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DPJ Policy Research Committee Chair Masayuki Naoshima and Chiba Keiko, leader of the DPJ's team investigating amendments to the law on punishing child prostitution and child pornography offenders, met inside the Diet with the Japan Committee for UNICEF Ambassador Agnes Chan who handed them a portion of a petition containing more than 110,000 names. The petition called for emergency action on the issue of child pornography.
The Japan Committee for UNICEF is calling on Japan to outlaw and mandate punishments for the simple possession of child pornography (the acquisition and storage of child pornography by persons not aiming to supply the material to a third party), as such acts are currently not subject to punishment under Japan's Law for the Punishment of Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and for the Protection of Children, or in short, the Child Prostitution Child Pornography Punishment Law. As she presented the stack of petition papers, Ms. Chan called on the DPJ to "listen to the demands of people from every corner of Japan".
Chiba responded, "Under a policy of putting children first, the DPJ is taking a lead in dealing with children's issues and basically shares your position". She explained that the DPJ was considering the issue and said, "In order to protect the rights of children, we need to discuss legal amendments including measures to provide care for child victims".
In response to a request from the Committee to "debate this issue during the current Diet session", Naoshima said, "We fully understand what you are saying. It depends on the political situation, but we will co-operate as far as we can". He said that while there were some areas of the demands that may present legal problems, the DPJ is committed to further work to protect children.
The DPJ published an intermediate report in June 2008 (refer to the article in Japanese posted below) on how children can be protected from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse and has published ‘Outline Amendments to the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Punishment Law’, which would clarify the definition of child pornography, establish a new crime of obtaining child pornography, expand the scope of current punishment, review regulations for protecting victimized children and establish after-care structures.
Related Link:
DPJ Agrees on Outline Amendments to the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Punishment Law to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.
http://www.dpj.or.jp/news/?num=13495
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