Japanese and Western cultural

norms in the context of Japanese

video games

An analytic and comparative study of Video

game users on Japanese video games and
their content

Mehrdad Farrokhtala

Asia and Middle East studies – Japanese studies

30 credits

Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS)

Faculty of Humanities

June 2021
• Summary

In recent years video games are becoming a more prominent part of our entertainment
and media. Few people had no encounter with video games, and their numbers are
decreasing. A global market that is taking over cinema and music; It is undeniable that such a
large industry has a substantial impact on our society and lifestyles.

From its very creation, Japan has been one of the main pillars of the video game
industry. They have influenced and shaped the new generation of entertainment even outside
their territories. However, with their unique culture and society and the Japanese cultural
differences to the western (Europe and North America) society, Westerners perceive and
interpret these cultural differences in video games. These differences are particularly more
apparent in controversial games that adopt unconventional themes such as sexual assault or
child pornography as their primary focus. This study aims to see and analyze the difference
between games developed by Japanese studios and the approaches by the average consumer
of these games.

II
• Forewords
First of all, I would like to thank all my Passionate teachers and classmates which
through their dedication to the Japanese language and culture, I found encouragement. A
special thank to my supervisor and mentor, Dick Stegewerns, that one sentence and one
simple guide could put me on the right path to do my research.

Another gratitude has to go to the University of Oslo for allowing me to continue my

research and studies in this field in their university.

I would like to thank my family for their support in getting me through the difficult
times of lockdowns and pandemic, and to my uncle which without his support, I would not be
able to finish my studies.

And another thanks to my friends in Norway and other parts of the world that their
high spirit kept me going and enabled me to find the strength to move to another country and
study.

One special thanks go to the gamer community for their absolute camaraderie, which
by participating in my survey, allowed me to finish this research.

III
 Table of Contents

• SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... II

• FOREWORDS ............................................................................................................ III

1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Video games in the Media context .................................................................................. 1
1.1.1 Why video games ..................................................................................... 2
1.1.2 Content in video games ............................................................................ 3
1.1.3 The case of Rapelay ................................................................................. 5
1.2 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................... 7
1.3 Scope and Goals .............................................................................................................. 9
1.4 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................................... 9

2 METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 11
2.1 Research Design ............................................................................................................ 11
2.2 Ethical Consideration and Other Challenges ................................................................. 13

3 BACKGROUND AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH ................................................... 14

3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 14
3.2 Media and culture in the modern world......................................................................... 17
3.3 Sex and Sexual contents in video games ....................................................................... 20
3.4 Adult games in Japan ..................................................................................................... 23

4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

4.1 Characteristics of Japanese video games ....................................................................... 30

4.1.1 Narrative................................................................................................. 31
4.1.2 Freedom of Choices ............................................................................... 31
4.1.3 Content ................................................................................................... 33
4.1.4 Violence or Sexual ................................................................................. 33
4.2 Pornographic games in Japan ........................................................................................ 34
4.3 Survey Analysis ............................................................................................................. 37

5 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 41

6 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 42

7 GAMEOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 46
IV
1 Introduction

1.1 Video games in the Media context

We live in the age of information and communication. We are truly living in the age
of marvels of technology and science. Technology has allowed us to move giant structures
with a finger tap on a small device that we carry in our pockets. We can talk to people on the
other part of the globe at any moment we desire. We can shoot videos and pictures as simple
as it is to turn a TV on or off. All these are available through a small device we can carry in
our pockets. To some extends, we are subconscious about using a lot of these features.
However, using all these gadgets means that we expose ourselves to an immense amount of
data and information without realizing it.

Media has become a crucial part of our daily lives. We are exposed to it without
realizing it, and we process its messages and information subconsciously. In every book, TV
show, movie, game or even news that we see, we are seeing a collection of information that is
presented to us in a certain way by the producers of these media. We also, depending on our
capacity, process these pieces of information in a certain way. It is undeniable that this
amount of data will affect our cognitive intellection, consequently creating patterns in our
behaviours and social interactions.

The media shapes our social and cultural patterns, conspicuous as it may be to
understand it fully. With the emergence of new forms of media in the digital age, its influence
is increasingly obscure. With modern technology, our consumption of media products has
transformed. With devices like smartphones and services like fast internet connections, we
have allowed ourselves to be more exposed to various forms of digital media. The emergence
of the new phenomena, ‘social networks’, supposedly has brought us closer together with a
level of interconnectivity, unlike anything. All these may point to the fact that such a global
entity obviously influences our mentality to culture and society. Notwithstanding, studying
the influence of such a large concept may not entirely show the full significance of different
aspects of it on other levels.

As Elizabeth M. Perse, a researcher on mass communication, discuss media’s effect

are not as simple as one may think. As it may be true that we, as consumers, can seemingly
feel the influence of media, such as when we are affected by a movie causing us to be
frightened or happy or cry. When it comes to studying how these are affecting our lives could

1
be challenging. In today’s world, as access to information is easier than ever, there is an
evident controversy about what exactly media is and how profound its influence is. By the
same token, Perse discuss further, how in some cases in politics, media is seen as a powerful
tool for politicians to influence the people to acquiesce with them. Oppositely, for some other
politicians, media is a discourse for them to criticize and intrigue the populace to adopt their
ideas (Perse 2001, 4–6).

This paper's primary research question will be: how different rape and sexual content
is seen in video games in the context of media by Japanese gamers compared to north
American and Europeans?

1.1.1 Why video games

With such a degree of intricacy, upon investigating media, it could become

challenging to identify clearly how and to what degree media impacts our lives. Due to these
limitations, it is better to focus on one area of media and study the effects of that one aspect.
Although even by doing that, it cannot be said in confidence that the influence is clear,
however, it may be possible to limit further misunderstanding in this discourse.

One peculiar area of media which is the focus of this study is video games. Even
though it may be a relatively new industry, but it is evident that it is gaining more notoriety
over the last years. It is a technology hungry industry unique in its computer innovation as it
is in its artistic features. Nevertheless, choosing this area to study is not because of its
advanced technology (although indirectly technology also plays a role). The reasons to
choose video games in the media context are two. One is interactivity. Video games are
highly interactive as they put the player (the consumer) in a virtual world to follow a
narrative. Although the narrative is usually pre-defined, the player is free to approach the
sequences presented to him/her. This degree of freedom is unlike media predecessors. In the
older forms, such as movies and TV shows, the entire narrative and settings are pre-defined,
and the consumer has no control over it. Video games have changed that, as with more
technological advancement, there is more freedom over the choices that the player can make
in games. However, the degree of interactivity goes even further in the case of video games.
As argued by Moulthrop and others, video games have a community involvement unlike
other forms of media (except social media, which is heavily community based). In video
games, not only the consumer is part of a smaller community to discuss and to interact with

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other consumers of the same media, but it goes one step further, and with access to computer
players are even able to implement their materials into games and bring their own ideas into
the game world (Dovey et al. 2009, 21–25; Moulthrop 2004, chap. Go Configure). Even
though, to some extent, games share their interactivity with media like movies and TV shows,
the ability to freely make choices that affect the narrative to this extend is exclusive to video
games. This high level of engagement is also reflected by the high level of influence that
games can have.

The other reason for choosing video games as a framework for this study is its larger
market size compared to other media. In 2020, video games surpassed the music and movie
industries (albeit it is partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic) (Reuters 2020; Tripp et al.
2020). Such market size indicates this new medium’s significance as it is replacing older and
more traditional media behind. That means the importance of studying different aspect of this
medium is ever increasing. Nowadays, as time passes, more older generations are part of the
consumers of video games. Eventually, it will reach a point that video games will completely
replace any other types of media as the mainstream media.

1.1.2 Content in video games

All the arguments discussed before also suggest that in the context of studying media,
narrowing the field to video games are still leaving us with a vast area to work in. As video
games are very technology-intensive and consist of different software and hardware aspects,
many studies address the technology involved in games. These studies exclusively look into
the technology involved in game development and not the content. In order to study the
effects of video games on its consumers, it is imperative to study its content more than its
innovation. This study aims to investigate these contents and their implications.

Video games cover a broad range of different features involved in their development.
Genres aside, there are game mechanics in which games are supposed to be played by (or, as
its technical term, gameplay). Then there is its artistic and visual aspect of it (known as
graphics). One other necessary aspect is the software and hardware involved in it. These are
among the features games have, which can vary in their target audience and development
process depending on the games. These are aimed to create an environment for the player to
experience the narrative intended by the game designer(s). This means that the game’s

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narrative defines the game's content, directly involved in the player’s immersion into the
game and getting affected by.

Just as video games are categorized by their gameplay, they are also categorized based
on their content. Similar to movies and TV shows, they can be historical, action, science
fiction and other genres of entertainment. These genres are focused on entertainment and
created in such a way to create facilities for players to enjoy the content through gameplay
and other aspects of the game. As days go by, one genre that is attracting more attention
toward themselves is adult games, also known as porn games.

What makes these games apart from other genre and categories of games is their
heavy focus on sexualized erotic content designed to arouse sexual joy for the consumers
(Wysocki and Lauteria 2015, 31–32). Development of these games usually focuses more on
its content than gameplay or other aspects (although it is worthy of mention that with recent
innovation in technology hardware such as Virtual Reality (VR) are also finding their ways
into this genre because of their high level of immersion). Even though more games are
developed and published within this genre than before, this is not a new genre. In fact, the
first porn game was developed in 1981 called softporn adventures. A basic text-based game
with erotic content. After that 1980s saw a surge in the publishing of different sort of video
games with this content. As it always has been with the video game industry, development
studios have been part of one of the two groups, and they were either Japanese or Western1.

Besides their geographical place, the games developed by studios from Japan always
differed from those developed by western developers. On their technological aspect, there
may not be an apparent difference between the two; their contents are sufficiently different
that an avid consumer of video games can tell them apart. These differences also exist in porn
games developed by Japanese companies.

Erotic content has always been a big part of Japanese literature (Shirane 2002).
Distinguishable from western video games due to their style and content, their video games
are also very different. However, as is the case with most entertainment solutions, these erotic
contents were never limited to their art, literature, video, or games. As an example of

1
In the context of this study west and western refers to developers which are based, started and mostly
operate in north American or European countries. Western audiences also refer to those who culturally feel
closer to north American or European countries.

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Japanese unique form of entertainment media, Anime and Manga are well known globally. In
recent years both have been able to find their fan base outside of Japan, more specifically in
the US and western European countries (Newitz 1994). Japanese Anime or Manga's visual
features are very clear to consumers compared to their Western counterpart cartoons, and
comic books. However, other than their visual features, their content is very different as well.
Naturally, for any fictional work of art, they both are abstract takes from their respective
culture. Due to this, the cultural implication of both works is apparent. This difference is also
extended to their pornographic industry and consequently to porn video games.

1.1.3 The case of Rapelay

Among porn games developed today, one main difference between the two is that
western developers are usually not big studios that dedicate their work to pornographic games
(Lankoski and Dymek 2020, 2). On the contrary, most Japanese porn games are developed by
dedicated studios. However, this difference can bring other complexity to studying this
subject. As independent developers are usually one person or group of people who do not, in
particular, have to follow the rules and regulations to publish their games. They are
crowdfunded; hence their content is heavily dependent on what their subscriptions demand.
On the other hand, Japanese porn game developers are mostly bigger studios that are
dedicated to creating pornographic games.

5
 The difference between
content becomes bolder in some
specific games. One of such is
Rapelay. Rapelay is a game
developed by Illusion studios, a
Japanese studio dedicated to
developing pornographic games.
What sets this game apart is the
content. The narrative of this game
follows a rapist, which the player
controls. When the player takes
control of the main protagonist,
they must first sexually harass an
underage girl in the subway to
eventually sexually assault the
female character. Afterwards, the
main character uses the photos
gained from the sexual act to
blackmail the mother and sister of
the female character into raping Figure 1 - Official Cover image for Rapelay (source:
comshop.ne.jp)
them. The story further takes a
darker turn when players are offered a choice to impregnate the female characters and choose
to force them into having abortions; if players choose not to do so, their character is stabbed
to death by one of the victims. The end segment shows the female character as demonic (by
having the character laugh maniacally) (deWinter 2015, 2; Nakasatomi 2012, chap. The
problem inherent in RapeLay: A form of discrimination against women). These features are
only part of the choices offered to the player in this game. In contrast, the main objective
presented to the player is to “break” the girls. Meaning, by making them obedient, once
successful, the player has the choice to order the girls to perform any sexual act.

Rapelay gained international recognition when Amazon.com offered the game on

their platform for sale in 2009. It was later revealed that a third-party reseller posted the
game, and Amazon.com distanced itself from the controversy of the game (Pidd 2009). After
a series of debates from different countries, the game was removed. Since then, there has

6
been a ban on this game in several counties (deWinter 2015, 9–10). On the Japanese side, the
EOCS (Japan Ethics Organisation of Computer Software) announced that they will tighten
these games' restriction and sale (Nakasatomi 2012, chap. Japanese game producers toughen
self-regulation standards). The game developer also announced that due to these disputes,
they removed the game and any reference to it from their website2. However, the bans do not
include resellers selling these games over the internet. Due to this, there is still some active
online store which sells this title in Japan.

This study aims to investigate the differences in pornographic games developed by

studios in Japan and western countries. More specifically, to understand what content the
average video game consumer finds different or disturbing between these two developers.
There are some studies toward sexually violent games or rapelay in particular, but few, if any
at all, had input from gamers themselves. This paper will try to address this by utilizing
questionnaires to get input from consumers.

1.2 Theoretical Framework

In most discussion, media has mostly been referring to “communication media” and
the institution and organizations relating to it. It also refers to the cultural material produced
by these institutions. This definition is how Martin Lister and others describe media (Lister et
al. 2008, 9). In this study, however, the media refers to the new types of media that have been
appearing in the last sixty years, known as new media (or Digital media). Martin Lister
further discusses how the contemporary form of media is different. In the modern age,
consumers of media are more engaged in its creation. He describes this by saying we have
changed from “audience” to “user” and from “consumers” to “producers”. (Lister et al. 2008,
10).

Nevertheless, when it comes down to what digital means in this new media, Lister
believes that this is not a migration of physical data into binary. However, it is merely the
assignation of numerical values to phenomena. In order to encode these numerical values so
they can be readable to computer software, then they are converted to binary. With the help
of computer technology, this meant four features, according to Lister (Lister et al. 2008, 18):

2
https://web.archive.org/web/20090529155759/http://www.illusion.jp/ill_info.html

7
 • Media is ‘dematerialized.’
• Data can be compressed into small segments
• It can be accessed at a very high speed
• It can be manipulated easier

Further, Lister defines the characteristics of this new media. According to him, new
media has six main characteristics. Digital, Interactivity, Hypertextual, Networked, Virtual,
and Simulated (Lister et al. 2008, 16–43). Digital, as described above, is the most known
feature of new media. Interactivity describes the relationship between consumers and
producers. In the old media, consumption was passive. In contrast, in the new media, there is
a higher degree of interaction between consumers and producers (Lister et al. 2008, 21).
Hypertextual refers to the ease of accessibility to different levels of data in new media (Lister
et al. 2008, 26). The networked feature is associated with the world wide web and the
decentralization of both media production and consumption (Lister et al. 2008, 30–31).
Finally, both virtual and simulated aspect of new media is a notion to its virtuality (as
opposed to being physical in reality) and its representation of the real world (Lister et al.
2008, 35–43).

Even though to Martin Lister it is clear that media is influencing our daily lives and
shapes our culture (cyberculture as he describes it) (Lister et al. 2008, chaps 4 and 5) to
Elizabeth M. Perse, these effects are seen differently. She acknowledges that media with such
a large amount of money and time consumption must affect our lives (Perse 2001, 4).
However, further, she claims that studying media’s effects is not as simple. She argues that
media’s effects are not significant in different contexts, especially considering the amount of
funds and time it takes (Perse 2001, 6–8). For instance, she explains that the same material
over different cultures could have different effects (Perse 2001, 8).

No matter their differences, they both agree that in some specific context, media has
substantial impacts (Lister et al. 2008, chap. 4; Perse 2001, chap. 8). It is on this framework
that this thesis is based on and conducted. The reason why I decided to study video games in
a media context is, as Lister mentions (based on Moulthrop and Woolgar's works (Moulthrop
2004; Woolgar 1990)) that digital media, especially video games, offer a new form of
interactivity called configuration. A dynamic, engaging relationship between the user and
software refines each other in a feedback loop (Lister et al. 2008, 24–25).

8
 1.3 Scope and Goals

Whilst the cultural and social effects of video games have been studied and published
in various journals, there is little to no input from the gamers who consume these media. The
aim of this study is to, along with the academic discussion of adult content in video games in
the media context, also compare the view of video game consumers from Japan and compare
it to the westerns view of the issue.

The scope of this study is to reach gamers but also to divide the input from the
western users from Japanese users. The data from the Japanese audience will be further
analyzed to compare their view in comparison. The data, however, is limited to those who are
avid consumers of video games and can clearly distinguish the cultural implication of Japan
in its video games. Due to this, the attitude of those who do not consume video games or have
been victims of sexual violence is outside of this study's scope.

1.4 Thesis Structure

Chapter 1 is dedicated to an introduction to video games in the media context and the
pornographic games industry. This chapter describes why video games studies are essential
and how they can affect cultural and social norms. Also, there is a brief introduction to
rapelay, the particular Japanese porn game which brought up controversy in porn game
development. The theoretical framework and the scope and goals of this thesis are also
established in this chapter.

Chapter 2 will be focused on the methodology used for this study. This chapter will
discuss the methods used to collect data and analyze it. Furthermore, It will point out the
challenges and limitations that this method has for this research.

Chapter 3 will examine the previous researches done in the field of media, media
effects, video games in that context and the porn games and rapelay controversy. The
structure follows chapter 1 and starts from a background in media and video games in that
context. Finally, it moves to a review of the literature concerning rapelay and its content in
Japanese discourse.

Chapter 4 is the data analysis and discussion. In this chapter, the data gathered
through the survey will be analyzed and discussed. Furthermore, the content of porn games
and rapelay will be studied in more details to give a better understanding of its controversy.

9
 The fifth chapter will be a conclusion to the data analysis and discussion regarding the
research question. In this chapter, It will be argued the protentional of further studies in this
subject.

10
2 Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the methodology used to collect and analyze
data implemented for this thesis research. Firstly, this chapter will explain the decisions made
toward research design and justify it based on its advantages. In order to take into
consideration, the limits that this research method may suffer, the disadvantages of the
method will be discussed. This will be followed by this design's ability whether generating a
valid result for the research question that it is intended for. It will go on to discussing the
sample size method used for the survey and data collection applied by the author, as well as
the approach to the data analysis. It will conclude with acknowledgement of the ethical
consideration that was encountered throughout the research.

2.1 Research Design

For the sake of this research, the author has decided to make use of a quantitative
approach to data collection in the form of questionnaires (Brace 2018; Cook, Heath, and
Thompson 2000; Pan and Fond 2014) combined with literature review and analysis of video
games content. This method is chosen because of its dexterity in data collection. The
questionnaires were created and hosted on the University of Oslo platform, nettskjema.no. As
this research aims to compare the two viewpoints of video game consumers of western
countries and Japan, the survey was arranged into two different questionnaires. One in
English for the western respondent and one in Japanese for the Japanese respondent. Both
questionnaires are identical and only differ in one question regarding the familiarity of each
culture of the other one.

The questionnaires are divided into four main segments. The first segment is a general
question regarding age, nationality, education, and level of video game consumption is
acquired. Age is also a factor that, if chosen below 18, will limit the questions shown to the
respondent. This restriction is to avoid underage being presented with questions regarding
sexual violence (this is a feature of the platform that the survey was created on). Furthermore,
it was determined that there is a possibility that nationality may be unclear for those who
have multiple nationalities or living in a country other than the one that they were born in.
Since this research targets the cultural aspects, the respondents were asked to answer the
nationality they culturally feel closest to. The questions were presented in the form of
multiple choices.

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 Segment 2, 3, and 4 are presented in a matrix form to the respondent. Segment 2 is
regarding violence in video games, segment three regarding sexual content (on any game, not
just pornographic games). Finally, the last segment is questions regarding pornographic
games and sexual violence in video games. On each segment, the respondent is presented
with 4-6 statements which they can reply to by choosing how much they agree with the
statement. The choices are, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, do not
know. At the end of each segment, there is an open-ended question so the respondent can
have input regarding the segment's subject. The open-ended questions will be analyzed to see
if there is a common pattern among respondents.

Due to the limitation at the time of research in 2020 and the global COVID-19
pandemic, the survey had to be digitally distributed. Accordingly, the sampling method used
to collect the data was the convenience sampling method which the survey was published and
the participants were randomly selected based on their willingness to participate. The survey
was published on trending social media platforms Facebook and Reddit, targeted toward
video games players. The survey was open for a period of 3 months in total. As the purpose
of this study was to compare the two different groups, the author attempted to keep the
number of respondents for the two groups relatively similar. Once a balance was reached, the
survey was closed to avoid unbalancing the result.

To analyze the result of the data collection, the author will make use of Statistical
Product and Service Solutions (SPSS). The related data will be converted into tables and
figures in the appropriate section of this thesis.

As for the literature reviews, they are divided into 3 different categories, from a more
generic researches regarding media and then continuing into more narrowed studies regarding
pornographic games in the context of Japanese society and culture.

To have a better understating of the main theme of this study, the Japanese video
games will be analysed to find their characteristics and the author will argue how games
developed by Japanese studios differ from their westerner counterparts.

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 2.2 Ethical Consideration and Other Challenges

The subject of this study, sexual violence, could be a difficult matter for some people
to discuss. To avoid this, at the beginning of both surveys, a warning is given to all
respondent regarding the content of the questionnaires.

During the data collection, no personal data was recorded from the respondent. Each
person was given a random ID for the purpose of tracking. According to the university
platform, the data will on their data bank be deleted six months after the last participation.

Concerning the challenges of this method, firstly, due to opting for a convenience
model of sampling, there was a limited intervention and options. The respondents were
chosen based on their willingness to take part in this survey.

Secondly, as mentioned, due to the nature of the subject of these surveys, the author
has speculated that not every response will be unbiased. Unfortunately, this matter is an
uncontrollable factor from the author’s side. It is natural for people not to express their honest
opinion toward this sensitive subject. Moreover, as this survey had inquiries regarding
respondents’ experience of playing a banned game in many western countries, it is natural for
people not to give an honest answer (Fisher 2009).

This chapter has presented the methodology which is used for this research. It has
outlined the method of research design and its analyses. Despite its shortcomings in some
aspect, this method was chosen so the avid video games consumers’ experience can also be
included in this study. The major findings and discussions will be reviewed in chapter 4 more
in details.

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3 Background and previous research

3.1 Introduction

For many, video games may only be a form of entertainment and a way to kill time or
blow off steam. Some may even associate video games with children, teens, or young adults
and not something that a fully matured adult would get involved with. It can be hard for these
people to imagine video games as an effective form of media that can change cultural and
social norms. It may be harder to dismiss video games as a powerful media when one knows
that in 2020 the total venue of video game worldwide surpassed the last generation of the
entertainment, movie industry by selling over 160 billion USD with approximate 2.7 billion
users on the globe (J. Clement 2021).

With such a significant impact in the 21st century, it would have been natural that
researchers from various fields would start looking into different aspects of this new form of
entertainment and its effects on us, both as individuals and in societies. At the beginning of
this industry, most studies focused on the technical aspects since it was not commercialized
very much and had not found a significant number of users. However, toward the end of the
1990s and beginning of the 21st century, researchers started shifting their interests toward
other effects of video games, starting with mental and cognitive effects. As more time passed,
new studies emerged on personality and individual effects and research cultural and social
impacts. (Wolf, Perron, and Routledge 2003, 109–21; Kowert and Quandt 2015, chap. 1).

Nowadays, with the specialization of research fields, the technological and the more
technical part of video game studies have, more or less, separated itself from other aspects.
There are now more focused studies on cultural characteristics and the influence of video
games or video game culture. This culture is one of the main themes in “Video game as
culture”, written by Daniel Muriel, a sociology researcher and Garry Crawford, British
sociologist (Muriel and Crawford 2018). This book discusses how video games have
influenced the digital age and the new form of media. Moreover, it is discussed how rooted
the influence of video games can be. They explain the reason that why such a thing as video
game culture exist and why it is essential to study it is because of various impacts that these
video games can have on one’s life:

14
 “The video game is, …the prototypical cultural form of digital culture; it is –
so to speak – its purest form. Video game and video gamers are thus seen as (at least)
one of the main products and driving forces of our contemporary society. …it is
obvious that, even if video games are not the most important product of a digital
culture, they are certainly still an essential one – and along with this, comes a video
game culture.” (Muriel and Crawford 2018, 18)

However, as Soraya Murray, a digital media scholar describes, “Culture as a term is

not singular, but a panoply of things.” (Murray 2017, 3), culture is not just one entity or a
singular term that can describe its entire meaning but, it is made of various other social,
personal, ethnics and other features. The same is true regarding the study of game culture;
there are more than one aspect of video game culture and its effects on societies. One of these
aspects, which has been the subject of many debates, whether inside video game discourse or
in a more general context, is sexuality and gender.

Throughout recent times, there has been numerous studies and debates with themes
revolving around sexuality and gender. However, the focus of this study is these sexualities in
the context of video games, more specifically the differences between the western and
Japanese perspective toward this. To this end and to give a background of previously carried
research on this matter, as video games are part of mass media (or digital media) first, there
must be a discussion of studies toward media's influence on culture then video games.

Furthermore, when researchers study the development of the Japanese gaming

industry (AKA geemu), mostly every study points to the fact that this industry, unlike in the
US, was born and shaped by the influence of the market rather than the culture of where it
was made (Navarro Remesal and Loriguillo López 2015, 1–3; Picard 2013). This feature is a
vital notation as these two industries developed differently throughout their histories. One is
concentrated toward those who develop the game meanwhile the other is toward market
trends. In other words, it could be argued that those developers that follow trends in their
local market are following their local culture and what society demands. This argument is
critical in this research as the main focus is to study pornographic games and their influence.

The actual market share of adult-only games is difficult to estimate as numerous

games are developed by independent developers. Their source of income is mostly through
crowdfunding platforms such as Patreon. However, a study in 2019 estimated a market value

15
of approximately $30-40 million dollar (Whale 2019). The industry is expanding, and with
more tools and platforms in recent days, it has become easier to develop and publish these
games. There also exist larger publishing platforms with extensive capital that focus on adult
games, one being Nutaku.

Nutaku is an adult gaming exclusive platform that has partnered with Japanese
developers to publish their games in the western market3. In February 2021, they announced
that their website had reached 50 million users (Bella Blondeau 2020). Even though it may
seem like an impressive number of users, this only accounts for one platform specifically
targeted toward English speaking audiences.

Nevertheless, a large number of users for adult content is nothing new, and there are
many studies done regarding the porn industry, its effects and other aspects of it (Diamond
and Uchiyama 1999; Williams 2004). Most studies done in this field are related to fields
other than video game. However, as this new form of entertainment is replacing traditional
forms such as pictures or even videos, more researchers are showing interest in studying
sexual content in video games. One example of extensive study in this field is Sex in the
Digital Age (2018) by Paul G. Nixon, Media scholar and Isabel K. Düsterhöft, International
Law scholar. In this book, authors have looked at how in the modern era, sex and sexuality
has changed. How modern technology and ideology has affected sex and its related
industries. In this book, there is a dedicated chapter regarding video games and sex which
will be looked upon in more detail further in this chapter.

Adult-only games by themselves are not that much different from traditional formats
of porn. If anything, one can consider that porn created in the virtual world could be a better
alternative since no real people are involved in actual sex and sexual activities. Considering
many existing studies and various humanitarian movements against the porn industry, a shift
to virtual porn may be the solution to solve issues raised by these individuals and
communities. However, if everything is in the virtual world and no actual people are
involved, hurt or in any way part of the sexual activity, is that still better?

Although the development of pornographic games is not exclusive to Japan, it might

have originated there, with the first games with graphical features appearing in Japan in the

3
http://www.dmm.co.jp/en/netgame/foreign/

16
early 1980s and getting more attention in the late 80s when visual novels came to be
(Kabashima 2009; Nobushige 2006). with more time passing the western developers have
joined in the development of these games, however primarily these erotic games are
associated with Japanese developers, which eventually made Hentai4 a buzzword in the
English language to refer to porn games developed by Japanese Companies (McLelland and
Network 2011, 1–2).

The theme of porn videos and games are mostly similar as both aim to simulate an
erotic situation for the audience. Nevertheless, when cultural differences come to play, there
might be differences between what is considered acceptable in Japan compared to the rest of
the world. This difference was apparent in the game Rapelay.

Since the release of this game on the global market, there have been various
discussion of the freedom that is allowed on video games (Fennelly 2009; Lah 2010). all
these ultimately led to this game being banned. However, the arguments regarding the
amount of freedom those game developers are allowed to have and the cultural and social
impact that a video game can have are still valid and is the goal to some other researchers
(deWinter 2015; Galbraith 2017; Nakasatomi 2012).

Other than the studies directly regarding Rapelay, there are other studies concerning
sexual content in video games. Considering these studies, which are done in other forms of
popular media such as Manga, Anime, and movies, will help to differentiate between video
games and other forms. Accordingly, toward the end of this chapter, this paper will analyze
and compare different studies done regarding the game itself and other forms of pornographic
contents in the digital media discourse.

3.2 Media and culture in the modern world

From the beginning of human history, we needed a way to communicate with each
other to share our knowledge and convey our message. To this end, we developed a variety of
different tools, from its primitive form of spoken languages to more complex structured
languages and scripts. This development led to new forms of communication tools such as

4
変態 Hentai is a Japanese loanword which in English is used to refer to Anime, Manga or game
pornography

17
books, letters, written messages, and literature. All these different forms of communication
are the early examples of media (Lule 2012, 33–34).

However, as time passed, human societies changed and became more complicated,
rendering these old forms of communication somewhat ineffective. Although written
literature has been used as a form of conveying writers’ message to the reader, not all had the
same access to these resources. On the one hand, there were physical constraints, meaning
one book written by one author could only be read by those who had physical access to the
book itself; on the other hand, there were other issues with language barriers and those in the
population who could not read or understand these forms of communications.

Nevertheless, with the invention of the press, photography, better quality papers, and
filming, communication and media were changed drastically as now it was more accessible to
people and “mass”. Hence mass media was born.

By Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition, mass media is “a medium of

communication (such as newspapers, radio, or television) that is designed to reach the mass
of the people —usually used in plural” (‘Mass Media’ n.d.). In the definition as well, mass
media has two important features. One is that it is a form of communication, meaning it is
essentially a tool for the creator to convey its message to the audience(s). the other is that it is
designed to reach many people. The latter also means that the message that the creator,
whether intentionally or not, can influence its audience through media.

Such features have made mass media a powerful tool for transmitting information and
messages to a large population. Through this information, many can be influenced and
unknowingly follow a particular way of thinking.

Furthermore, with recent technological advancements, processing and transmitting

messages and information has changed drastically to the point of creating a new phenomenon
called “digital media” (Smith 2013). With such ease of access to this amount of information
in today’s age, it is crucial to study media and different types of media. Our day to day lives
are so intertwined with digital content that it has affected our social behaviour, and our
cultures have been affected by it.

18
 One of the best examples of studies in this field is gathered in the book New Media: a
critical introduction (Dovey et al. 2009). This book, tries to answer the question “what is new
about “new media” (Dovey et al. 2009, 9).

This book is dedicated to the changes in media, both technology-wise and changes in
the culture. While pointing out the changes that media has gone through in how it is produced
or consumed, the authors describe the changes of how subliminal these changes are:

“… some of us still watch 90-minute films, in the dark, at the cinema, or

gather as families to watch in a fairly linear way an evening’s scheduled ‘broadcast’
television. But many do not consume their ‘media’ in such ways. These are old habits
or practices, residual options among many other newer ones.“ (Dovey et al. 2009, 9)

To further emphasize this, we as humans live in times that we have decided to call the
‘Information Age’, and there is a good reason for it. An average person living in the digital
age is bombarded with vast amounts of information compared to an average person living in
the 18th or 19th century. To illustrate this massive change James Potter compares the amount
of information we are exposed to with how information was accessed two centuries ago:

“Until about two centuries ago, the majority of the population could not read,
and even if it could, there were few books available.[…] Time, however, is a big
problem. If you were to try to read only the new books published this year, you would
have to read a book every 3 minutes for 24 hours each day with no breaks over the
entire year— that is 20 books per hour and 480 books each and every day. All that
effort would be needed just to keep up with the new titles published in the United
States alone! You would have no time left to read any of the other 66 million book
titles in existence worldwide. And this example is limited to only books!” (Potter
2012, 8)

Considering both what is said on New Media: a critical introduction and combined
with James Potter's work, it can be said that the media we are exposed to has been through
drastic changes and might not be what we expect it to be. These all confirm and emphasize
that we are under a bombardment of a massive amount of information in the modern age, to
the extent that we cannot process these by ourselves. That is how this information is tools in
the hands of those who have the means to communicate them to the mass. What we see, hear

19
or do in the media discourse are just selected information for us by the producers of this
specific media that we are exposed to.

The undeniable fact is that in the 21st century, media and communication and those
who control them have the means to feed our minds with specific information that they see
fit. This factor could be quite indisputable to many, but the degree to which we unconsciously
expose ourselves to be fed this information is still not very clear. Whether it is a hidden
agenda or not by the media producers, our minds process these data and are influenced by it.

3.3 Sex and Sexual contents in video games

The technological advancement of the modern age has changed the way of
communication and has made the information easier to access. With computers available in
most household these days, computer-related media is also accessible. One such media is
video games, a form of entertainment which by many is viewed only as a way to pass the
time for adolescents. This view has caused many to overlook its effects not only on individual
levels but, more importantly, on social and cultural levels.

It is uncommon to talk about race or sexuality when discussing video games. Mostly
they are seen as pass times with trivial storylines and simple mechanics only to keep us
entertained for a short period of time. However, with the growth in this industry and the
competitive market, the need for more complex games has arisen. With more complex games
came more complex depth in the social and cultural influence of this medium.

With this industry's growth to one of the leading entertainment influential media,
studies have been carried out regarding different aspects of video games. One such study is
done by Karen E. Dill and Kathryn P. Thill regarding sexuality portrayed in video games. In
their study which games that are considered a new cultural icon for the younger generation,
they focus on the portrayal of characters in video games regarding how the audience
interprets male and female characters. Although video games are not necessarily exclusive to
the younger generation, their study has shown how the younger generation perceive gender
roles in video games.

This study which was conducted mainly around video game magazines, showed that
there is indeed a clear distinction between males and females’ interpretation:

20
 “Though older generations are not attuned to video game culture, video game
characters are icons in youth popular culture. Character images tell blatantly sexist
stories about gender, and research is just beginning to reveal and analyze those stories.
The vision of masculinity video game characters project is that men should be
powerful, dominant, and aggressive. The story video game characters tell about
femininity is that women should be extreme physical specimens, visions of beauty,
objects of men’s heterosexual fantasies, and less important than men. An emerging
trend, though, is that these sexy, curvaceously thin beauties are also now typically
violent.” (Dill and Thill 2007, 861)

This notion regarding masculinity of this media is also mentioned in the book Game
Cultures: Computer Games As New Media: Computer Games as New Media:

“The narrative worlds of computer games are heavily coded as masculine, not
only in terms of content but also in how they are marketed, located, exchanged and
reviewed. The use of ‘booth babes’ at games expositions, the use of highly sexualized
imagery in the packaging and advertising of games, the Nintendo ‘For Men’ tag line
that accompanied the Game Boy Advance SP campaign and the dominant
construction of female games characters as ‘hypersexual’ all serve to underscore this
coding.” (Jon and Kennedy 2006, 37)

Both studies point to the fact that the gaming industry and those responsible for its
development are sexist, and games are developed to appeal more to the male preferences than
it does for its female audiences. This sort of favouritism is done through how female
characters are illustrated in video games or how video games’ consumers are generally
thought to be male. This has caused, as mentioned by Jon and Kennedy that even marketing
campaigns to target male audiences’ attraction. Nevertheless, these are not limited to how a
game is advertised or how certain characters are made; But it could go deeper on the content
of the game or how the game narrative is. Whether if it has been because of the male-
dominant industry or because of market demand, sexual content and the whole notion of sex
has found their way into video games as well.

Sex, sexual activities or any other part of sexual content has been part of many games
as early as the 1980s. However, there is a distinction between games that the central theme is
sex or other games that sex is only part of the game or even an optional part of the game. In

21
regards to games that only put sex as part of the game and not the main objective, there are
studies done in regards to sexism and gender in games (Burgess, Stermer, and Burgess 2007;
Usva 2015) or on sexual options provided to the player (Murray 2017; Sousa 2014; Wysocki
and Lauteria 2015). Nevertheless, the main focus of this research is on the other type of
games that center around sex and its other aspects. These games, which are often referred to
as porn games or adult games, are mainly created to stimuli the excitement of sexual
encounters.

As video games are part of mass media, it is a tool to communicate to people and
convey messages. Furthermore, video games are an interactive form of media, which means
consumers are part of the data communicated through this medium. That is done either by
changing a particular part of video games (modding5) or by simply playing the games (inputs
and decisions that the player makes in the game narrative) (Jon and Kennedy 2006, 131–39).
This level of involvement could cause complex issues when it comes to porn games.
Exposure to certain information, in this case, acts done in these games, could have long-
lasting effects on both the individual but also on the social and cultural norms. This is the
main area of research on Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication.
Although his work is mainly directed toward television and its influence on social
behaviours, considering the growth of video games, its interactivity and ease of access could
play a more prominent role than television. This is how he describes the messages that are
conveyed through mass media to its audience and the influence that media can have on social
patterns:

“By exemplification one can get people to behave altruistically, to volunteer

their services, to delay or seek gratification, to show affection, to select certain foods
and drinks, to choose certain kinds of apparel, to converse on particular topics, to be
inquisitive or passive, to think creatively or conventionally, or to engage in other
permissible courses of action. Thus, the types of models who predominate within a
social milieu partly determine which human qualities, from among many alternatives,
are selectively activated. The actions of models acquire the power to activate and

5
Modding in video games means creating a modification for games and changing them in certain
ways. Mods are created by people other than the games’ original developers and sometimes may not be
sanctioned by the developers.

22
 channel behavior when they are good predictors for observers that positive results can
be gained by similar conduct.” (Bandura 2002, 282)

With such significant influence that mass media and, in this case, video games can
have, it is surprising to see the lack of research done in areas such as sexual violence and rape
in video games. It would be unfair not to mention the studies done in this regards (V. Beck
and Rose 2021; V. S. Beck et al. 2012; deWinter 2015; Diamond and Uchiyama 1999).
However, considering that games with such themes have been around since the 1980s, there
is a lack of studies. This shortage is more apparent in Japanese researchers compared to the
westerns. Japanese developers also created their first eroge game in the 1980s and since then
has been on one side of the game industry and porn games. Especially with Japanese games
such as rapelay, which are still legal in Japan through online retailers, the lack of studies
regarding sexual violence in the media is apparent. Nevertheless, there are a few studies that
revolve around these games.

3.4 Adult games in Japan

Since the creation of the first generation of video games, Japan has always been one
side of this industry. Developers and companies from Japan always had a significant role in
the evolution of the video game industry. Even though the trend of progress was different in
Japan and the west (Primarily the United States), but Japan has influenced not only its local
market, but they have made plenty of changes on the global development of this industry. A
great example of their influence on the global market is how Nintendo saved the US video
game crash; in 1985, after a market crash due to poor quality games, Nintendo Entertainment
System, a home entertainment system, entered the US market after success in the Japanese
market. This action revived the Video game industry in the west by introducing a new model
for a new generation of gaming. (Ernkvist 2008, 184–85; Wolf 2012, 4–5).

Even with all its influence over the global market over the years, Japan’s local market
is still very dependent on games developed by Japanese developers. Looking at the sale
figures for the first half of 2020, revenue from both software and hardware combined were
174.8 billion Yen (equivalent to 1.6 billion US Dollars). Nevertheless, among the top 10 most
sold games, only one is non-Japanese, Minecraft (Batchelor 2020). For comparison, the
European and US most sold games in 2020 are a mixture of western and Japanese games
(Dealessandri 2020; Grubb 2021). This difference between the two markets could result from

23
how different the industries in these regions formed explained by the large influence that
Nintendo had in the 1980s US video game crash. Nevertheless, Japan has a very complex
hybrid video game industry with a heavy influence over the global market. In the following
research, The foundation of Geemu: A brief history of early Japanese video games, this is
how Picard a researcher on Japanese media and video games describes this industry:

“Japanese video games, or geemu, are not linked to an ‘essence’ of any kinds
(national, mediatic, etc.), but to a market, or rather to -- admittedly unstable and
fluctuating -- markets. […] Thus, geemu is both global (with its transnational
arrangements), local (since it is a market partially isolated), and “glocal” (sometimes
playing on the two fronts at once, and including both the “globalocal” and
“localization” concepts) phenomenon, as well as a concept influenced by various
discourses (from the industry, the fans, the academia) and practices which evolve
according to social, cultural, economic and (trans)national contexts.” (Picard 2013,
chap. Geemu in context)

What Picard is describing is an industry with its local market isolation, still has a
global influence over video game development. However, this feature of the Japanese market
is what separates it from the other markets. Japanese follow markets and other social and
cultural trends in order to develop and market their games. This characteristic is even more
fascinating when looking into adult games.

Although the adult game genre is not exclusive to Japan or Japanese developers, the
emergence of this genre was simultaneous with its western competitors. However, their
developments took very different routes. Western developers mostly took sexual content as
part of their games and not the main goal. At the same time, the Japanese still have big
development studios dedicated to producing games with the specific theme of sexual
activities. This aspect is particularly apparent in cases such as the controversial franchise
Grand Theft Auto. Even though the central theme of the game is not exclusively sexual,
however, there are parts that illustrate sexual content, such as sex and prostitution.
Nevertheless, no direct reference or images is showing sexual behaviours or genitals in these
instances. Even though players were sometimes rewarded for some of these actions with
sexual behaviours, they were only an optional part of the game (DeVane and Squire 2008, 1–
2; Dill et al. 2005, 126). When it comes to games with exclusive sexual content, there are
games developed by western studios with more focus on sexual activities. Games such as

24
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude which the goal is to ultimately charm female
characters in the game with the intention of sexual intercourse, but as the developers have
mentioned, the game is a form of comical take on sexual behaviour: “Inspired by films like
American Pie, and There is Something About Mary, the game is packed full of outrageous
humour and raucous game-play” (Schott 2005, 3–4).

Furthermore, studios that developed these adult games do not only make adult games,
but they have created games in a different genre, and these adult games could be considered
their attempt to tap into a new market. In other words, there is no mainstream studio that
creates adult games in the west. In the case of games with pornographic themes, they are
mainly developed by indie developers6 and are funded through crowdfunding solutions
(Lankoski and Dymek 2020). This solution further proves the point that adult games are not
openly developed and published in the west.

Japan’s case is not very similar. Adult games in Japan have a considerable market and
are developed by well-established studios which mainly focus their effort on making games
with themes revolving around sexual activities.

Nonetheless, studying Japanese adult games could suffer challenges on its own. As
Hibiki Ōkura puts it, adult games in Japanese discourse have two major dilemmas. One is
that “adult games” do not have an unambiguous definition. When categorized, pornographic
games are included in the definition; however, along with that are games such as Grand Theft
Auto, which has indirect sexual content in no way close to pornographic games. The other
issue he points out is the visual novels. A genre of game that follows a narrative through texts
and choices which the player makes. These forms of games are also supplemented with still
images to give a visual of the story. Ōkura state that most of the times, when adult games are
being studies, these novel games are often neglected. That is considering that novel games
make up most of the adult games. Furthermore, Ōkura adds that there has been a trend in
recent years that adult games are being marketed as “dating sim” or “romance games”, which
adds to the complexity of researches in this field (Ōkura 2015, 15–16).

The notion of referring to porn games as romance games creates a new dynamic
between games and consumers as virtual romance seems to be a replacement for reality in

6
Independent developers

25
some cases. This is the case of Ōkura’s other research in which “Otaku” and their
consumption of virtual products are studied. In this research, six individuals in their mid to
late 20s were interviewed regarding their consumption of adult games and their own sex
lives. Although as the author mention, these individuals may not represent a good example
for the target sample. One crucial factor in these interviews, which is related to this research
as well, is that how these individuals relate virtual world “romance” to the actual world.
Popular belief is that the virtual world and games are meant to be an extension of reality. In
other words, they are supposed to be based on reality but interpreted in another way.
However, Ōkura, through this research, shows that the reason many male adults in Japan
prefer virtual romance to genuine relationships is not to experience reality in a virtual world
but to escape reality into a different world. Although, it is still unclear if these individuals
prefer to make these virtual activities a reality. Nevertheless, Ōkura believes that people who
consume adult games or romance games find a clear distinction between the virtual world and
the real world, and it is due to this that they prefer virtuality to reality. Furthermore, some of
those interviewed in this study even made a further distinction between the “sexual activity”
present in these games and its romantic aspect (Ōkura 2011).

Based on previously mentioned researches, it can be said that media is one of the most
considerable aspects of modern living. It has gone through many changes in its evolution to
its digital form, which we are consuming today. While most of these changes are beneficial to
the average person, with more information, more complexity has risen from it. The extensive
amount of data that consumers of these media are exposed to can affect individuals'
perception and social and cultural behaviours. With the accessibility of digital tools in the 21st
century, media essentially has the mean to shape people’s mind.

Video games are also part of media and recently have become a prevalent form of
entertainment. This contemporary entertainment system is highly dependent on technologies
in computer science. This could be one reason that many are more attracted to studying the
technical part of video games than studying the psychological, cultural, or social impacts that
it could have. The video game industry is not a very newly formed industry; after many years
of development, new games are attracting the attention of researchers and scholars toward
other aspects of video games. One such aspect is the representation of sex, sexual behaviours,
and sexual activities. As a form of interactive entertainment media, video games are able to
create virtual realities and fantasies for the consumers to play in. however whether these

26
realities are an extension to the real world or they are mere fantasies fabricated only for
entertainment, it is unavoidable to include some characteristics of the real world into these
virtual realities in order to make them more relatable. Sex is one of these characteristics that,
over the years, have been used in media to appeal to their target consumers. Video games are
not an exception. It is not a surprise that some video games producers now shift their interest
into using sexual attraction to their advantage, hence creating adult games.

Considering that Japan has always been a significant influencer over the video game
market and with Japan’s pornographic industry having its characteristics and sub-genre (at
least on local levels), studying Japanese adult video games can give an insight into how and
what consumers of these media are exposed to. Notably, now that cases such as child
pornography and violent sexual acts are becoming severe in Japan (Diamond and Uchiyama
1999, 5–9; Ikema 2018, 115–16). Nevertheless, games such as Rapelay is still available in
Japan even though the subject of it directly revolves around child pornography and sexual
assault.

27
4 Japanese games argument

Japanese media has always had a clear distinction compared to western media. Even
in its primitive form of art and literature, the differences between east and west were
noticeable. Japanese literature, inspired by Chinese philosophy and culture, had different
characteristics than its western counterpart. Works such as Genjimonogatari, written by
Murasaki Shikibu, a female author, in the 11th century was an unheard phenomenon in
western culture. The content of these works of literature was also very different. Genji, the
main character in the story of Genjimonogatari, is considered a rapist by scholars for his
many sexual conquests (Childs 1999, 1061–62). These differences in cultural values and
literature contents is nothing new to the academics studying in this field.

The significant differences in arts and literature were also carried over to the modern
age and the digital media form. The Japanese cinema has had characteristics that have made it
unique, Very different from western cinema. This uniqueness also is influenced heavily due
to events that caused major cultural complexity to Japanese society such as the end of the
World War II. (Amit 2019; Coates 2018). With advancement through time and more variants
of entertainment media, this uniqueness is also apparent in the more recent variety of media
such as TV shows, anime, and video games.

From westerners’ point of view, Japanese TV shows are found silly and unrelatable.
Most often, in the west Japanese TV shows are known for their bizarre themes. The contents
are different and unique; even from a technical standpoint, the delivery of these TV shows is
different. The one-of-a-kind perspective and interaction between the TV shows or hosts and
the audience is unseen by the avid western TV consumer. However, Japanese daytime TV is
notorious for its implications of too much Japaneseness as opposed to reality. It is considered
a propaganda form to represent a unified nation and underline Japanese cultural norms
(Painter 1993, 298–300). With these differences, TV shows and reality shows from Japan are
gaining popularity in the west, whether for their bizarreness or dramas. This popularity is
evident in titles such as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, a comedy series released in
2003, a dubbed and repurposed version of 1986 Takeshi’s Castle. This title and other new
series based on Japanese TV shows show a trend in the popularity of Japanese TV shows.

Nonetheless, whenever there is a discussion of differences between Japanese

entertainment media and its western counterpart, one area mainly discussed is anime. Anime,

28
alongside Video games, is one of the most imported forms of media from Japan to western
audiences. Their contents are unique, and the other attributes are distinguishable even to
unprofessional. Most often, anime’s narrative follows a teenage boy’s story in unrealistic and
extravagant settings. The heavy emphasis on
pure Japanese culture in anime is noticeable, and
many of their fantasies are driven by traditional
Japanese mythology and folklore. Even in
anime's visuals, there is a clear distinction of
illustration of the human form in anime. One
noticeable and famous difference in anime is the
depiction of the body and eyes in anime. Most
commonly, the eyes are larger and, depending
on the narrative, and unrealistic emphasis is on
certain parts of the body (Figure 2). Regardless
of anime’s uniqueness to Japanese culture, In
western society, there has been a significant
Figure 2 - An example of unrealistic emphasis on
trend in the popularity of anime. Even though female body form and unnecessary revealing outfits (Source:
aminoapps.com)
anime is being translated and dubbed into the
local language, some prefer the original Japanese version to keep the authenticity of its
cultural content. This preference leads to new ways that westerners are familiarizing
themselves with Japanese culture through anime. However, as is the case with entertainment
media, most of the contents in anime are only directed toward entertainment and are
exaggerated.

In the discourse of sexual content and pornographic Japanese anime and manga are
somewhat unique. In their local market, legally and culturally, the sexual parts are added to
more freely to the narrative of these media. Although sexual content in form of animated porn
is not exclusive to Japan, their characteristics and approach is unique. The Japanese have a
unconventional approach to rape and child pornography, but in a bizarre manner (Nixon and
Düsterhöft 2017, 12–15). Nevertheless, the Japanese legal system has reacted to these
contents and have adjusted their laws to better control child pornography in virtual reality,
however, the difference between Japanese laws and the more restrictive western laws added
by the difference in cultural views, Japanese anime are often found to reach various problems

29
when they are exported (intentionally or unintentionally) to western societies (McLelland
2016, 12–16).

Japanese video games, to some extent, follow similar characteristics of anime.

Although, as discussed, video games, due to their interactivity, bring a new dynamic to their
relationship with the audience. Even the type and degree of interactivity is different in video
games. Like anime and other forms of media, Japanese video games are also distinguishable
from their Western counterparts. However, the video game industry is also more
transnational, and even the development often involves an international team.

4.1 Characteristics of Japanese video games

Japanese video games had always had an undeniable impact on the global video game
industry. From the early Nintendo Entertainment System, which influenced the US video
game industry heavily, to Sony’s PlayStation gaming system, which still plays a role in
today’s market. Franchises like Super Mario Bros are so popular on the international market
that during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic games, Japanese prime minister
Shinzo Abe appeared with the iconic Mario attire. It is undeniable that many gamers today
have at least heard of Nintendo’s popular franchises.

Japanese video game companies always had success in international markets.

Nintendo, one of the leading companies in the Japanese video game industry, had
continuously developed its games exclusively for its own hardware. Even though this may
have limited their potential market, they are still among the most successful video game
companies worldwide with iconic franchises like Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda,
Pokémon and many others. However, Nintendo is not the only successful Japanese company
in the international market. With the competitive and massive market of video games, Japan,
with its technological edge and unique style, is still rising on the international markets.
Companies like Capcom, Sega, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, and Konami have their
franchises and audiences worldwide (Consalvo 2009).

When it comes to the characteristics of the game developed by Japanese companies,

there are some differences between games and other media types. As mentioned, anime has a
very distinct visual style. Although it could be argued that games developed in Japan also
have certain visual aspects (primarily games developed by Nintendo), this may not be the
case for every game. For instance, the Metal Gear Franchise is focused on a CIA operative,

30
and its visuals and themes are similar to franchises like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, a game
developed by Ubisoft, a western developer studio. The Japanese games differences and
characteristics can be divided into four categories.

4.1.1 Narrative

In most cases, the Japanese game’s narrative is revolved around the main protagonist
of the game as opposed to events and settings. The narratives are presented to the player from
the perspective of the main character(s). The game essentially is what the character goes
through and the experiences in the storyline. As mentioned, even though games like Metal
Gear follow a western-style narrative in which the characters and settings are non-Japanese
and western, the entire narrative is revolving around the decisions and actions of the main
character, snake. On the contrary, the similar title in the west focuses on the events rather
than the characters and presents the narrative to players in the forms of events happening in
the game world. Even in different instalments of franchises, such as Super Mario Bros and
Legend of Zelda, the games' setting may vary. However, the characters have been the same
throughout many instalments of these two franchises, with over ten games on each franchise.
Meanwhile, popular western franchises in the same genre, such as Assassin’s Creed or Elder
Scrolls, have similar settings and themes in their different instalments; however, their
characters change in each game.

Such character-driven narratives create a bond between the players and the characters
in the game. As is the case of Super Mario Bro, the infamous character, Mario, is
internationally recognized and even is integrated into other games due to his popularity. This
dynamic makes the players have more personal connections to the character and its actions.
Whereas in western developed games, characters in most cases have less impact on the
narrative and are considered disposable or changeable. In this type of narrative, players have
more connection to the setting and the theme of the storyline rather than to its characters.
This connection also means that the actions and decisions done by the characters in-game are
overlooked in most cases.

4.1.2 Freedom of Choices

As discussed, video games offer a new level of interactivity between the audience and
the media; however, this interactivity is not the same in every game. In the early forms of
video games, due to technological limitation at the time, having multiple choices in video

31
games was not possible. Nevertheless, with more computer power, this has changed over the
recent years, allowing the developers to include multiple ending narratives to the players.
These narratives are based on the decisions that players make throughout the game
progression, which can cause them to experience the game and its narrative differently. This
trend to include freedom of choice in the game narrative is becoming popular among western
game developers. Franchises like Mass Effect have utilized this feature very well. A choice
made in the first game in the trilogy can affect the final outcome in the last game in the
trilogy, indicating high freedom of choices that can impact the game’s outcome. Another
example is Detroit: Become Human, a game heavily dependent on the player’s choice to
progress in narrative. In this case, the game's entire narrative is dependent on every choice
that the players make during the game.

One thing that these games and other games with the choice have in common is that
there are no right or wrong choices. The choices are presented to the player only to choose
between a different narrative of the game. Even if one choice leads to the failure of a task or
death of a character, that is still considered part of the narrative to be experienced by the
players. This further implies that every choice has consequences that will affect the narrative
and the game even if not experienced immediately.

Furthermore, the concept of freedom is not limited to the narrative. In recent times
with more freedom that developers have, they have given the player the freedom to choose
their gameplay style. In popular franchises like Splinter Cell or Assassin’s Creed, the player
has the choice to play the game violently or take a more non-violent path. The gameplay has
no impact on the narrative whatsoever, making the player entirely free to choose whether to
play the game violently or not; this further emphasizes the freedom of choices apparent in
western video games.

When it comes to Japanese games, they do not even closely offer this level of freedom
to the players. The Japanese games are offered in a linear form to the consumers, and the
narrative can only progress in the way that the developers intended it. Games have more of a
do or die concept where if the objective is not explicitly carried as instructed, it will result in
a failure in the game. This limitation has resulted in structured gameplay in which the player
can only control the speed of the narrative and has no other control over it. Players can only
watch the storyline, similar to a movie, and interactivity is focused chiefly on its gameplay
elements. Although both ways of approaching freedom of choice have their advantages and

32
disadvantages, the fact that there is a trend of including freedom in western games can
establish a cultural background that is more based on freedom than a structured system.

4.1.3 Content

In this context, the content of video games is referring to their theme and settings.
Most western games tend to have a realistic approach to their theme. The content of their
video games is intended to be an extension of the real world and events. Similarly, the
gameplay is in a way intended to be as realistic as possible. Titles such as Call of Duty,
Assassin’s Creed or Grand Theft Auto has taken inspiration from real-life events or settings
for their themes. Western developed games rarely have a fantasy theme (although there are
exceptions like World of Warcraft) and often are taking place in real places or an obvious
iteration of a real place (for example, the city which Grand Theft Auto 5 takes place in a city
loosely based on Los Angeles although it is called Los Santos).

However, Japanese games are highly fantasized and are rarely based on real-world
events or places. The inclusion of mythologies and magic is expected in the games. In
Nintendo’s game, all the characters have unrealistic or futuristic abilities. In a popular
franchise like Final Fantasy, the entire world, theme and narrative is fantasy, as the name
suggests. Furthermore, this unrealistic approach is apparent in the gameplay mechanics of the
game as well. Characters can do humanly impossible actions and are not very realistically
portrayed. This notion is very similar to how main characters in Japanese anime often have
unrealistic features and abilities. Japanese game has a heavy focus on their characters, and
these fantasy-like features are reflected on how players interpret the character, the narrative
and the game.

4.1.4 Violence or Sexual

Another aspect that Japanese game is quite different in is their perspective toward
sexual content and violence. As it has been a long controversy over violence in video games
and their implication of killing, western video game developers tend to rely on a high level of
violence and action for entertainment. Very apparent in games such as Grand Theft Auto or
Saints Row which the player has the freedom to kill any non-playable character (NPC) at any
point of the game.

33
 However, the Japanese game tends to less focus on violence in their games. Japanese
games often have a calmer approach and usually refrain from directly mentioning death,
decapitation and similar subjects. None of the franchises developed by Nintendo has any
direct reference to death, and other developers usually do not show blood or other references
to violence in their games. On the other hand, Japanese developer shows more freedom
regarding the amount of sexual content in their games.

To better understand the difference in regards to violence and sexuality, one can look
at the localization7 efforts to publish games on different markets. When western games are
localized for the Japanese market, the most common features removed from the game are
decapitation and blood. When Grand Theft Auto was to be published in Japan, the developers
had to remove the feature, enabling the players to decapitated NPCs. Furthermore, Resident
Evil, originally a Japanese title, removed references to decapitation for its Japanese release as
well. Similarly, when Japanese titles were to be released in western markets, publishers had
to make changes in the visuals to titles such as Devil May Cry to hide nudity. Similar cover
image of several Japanese titles was slightly changed to cover female body parts. Although
releasing games with sexual content is not illegal in the west, these modifications were done
so the games can be published for the intended age group.

As discussed, the characteristics of Japanese games compared to western developed

games are apparent and fundamental. Even though there might be exceptions from both sides,
these features are generally valid for titles coming from their respective region.
Distinguishable by the consumers, these two regions have created a fan base for their
franchises. Although when it comes to Nintendo, their approach to game design is unique;
their visual style is distinct, and their content sometimes can differ from other Japanese titles.
However, the other Japanese developers share the features discussed beforehand in their
game designs and can be extended to the other genre.

4.2 Pornographic games in Japan

The development of pornographic games is not exclusive to Japan. The first titles of
games with erotic themes were released in 1981, but it was in 1983 that both regions started

7
Localization is the process which games are translated and localized for different markets. Sometimes
these process include changing visuals or specific references in games that can be considered offensive in the
target market.

34
developing more titles. Similarly to other game design, in the case of pornographic games,
the approach has been different. In the early days, due to limitation from hardware, the
implication of complex visual games was similar in both countries. In both regions, the game
had to be limited to a certain amount of data capacity, which resulted in simple-looking
games with a straightforward narrative. Nevertheless, Japanese developers tend to create
games with anime characteristics and visuals. These games were heavily text-based, with still
images to accompany for more immersion (visual novels). At the time, Japanese games were
exclusively developed for the local market, and due to language barriers and access
restriction, very few westerners got their hands on these games.

Western developers, however, focused on games with more gameplay features. The
erotic aspects were a narrative feature to supplement the game, either in ironic matters or just
as a storyline. On the Contrary Japanese their focus was on creating a game that was
developed to arouse and satisfy sexual desires.

The first pornographic game that raised heavy criticism and controversy was
developed by Mystique called Custer's Revenge. This game puts the player in the shoes of the
American Civil War commander, and the goal of the game is to dodge coming arrows and
reach the tied native American woman on the other screen. Both characters in this game are
naked, with Custer's visible full erection, which by reaching the other side of the screen,
supposedly the female character is raped. Immediately after the release of this game, it was
subjected to heavy criticism for simulating rape and sexual assault. The developers tried to
prevent further issues by stating that the game is intended as a form of entertainment and not
for sexual enjoyment. Further, they commented that the female character is a volunteer
participant, and the game does not illustrate rape. Nevertheless, the game was withdrawn in
1983. Since there was no mean for the digital distribution of games when such games were
withdrawn, it was possible to contain its further circulation. This is not the case with current
accessibility through the world wide web.

At the same time in Japan, a new genre of video games was forming. Eroge, a
combination of two English words erotic and game, refers to games with erotic and sexual
content. The first of such games was Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku8 (by some accounts,

8
Seduction of the Condominium Wife

35
Yakyūken was the first Japanese Porn game (Miyamoto 2017)), which explicitly was
developed for stimulating sexual pleasures. During the 1980s, more games were developed
with the intention of sexual pleasures. The most common genre was visual novels, as its
development was simple and popular among the local population. The narratives and visuals
were closely similar to anime but with a sexual twist added to them. Nevertheless, as these
games were heavily Japanese text-based and access to them were not as easily, not many of
them reached the western audience.

When 3D technology was introduced to video games, the entire industry changed.
Now games were able to show a 3D environment to the players with more freedom and visual
immersion. Although most Japanese developers continued to develop their games in the form
of visual novels, some used the new technology to further the immersion of their adult games.
The most notable Japanese company that develops 3D pornographic game is Illusion soft. As
the company has stated on various occasions, their products are intended only for the local
market and were never developed for release outside of Japan. However, with the emergence
of the worldwide web and ease of accessibility, one of their games found its way to the
western market.

Rapelay is a game developed by Illusion Soft and released in the Japanese market in
2006. Most games developed by this company had little to no narrative and were merely
developed for sexual entertainment. However, in rapelay, they had added a narrative in the
form of visual novels where the sexual acts happen in a 3D environment that the player
controls. The narrative begins as the main protagonist, supposedly highly influential, is
released from jail upon sexual harassment charges and decides to seek revenge on the
underage girl that reported him. Like other Japanese games, the game is linear, and the player
has no choice but to follow the storyline intended by the developers. The game's objective is
to ‘break’ the aforementioned girl, her sister, and their mother, so they obey the order of the
main character in satisfying his sexual desires. To reach this goal, players have to sexually
harass and assault these characters until they succumb to the players' desires. As the story
progresses, there are occasions that player can impregnate the characters, and if these
characters are not forced into abortion, it could result in failure in the game. Such narratives
are uncommon, especially among 3D games, as the development of such games requires
more investment. Most erotic games with complex narratives are developed in the form of
visual novels to simplify the development.

36
 With the digital age and internet connectivity, contrary to the 1980s and 90s, access to
Japanese erotic games was limited; now, these games could be downloaded over the internet.
As one of the characteristics of video games compared to other forms of media was audience
interaction and input, without the knowledge of the developers, rapelay was translated into
English, and in 2009 was up for sale on Amazon.com. This development started many legal
and social controversy over the subject of rape, sexual harassment, child pornography, and
sexism, which are all apparent in one single game.

Although rapelay was found to be on Amazon.com through a third-party reseller and

eventually it was banned in most countries, unlike Custer’s Revenge which the game was
removed and its circulation stopped, the digital distribution of Rapelay continuous. This
inability to control the distribution of illegal material caused politicians to blame the source
of these video games.

Initially, the developers of rapelay, Illusion Soft, stood by their game and announced
that the game passed Japanese laws and was only meant to be released on the Japanese
market. Nonetheless, with international pressure EOCS, restricted the game from being sold
physically. Illusion Soft shortly after removed any reference of this game from their website
as well.

The legal restrictions and legislation may have limited the future development of such
games; however, this game is still accessible online. This access raised the question of the
cultural implication of such games. Whether if it is what the westerners think of Japan or vice
versa. Many of those who support the development of these games believe that these games
are in virtual reality and do not happen to actual people. Also, they say that rape is considered
less of a crime compared to murder and mass killing, which are illustrated in western games.
To see the different perspective of the western audience compared to the Japanese audience
regarding both violence and sexual assault, a survey was conducted.

4.3 Survey Analysis

The survey was conducted in 4 segments, with the first segment being about general
questions regarding nationality, gender and age. The second segment is regarding violence,
the third regarding sexual content and pornographic games, and the last segment regarding
rape and rapelay. A Cronbach’s analysis was conducted on each segment of this survey. On
the violence segment, the subscale alpha level with six items was .65, which indicates the

37
inter-item reliability is just short of an adequate level. Further analysis showed that no
significant increase in level could be achieved by deleting any item. On the sexual and
pornographic games segment, Cronbach’s subscale alpha with eight items was .72, indicating
an adequate level of inter-item reliability. The last segment with seven items had a subscale
alpha level of .86, indicating a high level of inter-item reliability.

When participants were questioned to see if they associate violent games with western
developers or sexual games with Japanese developers, it was found that most Westerners
(53.5% disagree, 9.3% somewhat disagree) disagree that violent games are primarily from
western developers. However, they were more favourable toward Japanese developed games
have more reference to sexual content (40.5% somewhat agree, 21.4% agree). However, the
Japanese were inconsistent with their response regarding western games being more violent,
but they had similar insight into sexual content appearance in Japanese video games (42.9%
somewhat agree, 33.1% agree).

Further analysis proved that western audience believes that as violence in video games
are happening in the virtual world, it does not affect reality (23.9% somewhat agree, 59.8
agree). Even though the Japanese do not firmly believe in this statement, the statistics are still
close to western respondents (34.8% somewhat agree, 39.7% agree). When asked if they feel
the same regarding pornographic games and similar results were found that both sides
strongly believed that pornographic games are in the virtual world and do not affect reality
(96.8% of the western audience, 90.2% of Japanese audience responded agree and somewhat
agree). However, when asked if this is also true regarding rape in video games, the results
came different. While the western audiences’ responses were not solid, the majority
responded against this statement (34.7% disagree, 17.3% somewhat disagree). The Japanese
still believed that the virtual world is separated, even concerning rape (33.1% somewhat
agree, 55.6% agree). Statistics prove that the Japanese have a clear distinction between reality
and video games, but the western audience, the more sensitive subjects get, the more obscure
this distinction gets (Table 1).

38
 Table 1 - Frequencies table of difference of opinion between video games and reality

AGREE SOMEWHAT SOMEWHAT DISAGREE

AGREE DISAGREE

Violence in video 59.8% 23.9% 10.9% 5.4%

games is different
WESTERN
AUDIENCE Sex and porn in video 50.8% 46.0% 1.6% 1.6%
games are different

Rape in video games is 28.0% 20.0% 17.3% 34.7%

different

Violence in video 39.7% 34.8% 18.4% 7.1%

games is different

JAPANESE Sex and porn in video 63.4% 26.8% 8.5% 1.4%

AUDIENCE games are different

Rape in video games is 55.6% 33.1% 6.5% 4.8%

different

The above hypothesis is further proved when a Spearsman correlation analysis was
conducted on these variable. The western respondents had no significant correlation among
the three variable. However, the Japanese showed a significant and moderately positive
correlation between violence and rape distinction in video games and reality (r = .32,
p< .001).

Furthermore, the analysis of the open-ended question resulted in similar responses

from the Japanese audience emphasizing the fact that video games are different from reality.
The most common theme among these opinions was that even though Japan is an open
country regarding sexual content, the number of sexual violence is still low. However, the
same type of question from the Western audience did not yield any significant result or
correlation with other variables. The most common theme among respondents was that rape
is a susceptible subject.

Lastly, at the end of the survey, respondents were asked that “if they were to ban one
feature, what would that be” and were given six options: killing, Decapitation, Bloody
violence, rape, sexual content, or others. In this field, the western audience showed a strong
opinion toward baning rape, with 60.6% choosing rape. However, the Japanese were more
modest in this category, and only 25.9% choose rape to ban (Table 2)

39
 Table 2 - Which one to ban?

KILLING DECAPITATION BLOODY RAPE SEXUAL OTHERS

VIOLENCE CONTENT

WESTERN 0% 5.3% 0% 60.6% 1.1% 33.0%

JAPANESE 2.5% 17.7% 12.7% 25.9% 3.2% 38.0%

This data further indicate that the Japanese tend to avoid banning anything from video
games. As mentioned, this could be primarily due to the distinction between virtual games
and reality. However, even though Western audiences were more open to violence, sexual
content, and pornographic content, they still prefer to ban sexual violence from video games.

Further analysis of other variable did not result in any other significant correlation or
findings.

40
5 Conclusion

The impact of media and video games in today’s society is undeniable. Due to the
interactivity of video games and the possibility of its audience to modify it and further due to
the availability through digital means, the content of video games developed even for local
markets can have a global effect. It may not be entirely the responsibility of developers, but it
is unavoidable.

The result of this study shows that even if video games are developed for a particular
local market, they can still find a way to the international market. Japan has always had a
more secluded culture and market. As the developers of Rapelay mentioned, this game was
only developed by Japanese law for the local market. Nevertheless, it initiated a global
argument regarding the content of games developed by Japanese companies.

To answer this research’s question, the different opinion of sexual content in western
and Japanese audience, it was discovered that the Japanese audience has a more transparent
distinction between games and the real world. Ōkura’s study and interviews also confirm that
the Japanese play sexual games as a mean to separate virtual reality from the actual world.
On the other hands, the western audiences had no particular issues with violence or sexual
content in video games; they still had lines that they believed should not be crossed. Part of
this could be because of western games’ reliability on realism and how they are perceived as
an extension to the real world. To the western audience content of video games are an
interpretation of actual events rather than fantasies. Furthermore, the separation of character
in games to the events could indicate difficulty separating the act of character from the actual
events for the western audience.

This research further indicates that even though video games, as part of digital media,
could have substantial influence over the audience, their impact will be limited if said games
contradict too many social and cultural norms. As it was observed, the Japanese had
acceptance toward rape in video games; however, Westerners, as rape is a very sensitive
subject, altered their perspective when the subject was rape in particular.

Nevertheless, this study does not take into account the cultural implication of the
developers. As this game is merely developed as an entertainment and sexual pleasure game,
their input on this issue needs more research.

41
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7 Gameography

Assassin’s Creed series - Ubisoft

Blue Sky Software - Softporn Adventure (1981)

Call of Duty series - Activision

Custer's Revenge - Mystique (1982)

Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku - Koei (1983)

Detroit: Become Human - Quantic Dream (2019)

Devil May Cry series - Capcom

Elder Scrolls series - Bethesda Softworks

Grand Theft Auto series - Rockstar Games

Legend of Zelda series - Nintendo

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude - High Voltage Software (2004)

Mass Effect series - Electronic Arts

Metal Gear series - Konami

Minecraft - Mojang Studios (2011)

Pokémon series - Nintendo

Rapelay - Illusion Soft (2007)

Super Mario Bros. series - Nintendo

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series - Ubisoft

World of Warcraft - Blizzard Entertainment (2004)

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