vocabulary - Are there words so bad that they aren't allowed on television?

Warning: We're all adults here, but just in case, this question may contain words, in both Japanese and English, that some may not like to read.

A long time ago, when I was working with a translator, a native Japanese speaker, the term 気違い{きちがい} ("insane person") came up. She told me it was one of the worst insults one can use. So bad, in fact, that you wouldn't hear it on television.

I wasn't clear to me then, or now, if she meant that as her opinion, hyperbole to express how bad the word is, or that there really are some guidelines or rules about words that can be uttered on television.

In any case, I took it to mean that 気違い{きちがい} is much more offensive than, say 「この野郎{やろう}！」, which means "You asshole!"... maybe.

Then, a little while ago, I'm reading a Tintin book, タンタンの冒険{ぼうけん} - 青{あお}い蓮{はす} (The Adventures of Tintin - The Blue Lotus), and on page 13, when Tintin is running away from a sword weilding madman on drugs, he yells 「きちがいだ！」

Since this is a book for young readers, I guess my impression of 気違い{きちがい} is wrong...?

First question is, just how bad is 気違い{きちがい}?

Second question, is there a list of words considered too bad for television? (If so, references please, lets not just speculate.)

(Please no overly technical linguistic terms. Thanks!)

Answer

1. 
   

   You are right. Using the word 気違い is insulting and is not allowed on mass media. The reason is because its use often means that you are mixing up intellectual disability, insaneness, and other mental diseases, which have nothing to do with each other, and it connotates that they are all harmful. In the old days, mass media would write a news article such as "a patient of a mental hospital escaped and killed someone", and people will discriminate all the people belonging to any of the categories referred to as 気違い, thinking that they may do a similar thing. In the worst case, there are ignorant people who even confuse physically disabled poeple with mentally disabled people and with insane people.

   
   


2. 
   
   

   Japanese broadcasting has taboos, on which factors other than political correctness have strong influence. You can easily obtain a list by doing a search with the words '放送禁止用語', so I will not place a link here. You can often see political pressure on them. Among the famous is to mention the nature of the religional sect soukagakkai: video 1, video 2 (Video 1 is already deleted, and I added the link intentionally to show you the political pressure). Another famous taboo word is the female genital. Male genital is not a taboo, and this shows sexual bias.

   
   

Edit The original video on youtube came to my attention, which shows the moment of an NHK announcer's mentioning the connection of 公明党 and 創価学会 being blocked probably by a superior in NHK due to a political pressure by 創価学会.