A new round of Japanese laws aimed at protecting those under 18 from the child porn trade and other crimes could mean a crimp in legitimate adult entertainment content shooting online and off.
The new laws include tougher enforcement of existing laws barring the solicitation of women on the street to appear in adult films, according to reports in the Japanese press. Some say the legislation could pose problems in those few Japanese municipalities – like Nagano – which do not yet have laws barring sex with women under 18.
“Does that mean they are fair game? Apparently they are,” asked the Japanese-language publication Spa last weekend. “But let's say you are a registered resident of Tokyo, where sex with a minor is illegal. If you go to Nagano and do it there, can the Tokyo police extradite you for breaking a Tokyo law outside its boundaries?”
"In theory, as a Tokyo resident you are obliged to follow its laws no matter where you go in Japan," attorney Takashi Yamaguchi told the newspaper. "But in practice it's hard for the MPD to enforce this. Laws and ordinances should be interpreted as covering only the territory specified therein."
A new law in Tokyo, as of April 1, specifically bans those considered as adult entertainment scouts from soliciting women on the street for porn or sex business work.
"The present codes, if enforced to the letter, make 'nampa' [mashing] an offense," journalist Yoshiyuki Nagaoka told Spa. "At present they are only being enforced selectively, but that may change in the future. Back in February, for example, a 25-year salary man in the city of Tottori was arrested for violating a similar ordinance after he tried to pick up two … school girls."
The new laws also pose trouble for those visiting Japanese sex shops who don’t learn until during or after their encounters with live women that they were serviced by someone under 18, the paper said.
