"John W." wrote:

> You will see, however, many examples of
> young
> > women or girls of sex objects in American live action movies,
> magazines or
> > online pay sites such as those with a girl's first name and age plus
> dot
> > com. This month I read the claim that 60%? of child porn online
> originates
> > in the US. A far cry from the time maybe 80% was claimed to originate
> in
> > Japan.
>
> I certainly agree it's a problem here. Lately it seems to be getting
> worse, and I can't help but wonder if the anime influence isn't part of
> that.

You believe that entertainment, and from a foreign source at that,
resulted in what we see? Wow. Then if Hollywood came out with shows like
in the 50s, with strong moral or religious overtones, we'd return to the
glory days when men acted like gentlemen, women acted like ladies, and
children behaved and had respect for their elders.

> But Japan is still home to wonderful shows such as Sailor Moon
> that depicts a young girl as a heroic figure wearing an impossibly
> short skirt.

Yes. And the US has its own way of objectifying young women and girls
(actual humans, not drawings), because animation in the US is mainly
geared toward children, as through those countless websites and forms of
mainstream media such as movies or magazines. Do you also hold Japanese
animation responsible for cosmetics and adult fashion being aimed at or
becoming popular among increasingly younger girls (say late elementary
school age) in the US? I doubt the recent popularity of Japanese pop
culture has anything to do with the decades old trend of American girls to
wear short skirts or pants, revealing tops, or visible underwear, or the
way males notice or (mis)treat them.

> Have you seen any reports on crimes against children per capita in Japan
> and other countries?

Yes, you can hear about it in mainstream news in Japanese or English. And
other than over three quarters of girls and young women (under age of 23
IIRC) surveyed reporting they have been victims of train molesters in one
front page story about ten years ago, *reported* figures are much lower
than in the US. Not that I believe that there are actually only about
2,000 cases of child abuse, 2,000 cases of train molestation, or 1,500
rapes in an entire year, mind you.