While rape and physical violence are common in manga, they are rare in Japan, where violent-crime rates are among the lowest in the industrialized world.
The bulk of manga readers are said to be men under 30 years of age earning less than $30,000 a year, but Japanese of all sorts read it.
In contrast, Shintaro Miyawaki, the artist for one of the most controversial manga, works alone in a cluttered alcove of the four-room apartment he shares with his wife, his mother-in-law and his two daughters.