Accused of pushing child pornography, DMM stops selling underage and junior idol content

Adult retail giant DMM.com announced on September 7th that it would no longer sell content in which performers are under 18 years of age.

This will apply to “image video” DVDs and so on featuring idols and tarento.

DMM also said that since July 25th it had stopped selling adult content that had not been screened by industry bodies like the euphemistically named Intellectual Property Promotion Association (IPPA). Moreover, it said that it had never sold any pornography involving performers under the age of 18.

DMM also said that the non-adult DVDs featuring performers under the age of 18 it had sold until now had always met internal ethical standards.

The announcement by DMM is a direct response (and sop) to campaigners, who have just this week said that “child porn still thrives in Japan”. The widely publicized report by Human Rights Now specifically named DMM as a place where “child porn” is sold.

Much of this involves the ambiguous areas like junior idols or chidol — effectively covering sexualized images of people under 18 years old. However, many gravure idols start their careers at 16 or 17 or even younger, so these bikini shoots and image videos could also be defined as child pornography. Likewise, idol groups and so on, including AKB48 and Momoiro Clover Z, produce sexualized content of girls under 18 and this is sold very openly. (It’s worth remembering that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu started off as a junior idol. That’s her pictured above.)

Human Rights Now, a Tokyo-based campaign group, said in a report released Monday that DVDs clearly marked as child porn continue to be “openly and widely distributed, displayed and sold at stores, and released on the internet.”

Police rarely investigate pornographers who appear to hire children, claiming they cannot confirm the ages of those appearing in videos, according to the report.

Campaigners in the report condemned that stance, saying police should make the eradication of child porn a priority.

Possession of child pornography was finally made illegal in Japan in 2014, but there is still a legal gray zone that allows material to be produced and consumed. Under the new law, anyone who possesses child pornography for the purpose of satisfying their sexual interest faces jail time of up to a year or a fine of up to ¥1 million. Child pornography producers may be imprisoned for up to three years or fined as much as ¥3 million.

Some of the material still available can be bought online or from shops in districts like Akihabara. Some of it would be teen idol content or otherwise involving young women in skimpy outfits.

But campaigners blame police, who rarely investigate the actual producers of the content because of the apparent difficulty in proving performers’ ages.

There has been a lot of international pressure over the years, which will only get stronger as we head towards the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Last October, a United Nations special envoy, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, made heavily critical comments about Japan and its tolerance of the so-called JK business, which is a euphemism for schoolgirl prostitution, as well as the legal loopholes that mean what is considered “child pornography” in other countries can still exist in Japan.

Of course, this is all before we even get into the very thorny issue of anime, manga, and other 2D depictions of arguably underaged girls — what is often broadly categorized as lolicon or part of “hentai” content. As noted by the mainstream media, “graphic images of pedophilia in manga remain legal”.

However, there is also some confusion about terminology here. “Pedophilia” actually refers to a sexual attraction to prepubescent children. A lot of the controversial content that occupies this gray zone in manga, anime, eroge and so on, or even in live pornography, could probably be better classified as ephebophilia or hebephilia. These are still illegal in most countries, but it’s arguably not about “children” but teenaged girls (and perhaps boys, too).

For example, Nana Asakawa (above) is one music idol currently gaining in popularity. You can find countless sexually provocative images of her online. She is only 17, making her legally a minor in Japan (and many other nations). Perving over her images does not make you a pedophile, though, and even if you have a fetish for girls of her age and body, you should not be condemned as one.

Semantics aside, one thing’s for sure: you will no longer be able to get your Nana Asakawa DVD or photo-book from DMM.