I would like to have your attention to discuss this topic:
http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/sakabato24_blog/archive/2010/12/14/is-it-the-end-of-anime-and-manga-bill-156-passed.aspx
A new bill in Japan has been passed and it will affect Nintendo and some of their franchises. By the banner in the article the first affected might be Pokémon and even if Nintendo is a pretty tame company compared to their competence this might affect the quantity and theme of future games.
I hate poorly worded bans that base their decisions upon a council of people who will obviously be against just because they don't understand the culture.
Welcome to the wonderful world of discrimination. Many people suspect this was an "anti-otaku" law, so don't be surprised that it would adversely affect anime, manga, and video games.
However, the article is a repost of a Sankaku article, and Sankaku Complex is known for being highly sensationalist on matters such as these. My limited research just tells me that the "banned" video games will still be sold, just that they will be restricted to 18+ (so no sales to minors). However, many companies don't like their products being restricted as such, so expect more censorship to prevent them from being "banned".
This is very sad indeed.....
I like the fact that it specifically had a Pikachu as the image.
BUT THIS MOST LIKELY MEANS NO MORE GAME CORNERS IN POKéMON! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
I hope our games from Nintendo are in the clear....... ;0 I would have sadness all over. :/ Goodbye, clever Japanese video games.
Nintendo will likely be fine. At worst, they'll implement stronger content policies on their games to avoid getting affected by this, otherwise we won't notice any real change.
What will be heavily affected will be the anime, manga, and Rated M or above video games.
I would actually prefer a pokemon game without violence. I think it would be fun to play a game with them like they were pets and farm animals ( a la harvest moon)