Australia Cracks Down on Import of Hentai

LOS ANGELES—The Australian Border Force has begun cracking down on Japanese porn, banning any type of sexual product or content from entering Australia, according to the Japanese pop culture site J-List. Not only has the ABF barred live-action porn videos, but “hentai,” that is, Japanese porn cartoons, are now barred from entering the country as well. “DHL Japan called us last week, informing us that Australian customs have started rejecting packages containing any adult product,” J-List, which also markets Japanese pop culture products, said in a blog post. “They then advised us to stop sending adult products to the country.” In addition to hentai cartoons and comic books, the ban covers such Japanese products as doujinshi (self-published comic books, which often have adult themes), cast-off figures — that is, action figures that can be undressed — and onaholes, which are male masturbator sex toys. Any other Japanese product which carries an “18+” designation has also been barred by the ABF, according to J-List, which also said that recent customer orders sent to Australia have been returned without ever reaching the intended buyers. The products have all reportedly been designated “illegal porn” by the Australian government, a definition that  encompasses "publications, films, computer games, and any other goods that describe, depict, express, or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence, terrorist acts or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency, and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults,” according to the ABF website.  In February of 2020, Australian politicians called for a ban on hentai comic books and other Japanese products, claiming that it depicted images of sexual violence and other illegal acts. Previously, however, retailers themselves were largely responsible for regulating and classifying the products they sold, to decide whether or not they contain “illegal porn.” Recently, it now appears, the ABF — Australia’s customs and border control agency — has taken it upon itself to act as a censor for Japanese products. J-List said that in order to avoid disappointing its customers by allowing them to place orders they may never receive, the company has simply ceased shipping the sexually oriented Japanese items to Australia at all. Photo By Wikimedia Commons