Vice News’s Hanako Montgomery traveled to Anime Japan with the goal of exposing the manga industry and its pedophilic tendencies by pointing to different girls on large posters and confessing to being “uncomfortable” with their depiction, highlighting her biased opinion before her investigation had even begun. She likens even tame anime and manga such as In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki, and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid as porn that harms real children. The video, which was blocked from being viewed in Japan, is titled “Inside the Pedophilic Manga Industry in Japan”:
In the event that the video is pulled, there is an archived version available, and for our readers in Japan, there is a Niconico video provided by Twitter user Seriema. (Update: Vice later DMCA struck the Niconico video link.)
Vice has discussed the topic of pedophiles before, but they struck a decidedly different tone this time, even playing ominous music while Ms. Montgomery walked around Anime Japan and talked to the mangaka Shinji. His talents lie in more forced content, and his characters tend to be younger-looking high school girls, so his manga is meant for adults. When asked, Shinji insisted that personal opinions should not sway laws regarding freedom of speech and creation. Ms. Montgomery asked him if his manga could lead to real children being harmed, and he pointed out that no such link has ever been made.
The laws that protect fictitious works such as manga are considered a “loophole” by Vice and Hanako Montgomery, so after taking one of Shinji’s books, the next person Ms. Montgomery visited was Kazuna Kanajiri, the chief director of PAPS, an organization for pornography and sexual exploitation survivors, with an unusual story from her youth regarding her distribution of porn at high school.
Ms. Montgomery found kinship with Ms. Kanajiri, who insisted that such adult works were a “violation of human rights”, and while she admits that there is no proof, she feels that such manga precipitates child abuse. Shinji would disagree, as he feels such manga gives pedophiles an outlet for their desires, making children safer. It’s worth pointing out that the Institute for Economics and Peace has declared that Japan is the tenth safest country to live in. Canada, Vice’s original headquarters (ranked twelfth), and the United States, their current headquarters (ranked 129th), have both passed laws prohibiting this type of manga.
After her meeting with Ms. Kanajiri, her next destination was Melon Books Akihabara store. Ms. Montgomery admitted that, when they asked for permission to film, they were denied. Rather than respecting the store owner’s decision, Ms. Montgomery and her cameraman hid a camera and went inside to record anyway, something that is potentially illegal.
Later in the video, Ms. Montgomery is given the opportunity to interview an actual politician, Minoru Ogino, who is himself a mangaka. Right at the start, he dismissed any such links between manga and child abuse, and that such crimes have always taken place, with or without manga. When Ms. Montgomery insisted that many people believe a link between manga and child abuse exists, Mr. Ogino pointed out that there is no evidence to support the claim, and that laws need a scientific basis before being passed.
Mr. Ogino, who questioned why the Vice video was blocked in Japan, took to Twitter later on to clarify his statements:
VICEの動画、「彼に児童性虐待漫画を見せてみた」って言うシーンしっかり使われてるけど、内容を解説させられた上で感想を聞かれ（どんなプレイだ）、それでもこの漫画は守るべきかと問われたけど「そうですね。特に問題はない」と返しておきましたからね(^^)
内容→https://t.co/0JoIiNgwf1 https://t.co/j7mZZ0wT5a pic.twitter.com/tugaTBxCvP— 大田区議会議員_おぎの稔 議員系vtuber・メタバース大田区議 (@ogino_otaku) November 23, 2022
He also took aim at Vice for making him look like a yakuza member:
VICEの騒動。当日、こんな暗い場所で取材受けてるわけではないので私がヤクザみたいに編集されてるのは、完全に向こうの演出なんだよなぁ。私の間違った印象が海外に広がってしまう。 pic.twitter.com/2lSlsvPmrR
— 大田区議会議員_おぎの稔 議員系vtuber・メタバース大田区議 (@ogino_otaku) November 25, 2022
Later, he simply made a meme and seems to enjoy the perception:
間もなく最後の扉が開く、私が開く。
そうする事でこの世の中、もっと混沌として面白くなりますよ。イベンターの夢ですな。これは。 pic.twitter.com/0kuLSlOaWU— 大田区議会議員_おぎの稔 議員系vtuber・メタバース大田区議 (@ogino_otaku) November 23, 2022
The video in full can be viewed above. Backlash directed at Vice and Hanako Montgomery was swift and severe. Many questioned Vice’s methodology and integrity. On Takahashi of Irodori Comics went on an extensive tweet thread, taking aim at Vice’s prior remarks regarding pedophilia.
A Japanese Twitter user named Romly mirrored other sentiments, questioning why Vice hid the video from Japan:
https://twitter.com/Romly/status/1595390309244227585
A Twitter user pointed out something interesting: this isn’t the first time a Western reporter with a heavy bias took aim at the Japanese manga industry:
https://twitter.com/UnmeltingIce/status/1595573112497897472
In 2017, BBC Three reporter Stacey Dooley traveled to Japan with the same argument Vice News’s Hanako Montgomery would present years later: manga featuring underage characters leads to real children being assaulted.
The Anime Man made a video at the time dissecting her arguments and pointed out a segment of her video that was left on the cutting room floor: Ms. Dooley took on Girls und Panzer’s Takeshi Nogami, and she didn’t like how it went.
Mr. Nogami pointed out that, at the time, Japan had a lower crime rate and unemployment than the U.K., facts that disrupted Ms. Dooley’s narrative. Mr. Nogami was even-tempered and presented facts, none of which seemed to convince Ms. Dooley of anything. She ended their heated interview by asking Mr. Nogami why Japanese people simply didn’t follow the U.K., to which Mr. Nogami replied, asking why the British people didn’t follow Japan, with its lower crime rate.
Before her time in Japan came to an end, Stacey Dooley was arrested for filming in an area without permission, a similar criminal act Hanako Montgomery would allegedly perpetrate years later.
As of this time, neither Vice nor Hanako Montgomery have made a public comment to address the controversy.
