News: Cops see through porn watchdog's fuzzy stance on private patchwork

[chompy]

Even if the story itself isn't particularly interesting, it is educational.
from: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20070911p2g00m0dm008000c.html

Japan's adult movie fans are shaking in their boots after police raided the organization that blanks out the dirty bits to make sure stick flicks aren't deemed obscene, according to Shukan Bunshun (9/13).

Most mainstream adult movies in Japan are screened by the Nihon Ethics of Video Association (NEVA), which is responsible for placing the digital mosaic over genitals in Japanese porn.

But the late August raid on NEVA was conducted because police accuse it of distributing indecent materials by allowing the digital mosaics to become so transparent as to be effectively useless.

"Police raided two adult movie DVD companies and NEVA because it said the digital mosaic over the genitals had not been applied properly and the ethics organization allowed that to happen too easily," a reporter for a national daily tells Shukan Bunshun. "Police questioned NEVA officials for days about the incident."

Adult movie companies joined together in 1981 to form NEVA to independently monitor blue movies so that they would not raise the ire of authorities. The August raid was the first ever to target the ethics body. Though there are few people who enjoy the digital mosaics NEVA is responsible for adding, there are even less who think it has been so lenient to have gone too far in displaying actors' private parts.

"There is a genre called 'Indies,' which are movies made by companies that don't belong to NEVA. The mosaic in Indies movies is almost non-existent, yet NEVA got raided because the cops thought the digital alteration wasn't opaque enough," an adult video industry source says. "What I think was the real motivation of the police action was to send a message to the entire industry, where the trend has been to make the mosaic more transparent."

Once watching videos became common in Japan in the '80s, "Indies" video makers had a gripe with NEVA, saying it was too strict in its application of the mosaic. In 1996, they set up their own self-monitoring organization called the Soft Contents Association. The new organization led to a decline in NEVA's power.

"For 'Indies' makers, the rule of thumb is basically 'Anything Goes.' And 'Indies' videos are more popular in the market than those that go through NEVA," the adult video industry source tells Shukan Bunshun. "NEVA have responded to members' calls for a little lenience and since 2004 has allowed them to use a more transparent kind of digital mosaic that shows more, while last year saw NEVA permit its members to display pubic hair and anuses. But the police raid on NEVA really should serve as a warning to everybody in the industry."

NEVA is extremely apologetic over the incident.

"We truly regret what happened," a NEVA spokesman says. "We will continue to watch what happens from now on and deal with the situation in a careful, strict manner."

"Indies" representatives at the Contents Soft Association, meanwhile, are remaining tight-lipped.

"We don't want to say a word about this case," an association spokesman tells Shukan Bunshun. (By Ryann Connell)

September 11, 2007

 

[reingiolt]

Is NEVA also in charge of censoring hentai? This kinda worries me since a lot of new hentai have a pretty low level of censorship. ( i.e. Tokumu Sousakan Rei and Fuko , Accelerando , Kateikyoshi no Onee-san etc. )
Will censorship levels go back to the likes of Izumo and Castle Fantasia?

 

[desioner]

I remember seeing this story on the news. It was quite funny actually. Censorship is circular logic. Self defeating in a manner. This should have been a message to Japan to loose it all together but the "nail sticking out will be hit back into place."
desioner

 

[gaijindavid]

It is especially strange since the censorship is a remnant of the Meji-era Westernization, not at all a traditional Japanese value. Take a look at old ukiyo-e prints (many of which cannot be published today) for proof of that!

 

[barba]

a case of:

now you see 'em
now you don't

 

[balala]

I suppose Japanese law enforcement has a lot of time on their hands.

 

[porkar]

Yes the crime rate must be rockbottom, if the police have nothing better to occupy themselves with. Perhaps they should get on the internet and look at some good porn.

 

[jugulear]

.
Whenever I've noticed less-intrusive mosaics (which I suppose have been becoming more frequent, in recent years), I have sometimes wondered what determines the level of opacity? Why would some companies apply almost no cover, whereas we all know of examples (more likely from the past) where the digital obstruction is so severe, it seriously gets in the way of the viewing of the movie. Probably the JAV companies feel safer in these later years to go easier on the mosaic, than at the time this 2007 article had gone up -- but I'd bet there is no hard-and-fast rule. Any day now, a Japanese smut peddler could still get a knock on the door... a similar situation as exists in the USA, where all of a sudden, government people could stick it to a porn-maker, based on a very arbitrary interpretation of "obscenity law."

EDIT: On another thread called "Jav with 'Mosaic' Label Thingy," Member Peiper provided the idea that there may be different levels of mosaic, divided into classifications, kind of like the U.S. market's "G," "PG," "R" and so on. Did you know that? (I'd guess such classifications are one manufacturer's idea, and are unofficial.)

EDIT: So I got this idea to look at JAV Discussion's last pages to see if there was any ancient talk worth reviving - jumpin' Billy Jacks, if members think Discussion topics are not what they used to be, you should check out how awful the topics were at the beginning -- anyway, a related thread from way back when also asked about whether mosaics could be removed. (I remember reading an article about some JAV watcher employing a machine that did such a thing, although I find it hard to believe such would be possible... but perhaps with changing technology...):

"Mosaic"


.

 

[Inertia]

There is no singular mosaic regulation authority. It's self regulated by a mess of companies. Studios don't even need to be 'approved' by them in order to sell. However, larger video chains may be hesitant to carry titles that aren't approved by these authorities.

Mosaic thickness varies title by title studio by studio. Thinner = riskier. Form-fitting = costlier. More mosaic needed also = costlier. This is another reason why unique genres that aim to show as much as possible without the need for mosaic exist (such as chakuero, foot fetish, anal play with vagina molds, etc.).

 

[galactus]

I don't think Japanese men want to face the truth of their penis size. If they could see, for comparisons sake, the difference between western porn actors and their Japanese counterpart they would... Nevermind. This is 2015 and every Japanese man can see anything a westerner can see by merely surfing the net.

I swear. Censorship is so absurd. It's utterly pointless! Oh well, just keep doing things they way you always have, Japan. Look where it's gotten your economy.

 

[ding73ding]

.some JAV watcher employing a machine that did such a thing, although I find it hard to believe such would be possible... but perhaps with changing technology...):
"Mosaic"
.

Way way back when I was very horny cherry boy, I did notice such machine advertised and even was imagining ways (quite unsuccessfully) to find the money and opportunity to buy such a machine.

Of course even back than I knew properly applied mosaic cannot be properly undone. I was wondering and hoping that somehow the obscured pixels were not properly destroyed but hidden in the VHS signal (very kindly by the production/publishing companies) and that these outrageously priced machine can decode these hidden pixels and restored all the details, with pubic hair and clitoris and all. Basically a 3-way conspiracy between AV producers, decoder maker and customers to sneak uncensored porn under the noses of the censors.

Of course now we (I) know that the pixels were destroyed and not hidden on the VHS tape (and DVD) so nothing except leaking from the pre-post-production stage can give us the much-missed clitoris.

But reading the old old thread Jug dug up... it occurs to me I possess enough math and computer skill to smooth out the mosaic in a video stream. But it would take a lot of effort and time which... I don't think is worthwhile. Smoothed out mosaic would be no less blurry but may (or may not) look better by smoothing out the square boxes.