Japanese Dev Reveals He Has a Police Record Because of an Uncensored Image

Amid all the discussion surrounding Fantia’s new censorship rules, which are forcing artists to censor all of their illustrations, photos, and videos from throughout their entire careers, adult game developer BarrackBallad revealed that last year the police came to his house because he accidentally uploaded an uncensored artwork.

He explained on his Twitter:

“Fantia’s censorship is becoming a hot topic, but actually last year the police searched my house, I was interrogated, and ended up receiving a criminal fine.

300,000 yen (US$65.63)

All of this because I uploaded a single adult image. You can end up receiving a fine and getting a criminal record (and even be treated as a sex crime), so creators, please be careful.

They even took my fingerprints and photos of my face!

Since everything depends on the interpretation of the police and prosecutors, in the worst-case scenario even Dropbox or Google Drive could become investigation targets. (In my case, they confiscated my PC and smartphone and checked all the images).”

One of his games is Devil Make Love, which is available on DLSite.

Due to this entire Fantia situation, censorship is being heavily debated on the Japanese internet. Another viral tweet questioned: “You can only view sexual content when you become an adult, and even as an adult you can only see it censored. That makes no sense.”

In response to that tweet, many Japanese users agreed. It makes no sense that you can only view certain content as an adult and even then it still has to be censored as if you were a child.

Let’s see how Japanese users reacted to BarrackBallad’s story:

• “Even if it’s 2D it’s not allowed? That’s bizarre.”
• “People posting AI images without mosaics on anonymous forums are also included in this.”
• “The police should be going after more important things instead of investigating this.”
• “Exactly lol. These tax leeches let biker gangs do whatever they want and end up leaving ordinary citizens to deal with things themselves www”
• “I understand it being illegal if he accidentally made it public for everyone, but it makes no sense to get arrested even when it was private. If that already counts as distribution, then anything can become a crime.”

• “It seems Fantia’s censorship standards suddenly became much stricter due to pressure from someone, and now they’re demanding corrections even for old works within just 5 days. Everyone involved is panicking.”
• “Google Drive and Dropbox are also monitored. If there’s anything illegal, they report it. Anyone worried should delete everything.”
• “Imagine the police looking through those images lol.”
• “The police should stop wasting time on this.”
• “If it were real photos that would be one thing, but getting arrested over drawings makes no sense. This honestly feels like something related to freedom of expression.”
• “Don’t waste time on nonsense like this. Screw the Japanese police.”

And there are many more comments, with most people irritated that Japanese police are wasting time on this. In the end, censorship is becoming increasingly strict.