How Japanese manga can land international travelers in jail

Imagine this: You're flying into Canada, a bastion of peace and tolerance, and you're traveling light -- a carry-on bag, a few magazines, a gift for your Canadian hosts; and your iPad, iPhone and laptop. Upon arrival, Canadian border officials suddenly seize and search the last of these. What they discover is not an explosive device or a cache of al-Qaida contacts, but rather items they deem incendiary nonetheless -- a stash of digital manga images, some featuring doujinshi (fan-made) illustrations, others that might be labeled lolicon (lolita complex) manga, showing eroticized renderings of what are clearly fictional, possibly underage if they were real, characters. Whatever the designation, they are all digital images saved on your personal laptop, and they are all imaginary. An American computer programmer in his mid-20s went through this humiliation last year while visiting a friend in Canada. He has since been charged with possession and importation of child pornography and he faces a minimum of one year in prison if convicted -- not to mention a reputation ruined for a lifetime.

source: Article 'How Japanese manga can land international travelers in jail - A love of Japan and its comic books might get you locked up in North America' by Roland Kelts; www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/how-japanese-manga-can-land-international-travelers-jail-333153; CNNGo.com; 14 October 2011