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TOKYO — Japan became the last of the G7 nations to ban most forms of child pornography this week, joining more than 70 other countries.

The island nation, which has long allowed child pornography partly because of concerns about governmental controls of the press, banned the production and distribution of child pornography after overwhelming legislative support. Drawings and digitally-created imagery, such as in comic books, will still be legal on the basis that real children are not portrayed.

Violators will face up to one year in jail or a fine of up to one million yen, equivalent to 9,800 USD. A one-year grace period has been implemented for the law in order to give Japanese citizens time to get rid of any now-illegal materials they may possess.

“This law will not curb the actual sexual abuse of children.”

According to Morality in Media's Hysen Sisco, Japan took so long to pass such a law because it “has a culture that is historically permissive of all kinds of pornography.” However, she said that the effect of the new law would be minimal.

“While it is admirable that the Japanese government it finally attempting to protect children from having their abuse documented and shared far and wide, this law will not curb the actual sexual abuse of children,” explained Sisco. “It is easier and faster to create an image of child pornography as a drawing than a photograph by a child abuser, which requires time, effort and risk.”

Sisco, who lived in Japan during high school and still has immediate family in the nation, pointed to how “the United States and other countries have had similar laws in place for much longer and yet child pornography remains one of the most frequently traded material on the Internet.” She says the effects of child pornography are devastating, and can cause “children who encounter and view depictions of their peers in such circumstances [to] more likely…replicate that behavior or become victims themselves.”

The effect of child pornography is just as devastating to adults, Sisen says. “A 2004 study reports a link 'between viewing child pornography and molesting children; possession of child pornography goes hand-in-hand with child abuse.'” She directed people who are interested in the issue to the Porn Harms Research website, where there are numerous studies and articles.

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According to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were nearly 24 million images of child pornography online in 2013, over 500 times as many images as were online in 2002.

Sisco says she has “been on a crowded subway car or waiting to cross the street [in Japan] and seen men openly reading pornographic manga books without consideration to their surroundings. Many depicted underage girls, some with underage boys, wearing the mandatory uniform of public school students.”

Despite confidence among some who believe the government's policy can help Japan's culture avoid the harms of child porn, Sisco believes “the prevalence of illustrated pornography” indicates “this legislation will [not] alter the day-to-day consumption and acceptance of child pornography.”