US School Bans on Manga Reignite Japan's Debate Over Explicit Content

The US-based literary organisation PEN America reported on October 6, 2026, that 11,982 books were removed or restricted in American public schools during the 2025–26 school year, up from 6,870 the previous year and the highest figure since it began tracking bans in the 2021–22 school year. Texas accounted for 8,193 cases and Florida for 3,212, out of 7,370 unique titles affected nationwide, according to the report cited by Tokyo Shimbun and other outlets.

Among the works pulled from shelves were several Japanese manga series, including Hajime Isayama's "Attack on Titan," Sui Ishida's "Tokyo Ghoul," Rumiko Takahashi's "InuYasha" and "Ranma ½," and Atsushi Ohkubo's "Soul Eater" and "Fire Force," according to CBR's report on the PEN America data. The organisation listed Ohkubo with 106 recorded bans, Isayama with 89, and Takahashi with 63, placing all three among the ten most-banned creators nationwide.

Why manga is a frequent target

PEN America said challengers often isolate single panels depicting sex, violence or gender identity without the surrounding story, a practice it calls "context stripping." The organisation noted that manga's visual format makes individual images easy to extract and circulate as evidence of inappropriate content, according to the CBR and Newsweek reports on the findings.

A case highlighted by ScreenRant illustrates the pattern: in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a group called the Coalition of Conservatives in Action listed roughly 100 books for removal from public schools, including volumes 1–2 of "Assassination Classroom," which it described as pornographic. Publisher Viz Media rates the series "Teen Plus," not its 18+ Mature category. Sarah Smith, the coalition's vice chair, said the group "focused on content parents might find inappropriate based on their kids' age and maturity," while school librarian Karen Hanson-Sharp argued that banning books "limits critical thinking and won't stop teens from learning about these topics."

How the debate is framed in Japan

The US figures were picked up by Japanese outlets including Yahoo! News Japan and ABEMA Times, which framed the story around a core question discussed on the talk show ABEMA Prime: does removing manga from libraries "protect children" or "deprive them of growth opportunities"? One side argued that "some depictions are still too early for children," while the other said restrictions amount to freedom being taken away, according to the Yahoo! News Japan summary of the programme.

Media scholar Mayuko Watanabe, appearing on the programme as reported by ABEMA Times, said the US bans were "regrettable" but also reflected what she called low awareness of human rights among some Japanese creators and publishers. She pointed to recurring tropes she considers problematic, such as depicting forced physical contact against female characters as comedy without acknowledging the victims' distress, and said context matters in distinguishing depictions that criticise such acts from those that normalise them.

Japan's own fifteen-year fight over explicit content

The current discussion echoes a domestic dispute that began with Tokyo's 1964 Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths, which restricts sale of sexually explicit manga, anime and illustrations to minors through industry self-regulation and labelling as "seinen" or 18+ material, according to the Wikipedia summary of the ordinance's legal history.

In February 2010, Tokyo's metropolitan government proposed a bill, later nicknamed the "Nonexistent Youth Bill," that would have restricted fictional depictions of minors in sexual situations. Manga creators, publishers and legal groups opposed it, and the Assembly rejected the bill in June 2010. A revised version, Bill 156, dropped the contested wording but expanded the definition of "harmful" material to cover depictions that "unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate" illegal sexual acts; it passed committee on December 13 and the full Assembly on December 15, 2010, taking effect July 1, 2011.

Publishers including Shueisha, Shogakukan and Kodansha threatened to boycott the Tokyo International Anime Fair over the revised bill, and the Association of Japanese Animations raised freedom-of-expression concerns. Then–Prime Minister Naoto Kan publicly urged a compromise to keep the fair running. The first title formally restricted under the amended ordinance, "Imouto Paradise 2," was flagged in May 2014 for what regulators described as glorifying incestuous acts.

Protection versus artistic freedom: the core arguments

• Protection side: some content normalises non-consensual or exploitative scenarios and should carry stricter age controls or shelving rules, as argued by Watanabe and by school groups such as the Las Cruces coalition.
• Freedom side: removing or restricting manga limits readers' access to stories and critical thinking, as argued by librarian Karen Hanson-Sharp and by publishers who opposed Tokyo's 2010–2011 ordinance changes.
• Context problem: both the US bans and some Japanese ordinance decisions have been criticised for judging isolated scenes or panels rather than a work's full narrative, according to PEN America's "context stripping" finding.
• Industry self-regulation: Japan's current system relies mainly on publishers labelling and shelving restricted titles rather than government pre-screening, a model that has itself been contested since 2010.