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Tokyo Court Sentences Artist for Realistic CG Images Under Child Porn Law
posted on by Karen Ressler
The Tokyo District Court convicted graphic designer Akashi Takahashi (55) on Tuesday for creating and selling realistic computer graphic (CG) images of a naked underage girl.
Takahashi based his CG images on a photo book from the 1980s. The defense argued that this did not violate Japan's child pornography law because they were not drawn from life. The court ruled that three of the 34 images listed by the prosecution were realistic enough to identify the girl they were based on, and therefore against the law.
"The maliciousness [of the three images] was not reduced from that of the original photos because the defendant attempted to recreate the original photography as much as possible,” the ruling stated.
The ruling also said, "Such obscene images can violate the child pornography law and thus fall into the scope of criminal punishment when even ordinary people recognize that the depictions of the face, bust, genitalia and other key bodily features faithfully describe those of an actual child."
The court fined Takahashi 300,000 yen (about US$2,690) and sentenced him to one year in prison, suspended for three years.
Takahashi plans to appeal the ruling. "It is regrettable that the court failed to understand the value of my artistic activities," he said in a press conference. He also stated that he did not intend to create child pornography.
Takahashi was arrested for the CG images in 2013. According to Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, he was the first person to be arrested for CG images under the Law Banning Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
Japan passed a bill in 2014 amending Japan's child pornography laws to outlaw the possession of child pornography. The bill does not criminalize depictions in manga and anime.
Source: The Asahi Shimbun via International Business Times
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