The tragic murders at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo touched off worldwide debate about what forms of satire in the public sphere are appropriate, and under what conditions.
Charlie Hebdo's lampooning of any targeted topic granted no quarter, so when it ran cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, a cadre of Islamist extremists sought, and exacted, bloody revenge.
In Japan, a chorus of commentators lamented there was no Japanese equivalent of Charlie Hebdo because the kind of acidic, political satire the magazine is famous for is generally lacking in Japanese society. But it would be wrong to conclude that because political satire is hard to find in Japan, there is no political humor.