Censorship in Japan


While Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan guarantees freedom of expression and prohibits formal censorship, Article 175 of the Criminal Code of Japan censors any obscene content (documents, drawings or other objects featuring similar concepts).


Aggressors shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2 years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine.


Therefore, any kind of suggestive or explicit content must be censored or made non-available to Japanese visitors.


Examples of content that require censorship:


  1. Genitals or any objects serving similar visual purposes.
  2. Anuses that are being penetrated by any objects.
  3. Depiction of the internal body, including the guts, muscles, urethra, and rectum.


How to add censorship for explicit content


For any black/white drawings, the use of monochrome bars (black/white) must be used to cover the area which requires censorship.


For any coloured drawings, the use of mosaics or pixelation must be used to cover the area which requires censorship. Its strength is parallel to the resolution of the area that requires censorship (the higher the resolution, the bigger the pixelation).


For any text content, it shall not include any obscene concept or reference that might offend, disrespect or humiliate the Japanese visitor.