Prefectural governor under deluge of blog comments

Kanagawa Prefectural Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa banned sales of Grand Theft Auto 3 to minors back in June. Gamers responded by flooding his blog, 松沢しげふみ　タックルレポート, with comments. Mainichi (English), Mainichi (Japanese).

On July 7, Gov. Matsuzawa said on his home page that he was unable to give answers to every comment, which prompted his critics to post a further 255 comments.

Matsuzawa responded by saying that he wanted game enthusiasts to carefully read the comments he has made on software regulations during past press conferences.

Matsuzawa said he would not stop writing his opinions on his Web page.

"I've received some terrible comments (on the page), but I think it's good for me to hear a variety of opinions," the governor said. "I will never stop my Web site."

The critics' comments cited in the article don't seem all that "terrible", but you never know what else might be on that blog.

I honestly don't think it's a bad thing to ban sales of violent videogames to minors, though maybe the age limit could be ratcheted down to 16 or something. I don't know, I just don't think it's a big deal. Maybe someone could respond to the commenter who said "If you have time to jog, you would do better to read people's criticisms of game regulations" with "If you have time to spam someone's blog, you would do better to work on ways to end world hunger". ;)