Contemporary
censorship in Japan dates to the
Meiji period. The influence of European Victorian culture was a catalyst for legislative interest in public sexual mores. Post-WWII, the Allies imposed a number of reforms on the Japanese government including anti-censorship laws. The legal proscriptions against pornography, therefore, derive from the nation’s penal code.
At present, “obscenity” is still prohibited. How this term is interpreted has not remained constant. While exposed genitalia (and until recently pubic hair) are illegal, the diversity of permissible sexual acts is now wide compared with other liberal democracies.
Leaders within the tentacle porn industry have stated that much of their work was initially directed at circumventing this policy. The animator Toshio Maeda stated: “At that time pre-
Urotsuki Doji, it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a normal sensual scene. So I just created a creature. His tentacle is not a penis as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a penis; this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don't have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene - not illegal. (“Manga Artist Interview Series (Part 1),” 2002)”