Japanese Retailer Nojima Discontinuing Sale of All Games Rated CERO Z (18+)

Japanese retailer Nojima has announced via press release that it will stop selling games rated "CERO Z" (18+ according to the local system) in its stores effective immediately.

[Knushwood Butt]

I guess they'll have to turn away some RE4 Remake customers then.

[YourMommySpoils]

So this is how they are going to increase their population.

[CrimsonWing69]

Man, Japan used to be so awesome with content back in the day. I remember when in the west we had to censor games from Japan and anime was hyper violent and dark as f*ck... now, I don't even know how its come to this point.

[Abriael]

Japan has censored violence in video games for a long, long, long-ass time.

[CrimsonWing69]

Yea, sorry I'm coming at it from like PS1 era.

I don't know if you remember Resident Evil 1 on the PS1, but for the west we censored Chris Redfield smoking a cigarette and all the gory stuff from the intro FMV. Look up other games around that time or things on the SNES and Sega CD.

My point was there was a time when the Japanese didn't censor and we did. Now, it's completely flipped... sort of. I know Sony censors nudity and some violence, but that's like a whole other can of worms to get into.

[Abriael]

Eeeeh, Japan has always had a very high degree of censorship, all the way back from the birth of its current legislation architecture after world war II.

Genitals that require being mosaiced in all forms of media (including hardcore porn) are an example.

They just don't usually censor the same things that we do, which makes it less visible to our eyes.

I love Japan with all my heart, but I really would hesitate to define it as some sort of land of the free where at any point censorship was less than in other countries. It was simply directed at different things.

[gold_drake]

im not sure whats up with that.
i hate censorship.