Japan's SDF draws fire for recruitment poster featuring loli's.

A Self-Defense Forces recruitment office in Shiga Prefecture has caused a stir by releasing a poster that features female anime characters wearing super-short skirts, which expose what appear to be underwear. Some people have described the image as a form of sexual harassment.

The recruitment poster was created by the SDF’s Shiga Provincial Cooperation Office in Otsu and features three female characters from “Strike Witches,” an aerial combat anime series. Two of the three characters appear to be wearing blue underwear under their costumes.

The Kyoto Shimbun reported the matter in an article Thursday, and quoted an official from the office as saying that what the characters are wearing under the costumes are “meant to be trousers and not underwear, and thus we believe it is appropriate.”

The Self-Defense Forces are facing an increasingly severe personnel shortage amid a shrinking pool of young applicants and a robust economy. Last October, to secure more personnel, the Defense Ministry raised the age ceiling for applicants to 32 from 26.

Source

But is it effective!?

Could've used a picture of GATE, which is a pretty cool anime representation of the SDF. Strike Witches looks like trash.

So much bad ass anime to choose from but they do this weird loli shit lol.

They've finally become the Japan we always dreamed they were.

@loco145:

I don't see the problem. You'd think guys would be wanting to see female characters wearing skimpy outfits. I thought this was what guys like! ?

WTF Japan...not just on the initial ad, but the defense of the ad. LOL...but no "i"

"They're wearing trousers, not underwear, so it's not inappropriate"

Most men like women, not girls.

Luckily most men like actual grown women not girls.

Japan really need to work on their fascination with pre-teen girls because this is just messed up.

@Jacanuk:

Well, I get what you mean. Though the subject matter is about loli girls which is more of a body type than an age thing. But, again, it also makes them look preteen too so...yeah....I could see how it would be a turn off too.

*sees anti-loli sentiment*

So, is this considered pedophile? Is Japan's military endorsing it?

@crimsonbrute: Anti-loli?

If you mean me, then I'm not anti-anything just not a fan of prepubescent kids being portrayed in sexy outfits and poses.

But to each their own i guess :)

The problem is where the line is drawn.

For example, schoolgirl fantasies. A lot of guys have it. Now, if a guy is lucky, his wife or girlfriend might surprise him by wearing her old high school cheerleading or school uniform as foreplay. This is OK because the guy's lady is an adult, isn't actually in high school or younger, and so on.

With the whole "loli" thing, the line is a lot further out. Are they adults acting and looking younger? Or are they actually little kids? Or is it all OK since it's a cartoon? It's very murky.

If we want to take it literally, the word is derived from "lolita" which literally means "a girl who has not reached the age of sexual consent" which, to me, makes anything dealing with loli-stuff leaning towards wrong. I am of the mind, however, that since it is a cartoon, it's ultimately OK.

@mrbojangles25:

It's moderately murky. Maybe the definition of loli is about underage girls but in anime, it's mostly just referred to as a body type. Which it's kinda more like a means to cheat the morality of the matter.

You can put a loli character dressed skimpy in anime and say she's actually an adult but she'll look 15 or so and you're expected to be okay with it. It'll still look bad though. But technically, it isn't.

@crimsonbrute said:

*sees anti-loli sentiment*

OH YEA OH YEA!

oh no...yea that stuffs bad

that's my favorite part of this story

I'm actually much more worried about people thinking 2D loli art= pedo

I'm cool with loli drawings but I can't for the love of God like real children, they look nothing alike. Like what is similar to them other than their height? What counts as children in anime art for people that don't even know what anime is? I could always say this and that looks like loli and it should be banned. Can't wait to see normal anime porn also getting banned because they look like loli to them.

People are concentrating that hard on the Anime rather than the message?

I kind of agree with this for the most part. There is a big difference between regular anime female art and "loli" art. The former could easily be interpreted as adults, but it's hard to interpret the latter as adults. When you see a female character who looks short and flat-chested, it's pretty hard for many people to interpret that character as anything other than a child. There are adult women who can be short and flat-chested, but it's relatively uncommon for adult women to look like that, at least in the West.

Ultimately, it comes down to an individual's interpretation of the cartoon drawings. On one end of the spectrum, you have people who would interpret even a tall anime female character with bit tits and arse as a "child". And on the other end of the spectrum, you have people who would interpret a short flat-chested "loli" character as an "adult". The interpretation also depends on where you live. Generally speaking, Japanese women look relatively youthful compared to Western women, so it's not uncommon for a Japanese woman to look much younger by Western standards, or for an adult Japanese woman to look underage by Western standards, so Japanese audiences may interpret the "age" of an anime character differently from Western audiences.

However, the word "lolita" itself actually means something very different in Japan, with with no real connection to the original English meaning. In Japan, "lolita" usually refers to the "lolita fashion" trend, which are modern Japanese interpretations of Victorian-era European fashion. On the other hand, the word "loli" is indeed connected to the original English meaning of "lolita".

Never change, Japan. Don't let these Gaijin tells you what you can and can't do.

Just when you think japan is normal...whammo! This happens and old prejudices resurface.

@Sevenizz: Most Japanese are still normal. But there does seem to be a growing number of Otaku.

The SDF is losing troop numbers, and they're getting desperate for recruits. The SDF created this poster to attract youngsters and Otaku to sign up to the army... But they just had to go with trash like Strike Witches out of all the anime they could've used to promote.

@Jag85:

So then it doesn't matter what the story tells you about the loli character? Like, if they literally explained to the viewer/reader/player that the loli character is an adult. That wouldn't matter because how the character looks?

I'm not telling any guy to get turned on by it, of course. It makes perfect sense why most guys wouldn't be into them. But in a moral sense, it should really come down to what the creator wanted the loli character to be. And youthful, flat chested girls are extremely common in the anime world. Most of them aren't actually of the age that they can be seen as.

1) What is the Defence Ministry?

2) What is the poster trying to suggest? Cartoon female's will be more attracted to you if you join up?

I'd say they look just about 14-15. Which is the very first years of puberty and therefore you are not a sex offender for viewing them as sexual. They are wearing a military outfit but nothing on their legs so I assume they are conducting some aquatic exercises.

3) Still no idea what an SDF is and why it's important.

No way is that poster effective. It's pretty ramshackle and thrown together. Makes it look like some kind of volunteer charity event.

@nepu7supastar7:

Naturally, the loli character in question is however old the anime says she is. But that's only if you've watched the show. If you haven't, the first impression would likely be that it's a child.

To be fair, it's not just guys, but there are also girls who are into the "loli" thing, because they find it cute. So it is possible to be into it for non-sexual reasons.

@jackamomo:

SDF = Self Defense Forces

In other words, it's the Japanese army. That's why the poster is controversial.

Wait, where is the discussion happening? "Some people have described the image as a form of sexual harassment." Aside from anything in the world being a form of sexual harassment to some people (and news articles being a little... untrustworthy lately when it comes to these topics), what people are we talking about here? Is this a UN or USA outcry or based in Japan or 10 people online or what's happening?

If it's coming from one of the 'outcry' cultures that have formed during the past few years, I would find it hard to care. It's easy to look at another culture with different standards and a different mentality and a different history and find things wrong with it if you apply your own version to it. Which isn't to say there can't be anything wrong with another culture, but what I mean to say is that it's easy to make the mistake of applying your own arbitrary standards to another culture and then say "you wouldn't be able to do that here, so it must be wrong." Just because something is taboo or abnormal to you and your surroundings doesn't mean it's wrong or bad.

I don't think it's a good idea to start applying western standards at random to Japanese culture XD This is not a country where having a picture of your own baby in your wallet can put you in jail. And in some ways, that's a good thing. We don't all want to/need to live in the USA or Sweden, for example. Of course there are things wrong with Japanese culture (work culture and the 'undesirables' come to mind; all cultures are a mixed bag) but this seems a little... grasping for views.

@KungfuKitten: I think it's a slow news day.

Self Defense Force, Japan's military.

@volsung: if your thinking of signing your life away I think even as a 20 year old I might expect a bit more sobriety and gravitas to the suggestion. Notably absent in this design which looks more akin to a j-pop local radio event at a supermarket.

US military is no less weird - thinking releasing inferior fps games will somehow boost interest in being a mindless killer.

@KungfuKitten: The discussion is mainly happening in Japan, not the West. So it doesn't really have anything to do with Western liberal/PC/SJW culture, but the controversy is largely limited to Japan. As for the comment calling it "a form of sexual harassment"... I'm honestly not surprised, after seeing plenty of anime where girls shout "sexual harassment" over the most random things, though it's usually presented as a joke. Maybe that comment could be from an online troll, but I'm not sure.

Does Japan accept foreign applicants? Because if the SDF has lolis then my mind is already decided.

No Gundams?

What about Loli gundams?

@loco145: "I am Gundam."

Doesn’t surprise me one iota. I knew a skinny Serbian dude that went to Japan to teach English after graduation. Kind of a nerd in the US, but decently confident and his dry spells with women were never more than a couple months. He absolutely mops up in Japan. It’s absurd, the pictures he sends me. He’s 6’1”, so that helps, but he says the whole country is full of the most socially inept and timid men on earth.