Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released its response to the recently published UN guidelines labeling drawings of non-existent children as child pornography.

The response, which can easily be read as “we won’t do anything about it”, also revealed that the new guidelines published by the United Nations did not involve Japan in the discussions or any other signing parties for that matter.

What is even more significant is that Japan clearly labels the UN’s guidelines as not legally binding to any of the signing parties.

The rough translation of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs response:

The Government’s Opinion on the Publication of “Guidelines for the Implementation of Protocols on the sale of Child Pornography” On September 17th, the Committee on the Rights of the Child published new guidelines on child trafficking, child prostitution and child pornography. 2. This government is aware that careful consideration must be taken when referring to matters covered by existing treaties. At the end of March of this year, opinions on these guidelines were submitted to the committee. However, it is regrettable that these guidelines were published without significant discussion with any signing parties, including Japan. 3. This guideline was submitted by the committee as a guide for implementation of the treaty [of the Rights of the Child that Japan signed]. These guidelines do not change the treaty itself. They are in no way legally binding. This government’s position on these optional guidelines has been to send multiple applications to the committee, which has confirmed that these guidelines are not legally binding on any signing party. 4. Japan will continue to pay close attentions to these discussions. We will express our opinions as necessary.

As things are, Japan will continue to fight the unreasonable demands that equate people’s thoughts to crimes and will not crack down on creators simply expressing their freedoms via the art they produce.