I'm new to hentai, why do some images have black lines in a attempt to hide the best parts then post the image? I love the images, don't get me wrong, I'm new and can't understand why some have one black line covering his penis head or her clit?

Japanese censorship law, dating back to the aftermath of World War II. It was implemented because of western (mostly American) influences. Before that, Japan had no porn censorship at all.

Massive fines are enough to discourage artists from breaking the law, though most don't like censoring their work and often try to make the bars as small as possible.

Because Japan is ruled by a bunch of old conservative fuddy duddies (a fairly large portion of their population is over 60 AND they have money) who are reluctant both to die and to adapt to modern life. For example, the standard office over there still uses computer tech we would have used in the 80's and 90's because the older men in charge find it inconvenient to spend more money on newer tech and adapt to using more modern tech.

Japan has 2 major problems.

1) Conservative Feedback Loop: Remember how I said Japan was filled with conservative old fuddy duddies? Well just as liberals raise liberals, conservatives tend to raise conservatives. Combine that with "respect your elders", "this is what my grandfather would have wanted" etc. and you have a hopeless cycle of conservative ideals holding the country back about 30 years and counting. Just saying, Japanese policy and political ideology won't be changing any time soon.

2)Synthetic Relationships: Men in their 20's are becoming reluctant to date and find girlfriends and prefer synthetic relationships like dating Sims. They may not be real, but to them they FEEL real and they are convenient. (No fuss like with a real woman, love on demand, etc.) In their culture, they are pressured to work 10-14 hours a day 6 days a week and then spend the rest of the day with their coworkers drinking, talking and so forth. So even if they had wives, they wouldn't have time to spend with them. If this continues, Japan is going to have a huge population deflation soon. Actually, it's already happening. 2014 was a record low for their # of babies born.

Genjar said:
Japanese censorship law, dating back to the aftermath of World War II. It was implemented because of western (mostly American) influences. Before that, Japan had no porn censorship at all.

Massive fines are enough to discourage artists from breaking the law, though most don't like censoring their work and often try to make the bars as small as possible.

What exactly has to be censored in Japan? Because I noticed that some of artists on pixiv have their art censored and some don't and I can't see any pattern in this.

Granberia said:
What exactly has to be censored in Japan? Because I noticed that some of artists on pixiv have their art censored and some don't and I can't see any pattern in this.

Looking at the strictness of pixiv's guidelines it looks like something they don't really enforce all that much.

Granberia said:
What exactly has to be censored in Japan? Because I noticed that some of artists on pixiv have their art censored and some don't and I can't see any pattern in this.

I'm not sure if I remember this right, since it's been years since I checked..

Underage characters must be censored, though that might not apply to nonhumans. And same goes for human genitalia (humanoid_penis); but weirder ones (unusual_penis, crotch_tentacles) do not have to censored.

That's actually why tentacle porn became so popular in Japan: it got past censorship.

So that's why huh, thank you for letting Mr know! Much appreciated! Is there any like.... Command I can input into the search engine to prevent them coming up?

Genjar said:
I'm not sure if I remember this right, since it's been years since I checked..

Underage characters must be censored, though that might not apply to nonhumans. And same goes for human genitalia (humanoid_penis); but weirder ones (unusual_penis, crotch_tentacles) do not have to censored.

That's actually why tentacle porn became so popular in Japan: it got past censorship.

post #606239

I've just uploaded this. It's almost human loli presenting pussy. Does this mean that adding animal_ears makes character not human according to their rules?

parasprite said:
Looking at the strictness of pixiv's guidelines it looks like something they don't really enforce all that much.

...
Maybe it's a joke for english speaking people and there are real rules in japanese somewhere on the site.

So that's why huh, thank you for letting Mr know! Much appreciated! Is there any like.... Command I can input into the search engine to prevent them coming up?

-censored (or -censor_bar to just block this type of censorship)

RadRiolu said:
Is there any like.... Command I can input into the search engine to prevent them coming up?

Yep, that'd be -censor_bar, but unfortunately that tag isn't commonly used so it'll only exclude a small percentage of those. And -censored filters out a whole lot more, though if you want to exclude censor bars then you probably don't want to see mosaics either. So that should work.

Granberia said:
I've just uploaded this. It's almost human loli presenting pussy. Does this mean that adding animal_ears makes character not human according to their rules?

Maybe, though the artist might be bending the rules a bit.

Or the genitalia might not be humanlike enough. For absolute minimum censoring, the bars (or mosaic) have to only cover the parts that make the genitals look human. It's generally enough to censor clitoris or part of glans, or just to cover those in fluids. Anyone with eyes can still tell that it's a human penis, but... Plausible deniability, I suppose. :V

The problem is that the laws aren't really specific enough in how they're written.
So what's acceptable by law in one person's view might not be in another's.
It's also very rarely actually enforced, but when it is it tends to be very heavily penalized.

Frankly, it all makes very little sense.

parasprite said:
Looking at the strictness of pixiv's guidelines it looks like something they don't really enforce all that much.

Realistically, a large site like pixiv does not have an ability to enforce such guidelines. They get many, many, many, many submissions, they cannot vet them, they can only deal with items that are specifically reported.
Deviantart has the same problems.. Youtube.. it's a huge problem of scale, it's just not affordable to employ people to vet everything and you cannot really rely on the anonymous masses to help you -- even whiteknighting obsessive lunatics have only so much time available. Whoever manages to invent an AI or expert system that can accurately assess these things could make a LOT of money.

FatherOfGray said:
Actually, it's already happening. 2014 was a record low for their # of babies born.

And last time I've checked, their suicide rate is very high

TheHuskyK9 said:
And last time I've checked, their suicide rate is very high

Yup. One of the only places in the world where suicide is the leading cause of death for young adults...

Durandal said:
Yup. One of the only places in the world where suicide is the leading cause of death for young adults...

That is the single most depressing thing I have read all day. You'd think a place with so much crack porn would have more happy people. Obviously, the stereotypes have lied...

furrypickle said:
That is the single most depressing thing I have read all day. You'd think a place with so much crack porn would have more happy people. Obviously, the stereotypes have lied...

It's even worse in South Korea; Japan lies steady at around 20-25 suicides per 100,000 people per year, South Korea lies at 36-41.

Peekaboo said:
It's even worse in South Korea; Japan lies steady at around 20-25 suicides per 100,000 people per year, South Korea lies at 36-41.

The two countries both have extremely high expectations for everyone. And in both, suicide is seen as an acceptable way to redeem yourself... a recipe for disaster.

Durandal said:
The two countries both have extremely high expectations for everyone. And in both, suicide is seen as an acceptable way to redeem yourself... a recipe for disaster.

Don't know where I read it, but some report said that if the suicide rate and low birth rate in Japan continues in it's current path, Japans population will have dropped by 30 million by 2050.

I'm off topic, I'll stop now.

Genjar said:
Japanese censorship law, dating back to the aftermath of World War II. It was implemented because of western (mostly American) influences. Before that, Japan had no porn censorship at all.

The censorship of pornography in Japan is actually somewhat older than that, being first put into law as part of the Meiji Restoration. During the occupation of Japan after WWII, all forms of censorship were abolished, but then porn censorship was later reinstated.

If anything, American influence has lead to sentiment against censorship as a whole, though it's not as if all of Japan agrees that porn shouldn't be censored.

wous said:
During the occupation of Japan after WWII, all forms of censorship were abolished, but then porn censorship was later reinstated.

I've been told repeatedly that media censorship (especially pornography) was stricter than ever during the occupation. Wikipedia also claims the same, though it's not always a reliable source and some articles don't mention pornography at all.

It's also been said that general MacArthur pushed for porn censorship because of his personal beliefs. But there's so much anti-American propaganda on the internet that I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's not true.

RadRiolu said:
So that's why huh, thank you for letting Mr know! Much appreciated! Is there any like.... Command I can input into the search engine to prevent them coming up?

Instead of searching -censored you can also put censored in your blacklist.

Genjar said:
I've been told repeatedly that media censorship (especially pornography) was stricter than ever during the occupation. Wikipedia also claims the same, though it's not always a reliable source and some articles don't mention pornography at all.

It's also been said that general MacArthur pushed for porn censorship because of his personal beliefs. But there's so much anti-American propaganda on the internet that I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's not true.

It's a case of flying a double standard. Censorship was in fact abolished, but then nonetheless continued on where it was convenient for the occupation, such as when soldiers went around looting and raping. In terms of porn censorship at the time, I really can't say for certain. I believe that came back some time later.

http://www.japanprobe.com/2006/01/31/why-is-japanese-porn-censored/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_Japan#Censorship_laws
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Japan#Pornography
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pornography-censorship/
http://kotaku.com/5955714/pundits-big-prediction-no-more-japanese-porn-censorship-by-2050