Incest in Japan

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:30 am Post subject: Incest in Japan Post Rating: 0

Is incest normal and acceptable in Japan? Or more than other countries? I watch a lot of j-entertainment and there's a lot of incest in it. Nobody seems disgusted by it. A new movie based on an anime/manga is gonna come out soon and it seems that everybody is looking forward to it. When I read about incest in society, Japan seems to come out on top. What do u guys think? I like it....i respect that the Japanese doesn't try to fit into the mold of other societies.

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:36 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

arent they fake.. ?? pretending to be siblings but they arent actually

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:54 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

talking about the movie... i think u are referring to Boku wa imouto ni koi wo suru movie rite..? the one with jun matsumoto.. Cool

there is a discussion thread for this movie at http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_27690_0.htm

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:04 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I've lived there for over 5 years and the matter is quite complex.
In the Japanese society, incest is absolutely not done. It does happen just as much as in other countries although Japanese don't tend to speak about it much.
One really is considered to be trash if one is involved in incest.
Incest is in no way socially accepted in Japan.

Japanese men do have the tendency that they like young girls. As long as it isn't their daughter.
The exaggeration of this liking is shown in movies and manga.
What we see abroad Japan are mainly those type of movies and therefore a very distorted view of the real society.
Japan is more materialistic then other western countries and therefore one can get a lot of strange things as long as one is willing to pay for it.
And don't forget that there are over 100 million Japanese so even the smallest niche markets are huge.

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:37 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:32 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

doinkies will second what mizune said. Incest is a taboo in Japan just as it is in the West, and since it is taboo, it makes good conflict in a story. It's also a controversial topic, and that makes it even more attractive for scriptwriters to use since controversy sells... pinch

Dramas, anime, manga, etc. are mostly fiction and are not to be taken as a serious reflection of Japan. That would be the same as thinking that all American families are like The Simpsons and that all Americans are violent and carry guns based on watching some cop shows...

Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:41 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If you take a closer look at manga/dramas/movies that seem to have incest though, most of the time, they find out that they're not related later on in the series. The only manga that comes to mind that had REAL incest which later didn't turn into the "everything's okay now because we found out we're not related" situation is Koi Kaze. And the only drama that comes to mind is Sora Kara Furu Ichioku no Hoshi (but in the case of that drama, they didn't find out they were related until the last episode.) I haven't seen any movies that had any couples indulging in incest though.

Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:04 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

In America, if u upped the age of an adult from 18 to 21, then within time, all of the guys gonna act like messing around with a 20 yrs old is sick.

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:27 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Depends on what you define as incest. I believe that it is legal (though not done often) to marry your 1st cousin in the US and in Japan. And I know that this doesn't happen in China or in Korea because that's considered incest.

As for anything closer than that, in most societies it is considered taboo and Japan is not an exception.

Hmm, now that I think about it, the only exception I can think of is ancient Egypt when brothers married their sisters often.

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Prince, incest was common among certain royal families throughout European history, too. I also know that incest was quite common in certain abandoned villages high up a mountain just as long as 100 years ago in Austria and I'd imagine in any other scarcely-populated country as well. There is also a little group of people in Africa that have kept to themselves for a long time, and as a result many of their people have only 2 toes (I think... but might have been more or less than that; in any case, not the normal number of toes ^^) on each foot.

As for incest in Japanese entertainment, I don't think it's that common, really. I've probably seen it done more often in Korean stuff and European indie-movies.

Fun fact regarding the whole "Japanese men only like young girls" thing: I recently read an article saying that every 3rd marriage in Japan is now between an older woman and a younger man - which is a number far greater than in any other country I can think of. Laugh

It's not just the men who like them young in Japan, apparently. This is not to say that I don't think that young women are more attractivee to men - just that, in reality, many men seem to find a better match in women closer to their own age or even slightly above.

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I can't believe this post is getting replies. After the first sentence my first thought was "What an idiot" and moved on...

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:51 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Even in the US, although marrying your 1st cousin is legal, it's still a taboo sort of thing. Same goes for marrying step family. It's like incest is the same thing for even the most liberal of people as gay marriage for the extreme right. Maybe that's not the best comparison, though. ^^;;

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:07 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0