ABSTRACT
These words by Tezuka Osamu, the pioneering cartoonist of classics such as Testuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), revealed the ambivalence that many Japanese felt about efforts to regulate the sex, violence, and sensationalism that were supposedly polluting the airwaves. Tezuka, being an artist, wanted bureaucrats and self-appointed experts to steer clear of imposing controls on speech. After all, who would have the power to define the vague, loaded term, “vulgar”? On the other hand, Tezuka realized that people had a right to demand better programming and gone to the crux of the debate surrounding television in the 1960s. How should Japanese balance the right of free speech with the need to provide socially responsible programming? This debate reflected a wider concern: television culture and the commercialized capitalism that it embodied had permeated the nation’s homes.
