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This was buried under news of Abe’s resignation but deserves attention. Please be aware that this thread contains incredibly offensive images and comments, and will likely ruin your day as much as it did mine. I’ve pixelated the parts that made me nauseous.
I hesitated with translating this. But the fact that everything here was so openly posted (with 19k retweets, 44k likes) really belies a structural issue in Japan, the sexualizing of children. Please note that most comments in this thread are translations, not my opinions.
“[Experience comic] I bought a Shota (small boy) love doll”. This user (older male) posted a comic about his experience with buying a love doll of a small boy online. It quickly gained a lot of traction in Japan, some of which I've translated. The original has been deleted.
![“[Experience comic] I bought a Shota (small boy) love doll”. This user (older male) posted a comic about his experience with buying a love doll of a small boy online. It quickly gained a lot of traction in Japan, some of which I've translated. The original has been deleted.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgrA-9_U8AAxLLB.jpg "“[Experience comic] I bought a Shota (small boy) love doll”. This user (older male) posted a comic about his experience with buying a love doll of a small boy online. It quickly gained a lot of traction in Japan, some of which I've translated. The original has been deleted.")
OP warns: “This has some ‘deep’ content about ‘Shotacon’, so please proceed with care.” Shotacon=attraction to young boys. The author depicts himself reading the product description and is surprised that “you can go all the way” and that “it’s attached” (genitals).
OP expresses his surprise over the fact that “a product like this exists” and that usually people like him “live in darkness”. He asks himself: “what would happen if my friends and family found out?” He still bought it.
The next two pictures are him “hesitating” to “use” the doll, but eventually caving in. I pixelated the pictures because they depict the doll in different outfits and positions, with the final one (middle left) being the doll in the same condition in “which he was born”.
OP now “can’t help but love ‘him’,” humanizing the doll. Regardless, he has already “done things” with the doll that he “can’t write here.” He humanizes the doll, fetishizes it as a young boy, and continues using the doll in unspeakable ways.
He even says “the nipples are just like that of a real boy,” which implies something very disturbing.
The doll costs 1200 dollars and OP apparently bought it online. I will not provide a link. The company he bought it from specializes in little boy and girl love dolls and ships worldwide. You can actually buy their dolls on Amazon (wtf). Again, I will not provide a link.
Left middle panel: “To the company who sells these ‘niche’ and ‘dangerous’ products and to our Japanese predecessors who are fighting for our freedom of expression, thanks to you the soul of this Shotacon has been saved. Thank you very much.”
OP gives an overview of the countries where “non-realistic sexual images and products are allowed” (includes the US). He ends his story with the sentence “Shotacon (those who love little boys), before making a move on a real boy, please use a Shota doll.”
Shota and shotacon are basically used here to express his sexual desire of young, very young, boys. So: pedophilia.
One [deleted] reply stood out and received a lot of buzz: “I am a mother, and if you can stave off crime like this it’s something to celebrate. Dispositions and forms of happiness differ per person. I hope that OP and other people who start using love dolls will be happy.”
![One [deleted] reply stood out and received a lot of buzz: “I am a mother, and if you can stave off crime like this it’s something to celebrate. Dispositions and forms of happiness differ per person. I hope that OP and other people who start using love dolls will be happy.”](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgrB5xTVgAAsXl2.jpg "One [deleted] reply stood out and received a lot of buzz: “I am a mother, and if you can stave off crime like this it’s something to celebrate. Dispositions and forms of happiness differ per person. I hope that OP and other people who start using love dolls will be happy.”")
There were a lot of varied comments, often turning into long and elaborate discussions. Some examples:
"About the "love doll" comic, I knew this guy would say, "Get a doll before you mess with a real child.” Would you give an "elaborate cat doll made for abuse" to someone who wants to abuse a cat? [...]
"No matter how you think about it, you would recommend counselling, right?” https://twitter.com/Tokkaru_bi04/status/1299634750655660032?s=20
“I just saw a comic about a man who bought a Shota love doll, and as a parent of a child, it's really horrible and unbearable. I want people who turn non-adult men and women into sexual objects to get therapy.” https://twitter.com/neeeeeepy/status/1299574569733292034?s=20
“You can’t use this logic of love dolls as a solution to prevent them from committing a crime, there is always a chance their desires may escalate.” https://twitter.com/neeeeeepy/status/1299574569733292034?s=20
The comic of the guy who bought a "Shota" love doll is pretty hard to digest. What do you mean with “before you make a move in real life...” It’s too disgusting, I honestly can't get the words out. [...]"
"It's hard to consider the innocence of this person, the supportive replies, how much it spread, and everything else, it’s disgusting.” https://twitter.com/shisoyama/status/1299661192730783744?s=20
“I'm sick and tired of these retweeting feminists [derogatory usage] in the viral love doll comic. How can you say "go to the hospital", "you need treatment" [...]
"....how can you say that about someone who has committed no crime... when you don't even raise your voice for actual sexual crimes?” https://twitter.com/k_tash_n/status/1299624909329506305?s=20
The OP has, in the meantime, commented on the now deleted post in question: “I deleted the original tweet. Sorry for making everyone on Twitter uncomfortable. From now on I will refrain from posting more pictures of the doll or any manga etc.” https://twitter.com/ShounenNoCoCoLo/status/1299947172868141056?s=19
He has gone on the defense, saying: “I have received a lot of comments about how ‘Shotacon and other people who desire children are dangerous,’ or ‘People who would buy a child love doll have to because otherwise they will go after real children,’ but this really untrue.”
He continues that it might have been “rude” to talk about it openly, but “I am against the idea that this inclination is a social illness.”
OP sees himself as a “sexual minority (pedophilia)” just like LGBTQ+, of whom there are many and who are, to his knowledge, “not dangerous”. https://twitter.com/ShounenNoCoCoLo/status/1299947172868141056?s=19
This discussion has been going on for a long time, flaring up in the last two days because of this post, and the OP’s “apology”. In 2010 a similar discussion took place about Tokyo forbidding certain genres of pornography to be sold to minors. https://r.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASDG1502E_V11C10A2000000?s=5
The manga/anime industry responded by boycotting official events. Mind you, this was about forbidding depictions of things such as rape to be sold to children. The industry has defended itself from regulation, allowing virtual child pornography to be sold largely unheeded.
Supporters like to claim that forbidding such practices are an infringement of the “freedom of speech”. Not true. Free speech is not “absolute”, and “a ban would be […] consistent with […] Japanese legal and social practice” http://caep-hu.sakura.ne.jp/files/appliedethics_2011.pdf#page=174
Right now, the discussion is still ongoing, and is trending under the hashtag #小児性愛 (pedophilia). This thread has taken quite a bit of energy out of me, so I will leave it here for now.
Small update: for those wondering why #ラブドール (love doll) is trending in Japan: yes, it's related.
