Go to a random Japanese website – particularly gaming sites or personal blogs – and you’ll likely be hit with a barrage of sexually explicit ads without any content warnings or filters applied. For example, the other day, I was treated to this three-part animated GIF ad (this picture is the least explicit one I can show) on a site about Japanese mahjong:
These “erotic ads” (エロ広告; ero koukoku) are everywhere – including on gaming sites often used by kids. Now, a rising tide of voices in Japan is demanding a crackdown.
Many X users were happy to see NHK News take up this subject in a recent article. The outlet interviewed one mom in Saitama Prefecture who said, when she checked a gaming tips site her son was using, she saw an ad that depicted a teacher sexually assaulting an underage student.
“It’s totally inappropriate and not something I want a child who still hasn’t received adequate sex education seeing,” the woman said.
The ads even sometimes show up on school devices. NHK says around 6.4% of schools surveyed said they’ve received complaints about sexually explicit ads on school desktop computers or tablets.
One mom in Kagawa Prefecture has been leading a petition drive to ask Japan’s Children and Families Agency to introduce zoning measures to restrict the spread of sexually explicit ads. It currently has around 75,000 signatures.
NHK News’ post of its article on social media site X received over 34,000 likes and a ton of comments from people relieved to see a major news outlet finally addressing the issue.
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“Of course we don’t want kids to see this,” one wrote, “but they’re showing ads even parents don’t want to see. It’s awful.”
Others expressed exasperation that it’s taking so long to address the issue and attacked NHK’s content that “voices calling for a solution are starting to grow.”
“This doesn’t happen in a developed nation,” another commenter wrote. “Writing ‘voices calling for a solution are starting to grow’ when this is unique to Japan’s abnormal environment really rubs me raw.”
This isn’t the first time ads have made headlines news in Japan. We wrote previously about how manga YouTube ads filled with sexism and fatshaming were driving many viewers crazy. Many in Japan have also complained about the sexualization of underage girls in ads and manga, with one ad even drawing an official objection from the United Nations.
These ads, of course, fall into a completely different category. There’s nothing wrong with sex. But there’s a time and a place for it – and that place isn’t on websites that routinely cater to children.
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