Japan Ratings System and other stuff

[Roland Domenig]

> I would still like to hear everybody's thoughts on the (lack of a) ratings
> system/ censorship in the Japanese film industry.

In Japan all movies are rated by the Administration Commission of Motion
Picture Code of Ethics (eiga rinri kanri iinkai) or the Eirin-Commission as
the self-censorship organ of the Japanese film industry is usually called.
Four categories exist: ippan (general), PG-12, R-15 and R-18. The PG-12
category was introduced in 1998 - before there were only 3 categories:
ippan, R-shitei (today's R-15) and seijin-shitei (today's R-18).
For a long time the Eirin-Commission was mostly concerned with the depiction
of sexuality and its main task was to control the ban of pubic hair and
genitals. Since the 1990s, however, the depiction of violence, that so far
had not been a great concern of the censors, has become a major issue for
the Eirin-Commission. The introduction of the PG-12 category was a result of
a heated public discussion about the influence of violent movies on kids
triggered by a spectacular murder-case of a young boy. The discussion about
the rating system was recently blazed by Fukasaku Kinji's film Battle Royal
that got a R-15 rating.
Except for films that fall into the ippan-category the rating is usually
indicated on posters and flyers, though in most cases only with very tiny
letters.


Roland Domenig
Institute of East Asian Studies
Vienna University