Regulation of online ads with sexual content draws mixed views in Japan

Japan Times

07-05-2025

Opinions are split in Japan over whether to regulate sexual content in online advertisements as advocates seek measures to better protect children while critics worry about possible infringements on freedom of expression.
The government has shown its intention to address the situation in which ads that are sexual in nature are often found posted on websites that may be seen by children.
Orangepage, which publishes cooking and other magazines, has received criticism over such ads being displayed on its website.
"Ads that eluded the screening and filtering by advertising networks have been displayed," the Tokyo-based company explained as it extended an apology on social media platform X in March.
Lawmakers such as Takae Ito of the opposition Democratic Party for the People and Eriko Yamatani of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in March requested the government to address the issue quickly at a meeting of the Upper House Budget Committee as well as on several other occasions.
Junko Mihara, the minister in charge of children-related policies, has responded by saying the government will discuss the matter and present a rough outline of measures by summer.
The government promotes the use of parental controls to manage children's exposure to online content and filtering to restrict access to websites seen as harmful. But these have not been adequate to protect children from inappropriate online ads.
Behind the spread of such ads is a new system that matches advertisers with ad slots.
In conventional contracts with advertisers, media companies place ads that have gone through screening. But the new system, which has become popular, allows advertisers to buy slots instantly by placing bids based on the attributes and preferences of expected viewers, and ads are displayed without going through checks.
Yuzuru Honda, president of FreakOut, which introduced the system to Japan, said that inappropriate ads have increased as the result of media companies prioritizing revenue over content.
Warning that Japan is in a "lawless" state in this area, Honda said, "Self-regulation and guidelines are too weak."
He stressed the need for legal regulations.
But critics have voiced concern that stricter rules could lead to infringements on the freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.
The law to secure an appropriate environment for young people's safe use of the internet lists content that incites people to crime and indecent depictions as examples of what it calls harmful information.
But the sixth basic plan to improve the online environment for young people, which the government decided in September last year under the law, calls for full respect for the Constitution.
In light of the Constitution, "national administrative bodies and others must not interfere in the judgment of harmful information," the basic plan said.
Upper House member Taro Yamada of the LDP expressed his opposition to proposed stricter regulations in a post on X in March.
"If you seek laws and administrative regulations because you are uncomfortable (with some ads) and do not want to show them (to children), that would lead to a complete denial of freedom of expression," Yamada said.
The DPP's Ito said, "Freedom of expression is important, but it cannot be a reason for not addressing erotic ads."
She called for rules on ensuring that expressions on internet ads are appropriate, saying "We should be aware that the internet is already a mass medium."