General Japan

Freedom of Speech

Something fairly unusual happened to me in a well-known British book store yesterday – I was looking for a fairly obscure translation of a Japanese novel and upon enquiring as to its availability I was told that I could not buy/order it from them because it had been banned from import into the EU!!! It was then recommend to me that I buy it off the Internet. On further investigation it turns out that it is not officially banned per-say but the publishers have just been refused a license to distribute it in the EU/US, the grounds for which were not noted. My guess is that this is simply another case of senseless censorship by western influences who are too scared and PC to allow the widespread distribution of anything which challenges their inherently flawed way of life, or perhaps I’m just paranoid!

Author

Originally from the UK, David is designer and wanderer currently based in Kamakura. Prior to this, he lived in China and longs to explore more of this vast and varied land. He started Randomwire in 2003 to chronicle his travels and occasional musings. Feel free to drop him a line.

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