Japan court: Vagina kayak display OK, data sale is obscene

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: AP

A Tokyo court has acknowledged that a vagina-shaped kayak created by a Japanese "vagina artist" is art while on display, but found her guilty of violating the country's obscenity law by distributing it in the form of digital data. <snip>

Igarashi was charged over the kayak display and distribution of its data in 2013 and 2014. She has argued her kayak is art using a vagina as a motif, not obscenity.

Despite its lucrative porn industry and tolerance to displays of scantily dressed women in ads on public transportation, Japan's obscenity laws prohibit public display of genitalia itself.

Read more: http://markets.cbsnews.com/Japan-court-Vagina-kayak-display-OK-data-sale-is-obscene/78f12c26fb58b130/

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The sexual culture in Japan is very strange from our standards - I won't get into the details, but what they allow and don't allow is so striking, it defies logic. Especially the subjugation of women, where I saw the problem both in Japan and in this country in the Japanese corporate world.

*CAUTION: PICTURE BELOW*

[surrealAmerican]

1. I don't understand this finding.

If they admit the kayak is art, an image of it should also be art - or at least documentation of art (which might make it journalism?). They must have some very narrow set of laws covering digital images that are substantially different from the laws covering the rest of their world.

... kicking this thread, because the vagina kayak is awesome ...

[snooper2]

3. it's okay, I guess she ran out of the right colors though

[thesquanderer]

5. Getting the color right is part of what could make it obscene.

It's not actually about the kayak (see post #2), but you're on the right track that, the closer such an object is to looking real, the more it risks running afoul of the obscenity laws.

[alfredo]

17. The artist should have pixelated it.

[thesquanderer]

4. It's not about the kayak. Link has been updated. (n/t)

[thesquanderer]

2. Article at source has been updated. Kayak not the issue.

The kayak is one of her pieces, but is not the work in question.

The court said a set of three vagina-shaped ornaments, decorated and painted in bright colors, did not look like skin or immediately suggest female genitalia and therefore were not obscene, her lawyers said. However, the judges said the data, from a scan of her own vagina, could be used with a three-dimensional printer to create a realistic shape that could sexually arouse viewers.

The vagina ornaments were on display at a sex shop in Tokyo but were not for sale, according to Mayuko Nakamori, one of Igarashi's defense lawyers.

Igarashi, who is also known for creating a vagina-shaped kayak, distributed computer discs containing the data as gifts to people who helped raise funds for the kayak project, her lawyers said.

[Gregorian]

6. This just in- if you had a hot dog for lunch, you ate a vagina.

What a stupid species. Voting for dipshits, banning things that aren't bad.

I can't even believe what passes for newsworthy these days.

[Javaman]

7. in other news....

Japanese man makes penis shaped baseball bat and his hailed a hero.

satire folks, satire.

[Blue_Tires]

8. "Vagina kayak"??

Japan is WAY ahead of us... WAY ahead...

[truthisfreedom]

9. Obscenity is too complicated in Japan.

They're all over the map.

[alfredo]

10. Japan Penis festival

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/07/japan-penis-festival-kanamara-matsuri_n_5106378.html

Each spring, people flock to Kawasaki, Japan, to celebrate Kanamara Matsuri, aka the “Festival of the Steel Phallus.”

Held this year on April 6, the festival is a celebration of the penis and fertility. People parade gigantic phallic-shaped mikoshi (portable Shinto shrines) down the streets during the event, as revelers suck on penis lollipops, buy penis-themed memorabilia and pose with sculptures in the shape of — you guessed it — penises.

Photos at article

[NickB79]

12. That was the first thing that came to mind as well. WTF?

It's fine to parade a 10-ft dong down the street, but a vagina-shaped kayak is illegal?

Japan has a huge double standard when it comes to men and women.

[alfredo]

13. Their attitudes toward sex is a far cry from our Puritan ways

[NickB79]

15. In many ways, it's far, far worse than ours

A good friend who lived in Japan for 5 years married a Japanese woman and moved back to the US. Another couple I'm friends with also lived and worked there for 4 years. Some of the stories the four of them tell are truly mind-boggling.

[Heeeeers Johnny]

11. The Japanese are a strange bunch.

They produce some of the most mind numbing, bizarre, WTF? porn available, but the genitalia
of those involved is always blurred out.

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. Yeah, I've seen hentai far more disturbing than any

American porn I've seen. Child like characters are perfectly okay. Only making child porn is illegal, but possessing it isn't.

[Mosby]

16. Not always

Japanese Chef Serves Own Genitals For Dinner

https://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/japanese-chef-serves-own-genitals-for-dinner?utm_term=.aelDoNllW#.gib3OmEEz