Manga artist and politician Ken Akamatsu introduced on X/Twitter ended his duties because the Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He has handed over the position to Masato Shimizu.
Akamatsu started his new roles as a member of the House of Councillors on the identical day on the Committee on Education, Culture and Science, Committee on Oversight of Administration, Special Committee on Consumer Affairs, Special Committee on Children, Childrearing and Youth Empowerment, and Research Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, Sustainable Society.
In an unrelated however latest submit, Akamatsu commemorated the twenty seventh anniversary his creation of the Love Hina manga. The manga debuted on October 21, 1998.
Akamatsu was appointed Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction on November 13, 2024 as half of an emergency cupboard assembly of newly elected Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s second cupboard.
Parliamentary Vice-Ministers help the Minister and Vice-Minister of their respective Ministry, however can not act in place of the Minister in case of their absence (in contrast to the Vice-Minister).
Akamatsu, a member of Japan’s large tent conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), turned the primary manga creator to win a seat in Japan’s House of Councillors (higher home) within the National Diet (parliament).
Akamatsu has traditionally centered on points affecting Japanese creators, including the controversial freelance bill taxation system.
Akamatsu delved into politics in 2011 when he warned that proposed modifications to Japan’s Copyright Law would “destroy” spinoff dōjin (self-revealed) works. Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer and a Nihon University professor, wrote an essay in regards to the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) talks that prompted Akamatsu’s remarks. Akamatsu continued to discuss his issues on the TPP talks within the following years.
In 2013, Akamatsu joined different creators in opposing the LDP and its companions’ proposed modification to youngster pornography legal guidelines. According to the invoice’s opponents, the preliminary drafts didn’t differentiate between pornography that includes actual kids and photographs of kids. Akamatsu visited the Diet and the LDP headquarters to specific his concern, and the ultimate invoice passed in 2014 and not using a ban on express anime and manga.
In 2019, Akamatsu and the remaining of the Japan Cartoonists Association formally expressed their issues on a authorities subcommittee’s plan to broaden the scope of copyright legislation. Downloading anime photographs, illustrations, and pictures that have been illegally posted to private blogs and Twitter accounts would have additionally been unlawful, as would copying and pasting music lyrics. The proposed change wouldn’t have been restricted to instantly downloading photographs themselves — taking screenshots of illegally uploaded media would even have been towards the proposed legal guidelines.
In 2022, Akamatsu characterized criticism from the worldwide gender equality group UN Women as “external pressure” to regulate Japan’s “freedom of expression, especially for manga, anime, and games” and added that such stress was not new. He elaborated that such rules wanted to be approached with rationality and not be obeyed just because an outdoor celebration was demanding it. Akamatsu’s definition of “external pressure” doesn’t essentially imply “outside Japan.” He used the removal of PSAs that includes Virtual YouTuber Tojou Linka for example.
Akamatsu launched J-Comi’s “Zeppan Manga Toshokan” (later Manga Library Z) digital manga library service in 2008, and launched a beta take a look at of the location in 2010. Akamatsu initially posted all 14 volumes of his Love Hina manga without spending a dime with six pages of promoting and no digital rights administration (DRM) for one month to take a look at the viability of the enterprise mannequin. Japanese publishers Shueisha and Kodansha started collaborating with the location in 2010. The website shut down in November 2024, due to points with bank card firms and a termination of all cost providers.
The website gained notoriety in 2011 when it posted Seiji Matsuyama‘s Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei (My Wife Is an Elementary Student) manga, which Naoki Inose, Tokyo Vice Governor on the time, cited for example of which manga needs to be restricted below Tokyo’s then-lately revised Youth Healthy Development Ordinance. Though the location was solely obtainable in Japanese, it launched an English and overseas-language model beta take a look at for choose titles in 2011.
Akamatsu launched the UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 manga with the title of UQ Holder! in Kodansha‘s Weekly Shōnen Magazine in Japan in August 2013. The manga transferred to Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in October 2016, with the brand new title UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2, totally revealing the manga as a sequel to Akamatsu’s earlier Negima! manga. He ended the manga in February 2022 throughout his marketing campaign to run for the House of Councillors.
Tokyopop revealed Love Hina in North America, and Del Rey and Kodansha Comics have revealed Negima!. Both manga and Akamatsu’s Itsudatte My Santa! manga impressed varied anime initiatives, and Negima! additionally inspired a dwell-motion tv collection.
Source: Ken Akamatsu‘s X/Twitter account