Japans curious obscenity and censorship laws

Quote:

A Japanese artist who made a kayak modeled on her vagina has denied obscenity charges at the start of her trial in a case that has drawn accusations of censorship and double standards. Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokudenashiko – which roughly translates as good-for-nothing girl – was first arrested last July after distributing digital files containing a 3D scan of her genitalia to people in return for donations to her project to create the unusual artwork ... The 43-year-old artist told the Tokyo district court on Wednesday that her “vagina selfies” were not obscene. “I do not dispute the facts [of the charge], but my artwork is not obscene,” Igarashi said, according to the Kyodo news agency.

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This is a great example of how obscenity and similar censorship laws often are completely arbitrary and silly. In a sense Japan has a large pornography industry that depicts just about anything someone could be turned on, including material which is or could be illegal in many European countries because it depicts people who are underage (in hentai manga/anime) or looks like they could be underage even-though they aren't (in Japanese Adult Video).

Yet despite this seemingly highly liberal atmosphere where hardly no taboo isn't milked for all its worth one only have to watch a single "normal" porn movie to observe something out of the ordinary: all genitalia is censored and usually pixelated. JAV movies that have been marketed towards foreigners are often uncensored but those are released inside Japan are still censored.

In this case the relevant "obscene" depiction isn't even pornographic in the slightest and is more comparable to a images found in medicinal textbooks or even nude artworks, yet due to the way the law has been interpreted and enforced a 3D scan of a woman's vagina could still be considered an obscene depiction.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1IHytZ3