Why the West (America) is a joke to the East (Japan)

Recently I was talking with a couple of friends of mine online over some different upcoming releasing Anime and Manga. Now personally I don't read Manga that much but that is just my own personal thing and I think everyone should have the right to pursue whatever medium they prefer. During our discussion though we started talking about a couple of upcoming Visual Novels that had some mature content including things such as 'Siscon' and 'Lolicon'. There was also some other mature content we discussed, but the point of the discussion turned to why the Western-based nations mostly the US has such an issue with such media content.

Recently an article posted discussing that Nintendo's CEO and current President when asked about them allowing 'Indy' publishers and developers to put games on their market place and the allowing of 'mature' content the CEO responded like you would have expected. "I will allow this content, it is up to the person to decide on what they wish to see and play, and I don't understand why the US has a problem with this concept."

That's right, even Japan has grown and surpassed the USA when it comes to the concept of personal freedom to the point that they make just about anything and let the individual decide on their own if it is something they want to view or not. Japan underwent a great deal of change after the end of World War II, with the help of the United States, Japan flourished as a powerful Democracy of the East. Even now it has one of the most powerful political Democracy's in the East followed closely by South Korea.

The idea and customs of Japan while modernizing has also maintained and grew its traditional bases. While westernization did see the end to a lot of the traditional values, the Japanese people continued to hang on to many traditions that survive even today. The people of Japan thrive under a combination of tradition and modern values and while Japan does have its own skeletons in the closet so to speak, they still have a wide variety of freedoms and values that we as Americans have seemed to forget about.

There have been continued attacks against Anime and other Japanese based media by politicians here in the United States and most of those politicians have no clue what they are really even talking about and yet they see it as a way to reach out to people who don't fully understand the media or the logic behind it. So the question is what is it that is causing this issue? Well, it is obvious that there is a huge difference in cultures and morals. This leads to a misunderstanding though America likes to think it is 'Progressive' in the sense that it leads the world in freedom that isn't the case anymore. 

In most cases, the United States has actually gone backward for personal freedom over the past couple of decades. Now while we could guess as to what it is that has caused this, I am not going to go political for one side or the other. So let's just go with this, in Japan personal freedom is viewed with more regard than we do here in the United States. When Japan talks about America they do so with guarded words because Japan has and does rely on the US for many things including its defense. That said Japan also regards the US as a nation that is falling behind the times in regards to the use of personal freedom of choice.

Anime, Visual Novels, Manga, Video Games, and many more things that come from Japan all have things in them that some moralists in the US will find distasteful, but such is how things are. You can not squash the freedom to view or read content that you find distasteful to yourself. Media production and art have to remain free or we as a society and culture have failed in our mission to ensure that freedom continues.

That is why America is made fun of because we say we know what freedom is then we censor and judge things that we just don't understand, and honestly we deserve to be made fun of for this very thing.