Though there is a tiny inkling of a chance that this might change if FC2 founder Riyo Takahashi wins a seat in the Japanese Upper House this month, it remains illegal in Japan to sell or distribute uncensored porn.
The “mosaic” look has become an iconic part of Japanese adult video: those grainy pixels where the penis and vagina should be.
Personally, we don’t mind it. But some are put off by the constant blur and there is clearly a market for uncensored Japanese porn. Just don’t try selling it if you are in Japan.
Masayuki Nakamoto was arrested last October for selling uncensored adult videos online. The 44-year-old had used software to decensor (de-pixellate) the videos, removing the mosaic, and then reselling his efforts to the public.
This was a workaround, since the mosaic is actually done by hand — there are people in Japan whose sole job is to pixellate penises and vaginas — and this coding can’t be removed. Instead, the canny Nakamoto employed an artificial intelligence program with machine learning to simulate visually what the obscured genitals looked like and then add a photorealistic representation over the top.
Strictly speaking, he was further modifying the pixellated image with best-guess genitals, not restoring the holy grail per se. But the superimposition results were apparently pretty good. So much so that he sold thousands of videos he edited like this and earned a decent ¥11 million for his efforts.
His trial in Kyoto on charges of copyright violation and “displaying obscene electromagnetically recorded media” has just ended in an inevitable guilty verdict.
At the end of June, he was sentenced to two years in prison — suspended for three years due to remorse Nakamoto showed — and a fine of ¥2 million yen.
So next time you watch Japanese AV without mosaic, spare a thought for the risks taken by some generous soul to make it available for the public!
