Image via Ken Akamatsu's Reconstruction on Wednesday, November 13 within the framework of an emergency cabinet meeting of the second cabinet of newly elected Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Parliamentary Under-Secretaries assist the Minister and Deputy Minister of their respective Department, but cannot act for the Minister in their absence (unlike Deputy Ministers).
Akamatsu, a member of Japan's largely conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), became the first manga creator to win a seat in Japan's House of Representatives (upper house) in the Diet (parliament). ).
Akamatsu has previously focused on issues affecting Japanese creators, including the controversial freelancing tax system.
Akamatsu waded into politics in 2011 when he warned that proposed changes to Japan's Copyright Law would “destroy” derivative dōjin (self-published) works. Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer and Nihon University professor, wrote an essay about the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, prompting Akamatsu to comment. Akamatsu continued to express his concerns about the TPP negotiations in the following years.
In 2013, Akamatsu joined other creators in opposing the LDP and proposed amendments to its partners' child pornography laws. According to opponents of the bill, initial drafts did not distinguish between pornography featuring real children and images of children. Akamatsu visited the National Assembly and LDP headquarters to express his concerns, and the bill was eventually passed in 2014 without an explicit ban on anime and manga.
In 2019, Akamatsu and the remaining members of the Japan Manga Artists Association officially expressed their concerns about a government subcommittee's plan to expand the scope of copyright law. Downloading images, illustrations, and anime photos illegally posted to personal blogs and Twitter accounts will also be illegal, as will copying and pasting song lyrics. The proposed change would not be limited to direct downloading of images—taking screenshots of illegally uploaded media would also violate the proposed law.
In 2022, Akamatsu described criticism from global gender equality organization UN Women as “external pressure” aimed at regulating “freedom of expression, especially for manga, anime and games.” of Japan and added that such pressure is not new. He further explained that such regulations need to be approached rationally and cannot be followed just because an outside party demands it. Akamatsu's definition of “external pressure” does not necessarily mean “outside Japan.” He used the removal of PSAs featuring virtual YouTuber Tojou Linka as an example.
© Ken Akamatsu, Kodansha, Tokyopop
Akamatsu launched J-Comi's digital manga library service “Zeppan Manga Toshokan” (later Manga Library Z) in 2008 and launched a beta test of the site in 2010. Akamatsu originally post all 14 volumes of his Love Hina manga for free with six pages of ads and no digital rights management (DRM) for one month to test the model's viability business form. Japanese publishers Shueisha and Kodansha began collaborating with the site in 2010. The site will close in two weeks on November 26 due to problems with credit card companies and the termination of all including payment services.
The website became famous in 2011 when it posted the manga Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei (My Wife is an Elementary School Student) by Seiji Matsuyama, which Naoki Inose, Deputy Governor of Tokyo at the time, cited as example of which manga should be restricted under Tokyo's recently revised Healthy Development of Youth Ordinance. Although the site is only available in Japanese, it launched beta testing of English and foreign versions for select titles in 2011.
Akamatsu has launched UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 manga titled UQ Holder! in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in Japan in August 2013. The manga was transferred to Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in October 2016, under the new title UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2, fully revealed manga is a sequel to Negima! comic. He ended the manga in February 2022 during his campaign for the House of Representatives.
Tokyopop published Love Hina in North America, and Del Rey and Kodansha Comics published Negima. Both the manga and Akamatsu's Itsudatte My Santa inspired various anime projects, and Negima also inspired a live-action television series.
Source: Japanese Prime Minister's Office website, Ken Akamatsu's X/Twitter account
