nearly perfect record since 1955. There have been only two years where they didn't hold the majority, being 1993 and 1994. They are a mostly conservative party and are associated with Japanese nationalist ideology. These ideologies aren't the official platform of the party, which is seen as more of a "catch-all" party rather than one that espoused that theirs is the best for the country.
Akamatsu has also received criticism for pushing for more artistic freedom rather than pushing for stricter laws on the overworked animation and manga industries. Those who are familiar with his works are dubious to his reasons for running as he has a history of drawing minors in compromising positions and situations. Others fully support his platform and the push for more lenient censorship laws. While it is true that Japan's laws are some of the more strict on a global scale, the question then becomes what are the limits to artistic expression when it comes to depicting minors?
Another question is if his fervor extends to that of the animation industry and if he plans to push for more regulation of the overworked, low-paid employees. Will he push for legislation that not only raises the pay of animators and artists and push for stricter laws on how many hours a company can work its employees, or will he solely focus on the censorship of those industries and try to weaken the laws already set in place? Since his announcement only came out fairly recently, only time will tell what he plans to do should be elected into the position.
Akamatsu has already become well-known for trying to curb piracy by creating sites that allow readers to enjoy manga for free. In 2008, he launched J-Comi, which came under scrutiny by the Japanese media and government in 2011 for allowing a series called Oku-sama wa Shogakusei (My Wife is an Elementary School Student) to be added to the digital library, according to Anime News Network. Since then, he has partnered with Kodansha and Shueisha to add more titles to his site.