RESEARCH STARTER

History of Censorship in Japan

The history of censorship in Japan reflects a complex interplay between governmental authority and cultural evolution spanning several centuries. Beginning with the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 17th century, the government enacted strict measures to suppress foreign influences, particularly Christianity, leading to the expulsion of Europeans from Japan. This era marked a significant early instance of censorship aimed at preserving national integrity. As Japan modernized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, censorship evolved, particularly during periods of conflict like World War I and II, when the government controlled media to promote nationalism and suppress dissenting views.

Following Japan's defeat in World War II, constitutional changes introduced a democratic framework, yet issues of censorship persisted, particularly regarding military self-defense and freedom of expression. In contemporary Japan, concerns about self-censorship have surfaced, especially following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, revealing governmental delays in information dissemination. Additionally, Japan's unique approach to regulating pornography continues to reflect cultural attitudes towards sexuality, complicating the notion of free expression. Overall, the trajectory of censorship in Japan illustrates ongoing tensions between authority, societal values, and the quest for modernity.

Full Article

DESCRIPTION: Far East Asian island nation

SIGNIFICANCE: Censorship policies have shifted over the centuries to meet the needs of Japan’s changing government systems and cultural attitudes

Most nations have a long history of censorship, and Japan is no exception. The form and degree of censorship have evolved over the centuries along with governments and culture in general.

When the Tokugawa clan consolidated power in Japan in 1603 and gained control over the emperor, it set up a military dictatorship known as the shogunate. Portuguese traders reached Japan in 1543, but European access became increasingly restricted under the Tokugawa shogunate. One of the fears of the early shogunate was the detrimental effect that foreign influences might have had on the Japanese people. Christianity was seen as the most dangerous of these influences, so the religion was banned in the late 1620s. The Tokugawa shogunate issued a comprehensive anti-Christian edict in 1614. Although the majority of Japanese people were illiterate, the shogun issued an edict outlawing “books intended to propagate Christianity” in 1630.

By 1640, it was evident that Europeans were interfering with internal Japanese politics by supporting various factions vying for power. To protect itself and its grip on power, the Tokugawa shogunate took the drastic step of expelling almost all Europeans from Japan by 1640, with the exception of the Dutch. This removal was an early and dramatic example of Japanese censorship.

In 1853, US Navy Commodore Matthew Perry sailed a squadron of warships into Yedo (Tokyo) Bay and insisted, under threat of force, that the Japanese open the country to trade with the West. This embarrassment of the shogun helped trigger an uprising against him; in 1868, the emperor was restored to full power. Subsequent American and European pressure on Japan contributed to the decision to modernize the country. To supplement economic, political, and military modernization, the traditional religion of Buddhism was suppressed, and Buddhist property was confiscated. To replace it, the Japanese government encouraged Shinto, a religion that combined nationalism with a worship of the imperial family. The suppression of Buddhism was another example of early censorship by the Japanese government.

During the modernization period, Japanese leaders promoted education as the key to industrialization. The government faced the problem of reconciling the spirit of free thought necessary to technological advancement with the need to maintain respect for the absolute authority of the emperor. The answer was found in the 1870s and 1880s, when a dual system of education was established. The primary, compulsory school organization focused on indoctrinating Japanese youth with the values of traditional respect and reverence toward the emperor and a nationalism bordering on the fanatic. The secondary, noncompulsory university system was based on the Western ideal of free thinking. To ensure that university students did not question national authority, a system of middle schools was set up to train graduates of the primary schools in national and traditional Japanese values. Thus, it was assured that “free” academic thinking would not spill over into the political venue.

Modern Japanese Censorship

One result of the Japanese modernization movement was a period of imperial expansion between 1890 and 1945. In the early twentieth century, Russian and Japanese economic interests in East Asia came into conflict, which broke into open war in 1904. The Russo-Japanese War was widely supported in Japan, but a small number of socialists opposed it because war was essentially evil and a danger to the working classes. The Japanese socialists published their objections to the war in their Commoner’s Newspaper. In the face of increasing antipathy from the government, the socialists continued their opposition to the war until late January 1905, when the government officially suppressed their newspaper and ordered the Socialist Party to disband.

Japan’s entry into World War I assured its attainment of great power status. Economically, the war triggered a surge of industrial growth and a commensurate surge in socialism. After the war, an economic downturn stirred labor unrest, and the socialist movement gained strength. In December 1920, the socialists, whose party had been disbanded in 1905, organized the Japan Socialist Federation. To maintain domestic peace, the Japanese government officially dissolved the Socialist Federation in May 1921, in a move similar to the American suppression.

After Japan’s entry into World War II, the Japanese were subjected to the same type of news censorship that all of the major participants in that war experienced. Newspaper articles, films, and newsreels attempted to engender nationalistic support for the war effort, while casting a poor light on “slackers” and other opponents of the war. Factory workers, school children, and other nonmilitary members of Japanese society were mobilized through propaganda literature, music, plays, and artwork designed to elicit patriotic responses aimed at higher arms production and other tangible support of the war effort.

Early Japanese military successes were reported to the Japanese people in exaggerated terms, and when the war effort began to falter, the government imposed a strict news blackout on reports of military reverses. In several cases, outright Japanese defeats—such as the Battle of Midway and Guadalcanal—were reported as stunning victories or, at worst, highly successful strategic withdrawals. This use of censorship again compares with the practice of American censors suppressing graphic film coverage of actual combat, as well as the suppression of the true casualty rates in battles until well after the fact. This was done so that American public opinion would not be turned away from support of the war as a result of revulsion to the carnage.

Due to Japan’s defeat in the war, the government was forced to adopt a constitutional democracy with the emperor as figurehead. Included in the constitution was an article that declared that military forces would never again be maintained. In the early 1990s, a school textbook claimed that the “interpretation and application of Article Nine of the Constitution have changed significantly” since the fall of the Soviet Union. Japanese censors demanded that the textbook publisher alter the language of the phrase to indicate that Japan was adhering to the constraints of the article. Censorship of this type seemed to be an attempt to cover that Japan was spending $11.5 billion per year to support its self-defense forces in the 1990s.

In the twenty-first century, concerns grew that the media was being pressured into self-censorship by government scrutiny and that constitutional freedom of information was increasingly being threatened. One incident that directly brought awareness to the issue was the government’s response to the disastrous accident at the Fukushima power plant in 2011. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that, in the wake of the disaster, the government had waited to disseminate important information about the extent of the damage and that it had evaded journalists’ questions and chided Internet sites for allegedly circulating rumors about the incident. In 2013, the publicly opposed Protection of Specially Designated Secrets Act was passed, officially taking effect in late 2014. Under the law, whistleblowers faced up to ten years in prison, and any journalists who aid them in leaking information could face up to five years. While countries trading information with Japan, such as the United States, supported the measure, critics such as the group Reporters without Borders argued that the law is too loosely defined and lacks effective oversight. In 2019, the number of government agencies subject to the law was reduced from seventy to twenty-eight. In 2024, Japan enacted the Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information, creating a security-clearance system for sensitive economic security information.

Another area of interest to scholars is Japan’s unique censorship of pornography. Although the country’s constitution officially guarantees freedom of expression, the criminal code dating back to the early twentieth century includes a provision (Article 175) against obscene material, which has long been interpreted to restrict pornography. Therefore, sexually explicit imagery produced in Japan typically blurs, pixelates, or otherwise covers genitalia. Researchers noted that this censorship is self-regulated by the adult video and comics industries and is complexly tied to Japanese cultural views on sexuality and morality.

A 2004 criminal case against an erotic manga publication reached the Supreme Court of Japan, which ruled in 2007 that Article 175 did not violate the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. In 2013, multiple people involved with an adult material publishing company were arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of obscenity due to insufficient censoring. That case led some free speech advocates to claim that police were becoming more involved in enforcing censorship. In 2022, Japan revised its criminal laws to create stricter penalties for online insults in the hope of limiting cyberbullying; some punishments included potential jail time. However, this change sparked debates over its implications for free speech and the potential for misuse.

Despite constitutional guarantees under Article 21, Japan ranked 68th out of 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, the lowest among G7 (Group of Seven) nations. This ranking reflected some systemic issues in Japan’s media environment, including government-sanctioned press clubs, political pressure to self-censor online content, and the influence of major corporations on media outlets and advertising.

By 2026, Japan’s rank climbed to sixty-second in the World Press Freedom Index. Despite a higher rank, the organization cites political pressure, corporate influence, and structural barriers as persistent hurdles to watchdog journalism.


Bibliography

“Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information.” Cabinet Office, www.cao.go.jp/keizai_anzen_hosho/hogokatsuyou/hogokatsuyou.html. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Buruma, Ian. Behind the Mask. Pantheon, 1984.

“Dutch Factory on Deshima.” Japan-Netherlands Exchange in the Edo Period, www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_2.html. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Fackler, Martin. “Effort by Japan to Stifle News Media Is Working.” New York Times, 26 Apr. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/world/asia/in-japan-bid-to-stifle-media-is-working.html. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“The Forbidden Ukiyo-e of Edo Japan.” The Collector, 26 June 2023, www.thecollector.com/ukiyo-e-censorship. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Ito, Eiichi. “Japanese Censorship Collection at the Library of Congress.” Library of Congress, 16 Apr. 2018, blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2018/04/japanese-censorship-collection-at-the-library-of-congress. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“Japan: Censorship.” Research Guides, guides.loc.gov/sb.php?subject_id=162830. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“Japan.” RSF, rsf.org/en/country/japan. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Kirk, Donald. “Japan Re-Arms Its School Books.” Nation, vol. 19, Dec. 1981, pp. 663–65. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Kyodo, Jiji. “Looking Back on Japan’s Secrets Protection Law.” The Japan Times, 10 Dec. 2019, www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/12/19/commentary/japan-commentary/japan-secrets-protection-law. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Livington, Jon, et al., editors. Imperial Japan: 1800–1945. Pantheon, 1973.

Livington, Jon, et al., editors. Post-War Japan: 1945 to the Present. Pantheon, 1973.

“Overview: Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets.” Cabinet Secretariat, www.cas.go.jp/jp/tokuteihimitsu/gaiyou_en.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Ryall, Julian. “Why Japan Ranks Poorly in Press Freedom.” DW, www.dw.com/en/why-japan-ranks-poorly-in-press-freedom/a-65549778. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Sansom, G. B. The Western World and Japan. Knopf, 1968.

“Tokugawa Edicts: Edicts on Christianity.” Asia for Educators, afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/tokugawa_edicts_christianity.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“Tokugawa Edicts: Edicts on Foreigners.” Asia for Educators, afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/tokugawa_edicts_foreigners.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Wong, Heung Wah, and Hoi-yan Yau. Censorship in Japan. Routledge, 2021.

Full Article

DESCRIPTION: Far East Asian island nation

SIGNIFICANCE: Censorship policies have shifted over the centuries to meet the needs of Japan’s changing government systems and cultural attitudes

Most nations have a long history of censorship, and Japan is no exception. The form and degree of censorship have evolved over the centuries along with governments and culture in general.

When the Tokugawa clan consolidated power in Japan in 1603 and gained control over the emperor, it set up a military dictatorship known as the shogunate. Portuguese traders reached Japan in 1543, but European access became increasingly restricted under the Tokugawa shogunate. One of the fears of the early shogunate was the detrimental effect that foreign influences might have had on the Japanese people. Christianity was seen as the most dangerous of these influences, so the religion was banned in the late 1620s. The Tokugawa shogunate issued a comprehensive anti-Christian edict in 1614. Although the majority of Japanese people were illiterate, the shogun issued an edict outlawing “books intended to propagate Christianity” in 1630.

By 1640, it was evident that Europeans were interfering with internal Japanese politics by supporting various factions vying for power. To protect itself and its grip on power, the Tokugawa shogunate took the drastic step of expelling almost all Europeans from Japan by 1640, with the exception of the Dutch. This removal was an early and dramatic example of Japanese censorship.

In 1853, US Navy Commodore Matthew Perry sailed a squadron of warships into Yedo (Tokyo) Bay and insisted, under threat of force, that the Japanese open the country to trade with the West. This embarrassment of the shogun helped trigger an uprising against him; in 1868, the emperor was restored to full power. Subsequent American and European pressure on Japan contributed to the decision to modernize the country. To supplement economic, political, and military modernization, the traditional religion of Buddhism was suppressed, and Buddhist property was confiscated. To replace it, the Japanese government encouraged Shinto, a religion that combined nationalism with a worship of the imperial family. The suppression of Buddhism was another example of early censorship by the Japanese government.

During the modernization period, Japanese leaders promoted education as the key to industrialization. The government faced the problem of reconciling the spirit of free thought necessary to technological advancement with the need to maintain respect for the absolute authority of the emperor. The answer was found in the 1870s and 1880s, when a dual system of education was established. The primary, compulsory school organization focused on indoctrinating Japanese youth with the values of traditional respect and reverence toward the emperor and a nationalism bordering on the fanatic. The secondary, noncompulsory university system was based on the Western ideal of free thinking. To ensure that university students did not question national authority, a system of middle schools was set up to train graduates of the primary schools in national and traditional Japanese values. Thus, it was assured that “free” academic thinking would not spill over into the political venue.

Modern Japanese Censorship

One result of the Japanese modernization movement was a period of imperial expansion between 1890 and 1945. In the early twentieth century, Russian and Japanese economic interests in East Asia came into conflict, which broke into open war in 1904. The Russo-Japanese War was widely supported in Japan, but a small number of socialists opposed it because war was essentially evil and a danger to the working classes. The Japanese socialists published their objections to the war in their Commoner’s Newspaper. In the face of increasing antipathy from the government, the socialists continued their opposition to the war until late January 1905, when the government officially suppressed their newspaper and ordered the Socialist Party to disband.

Japan’s entry into World War I assured its attainment of great power status. Economically, the war triggered a surge of industrial growth and a commensurate surge in socialism. After the war, an economic downturn stirred labor unrest, and the socialist movement gained strength. In December 1920, the socialists, whose party had been disbanded in 1905, organized the Japan Socialist Federation. To maintain domestic peace, the Japanese government officially dissolved the Socialist Federation in May 1921, in a move similar to the American suppression.

After Japan’s entry into World War II, the Japanese were subjected to the same type of news censorship that all of the major participants in that war experienced. Newspaper articles, films, and newsreels attempted to engender nationalistic support for the war effort, while casting a poor light on “slackers” and other opponents of the war. Factory workers, school children, and other nonmilitary members of Japanese society were mobilized through propaganda literature, music, plays, and artwork designed to elicit patriotic responses aimed at higher arms production and other tangible support of the war effort.

Early Japanese military successes were reported to the Japanese people in exaggerated terms, and when the war effort began to falter, the government imposed a strict news blackout on reports of military reverses. In several cases, outright Japanese defeats—such as the Battle of Midway and Guadalcanal—were reported as stunning victories or, at worst, highly successful strategic withdrawals. This use of censorship again compares with the practice of American censors suppressing graphic film coverage of actual combat, as well as the suppression of the true casualty rates in battles until well after the fact. This was done so that American public opinion would not be turned away from support of the war as a result of revulsion to the carnage.

Due to Japan’s defeat in the war, the government was forced to adopt a constitutional democracy with the emperor as figurehead. Included in the constitution was an article that declared that military forces would never again be maintained. In the early 1990s, a school textbook claimed that the “interpretation and application of Article Nine of the Constitution have changed significantly” since the fall of the Soviet Union. Japanese censors demanded that the textbook publisher alter the language of the phrase to indicate that Japan was adhering to the constraints of the article. Censorship of this type seemed to be an attempt to cover that Japan was spending $11.5 billion per year to support its self-defense forces in the 1990s.

In the twenty-first century, concerns grew that the media was being pressured into self-censorship by government scrutiny and that constitutional freedom of information was increasingly being threatened. One incident that directly brought awareness to the issue was the government’s response to the disastrous accident at the Fukushima power plant in 2011. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that, in the wake of the disaster, the government had waited to disseminate important information about the extent of the damage and that it had evaded journalists’ questions and chided Internet sites for allegedly circulating rumors about the incident. In 2013, the publicly opposed Protection of Specially Designated Secrets Act was passed, officially taking effect in late 2014. Under the law, whistleblowers faced up to ten years in prison, and any journalists who aid them in leaking information could face up to five years. While countries trading information with Japan, such as the United States, supported the measure, critics such as the group Reporters without Borders argued that the law is too loosely defined and lacks effective oversight. In 2019, the number of government agencies subject to the law was reduced from seventy to twenty-eight. In 2024, Japan enacted the Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information, creating a security-clearance system for sensitive economic security information.

Another area of interest to scholars is Japan’s unique censorship of pornography. Although the country’s constitution officially guarantees freedom of expression, the criminal code dating back to the early twentieth century includes a provision (Article 175) against obscene material, which has long been interpreted to restrict pornography. Therefore, sexually explicit imagery produced in Japan typically blurs, pixelates, or otherwise covers genitalia. Researchers noted that this censorship is self-regulated by the adult video and comics industries and is complexly tied to Japanese cultural views on sexuality and morality.

A 2004 criminal case against an erotic manga publication reached the Supreme Court of Japan, which ruled in 2007 that Article 175 did not violate the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. In 2013, multiple people involved with an adult material publishing company were arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of obscenity due to insufficient censoring. That case led some free speech advocates to claim that police were becoming more involved in enforcing censorship. In 2022, Japan revised its criminal laws to create stricter penalties for online insults in the hope of limiting cyberbullying; some punishments included potential jail time. However, this change sparked debates over its implications for free speech and the potential for misuse.

Despite constitutional guarantees under Article 21, Japan ranked 68th out of 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, the lowest among G7 (Group of Seven) nations. This ranking reflected some systemic issues in Japan’s media environment, including government-sanctioned press clubs, political pressure to self-censor online content, and the influence of major corporations on media outlets and advertising.

By 2026, Japan’s rank climbed to sixty-second in the World Press Freedom Index. Despite a higher rank, the organization cites political pressure, corporate influence, and structural barriers as persistent hurdles to watchdog journalism.


Bibliography

“Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information.” Cabinet Office, www.cao.go.jp/keizai_anzen_hosho/hogokatsuyou/hogokatsuyou.html. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Buruma, Ian. Behind the Mask. Pantheon, 1984.

“Dutch Factory on Deshima.” Japan-Netherlands Exchange in the Edo Period, www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_2.html. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Fackler, Martin. “Effort by Japan to Stifle News Media Is Working.” New York Times, 26 Apr. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/world/asia/in-japan-bid-to-stifle-media-is-working.html. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“The Forbidden Ukiyo-e of Edo Japan.” The Collector, 26 June 2023, www.thecollector.com/ukiyo-e-censorship. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Ito, Eiichi. “Japanese Censorship Collection at the Library of Congress.” Library of Congress, 16 Apr. 2018, blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2018/04/japanese-censorship-collection-at-the-library-of-congress. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“Japan: Censorship.” Research Guides, guides.loc.gov/sb.php?subject_id=162830. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“Japan.” RSF, rsf.org/en/country/japan. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Kirk, Donald. “Japan Re-Arms Its School Books.” Nation, vol. 19, Dec. 1981, pp. 663–65. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Kyodo, Jiji. “Looking Back on Japan’s Secrets Protection Law.” The Japan Times, 10 Dec. 2019, www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/12/19/commentary/japan-commentary/japan-secrets-protection-law. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Livington, Jon, et al., editors. Imperial Japan: 1800–1945. Pantheon, 1973.

Livington, Jon, et al., editors. Post-War Japan: 1945 to the Present. Pantheon, 1973.

“Overview: Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets.” Cabinet Secretariat, www.cas.go.jp/jp/tokuteihimitsu/gaiyou_en.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Ryall, Julian. “Why Japan Ranks Poorly in Press Freedom.” DW, www.dw.com/en/why-japan-ranks-poorly-in-press-freedom/a-65549778. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Sansom, G. B. The Western World and Japan. Knopf, 1968.

“Tokugawa Edicts: Edicts on Christianity.” Asia for Educators, afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/tokugawa_edicts_christianity.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2026.

“Tokugawa Edicts: Edicts on Foreigners.” Asia for Educators, afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/tokugawa_edicts_foreigners.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2026.

Wong, Heung Wah, and Hoi-yan Yau. Censorship in Japan. Routledge, 2021.

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