Japan court: Vagina kayak display OK, data sale is obscene
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/
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
(11,363 posts)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
(30,151 posts)thesquanderer
(11,990 posts)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
(60,075 posts)thesquanderer
(11,990 posts)thesquanderer
(11,990 posts)The kayak is one of her pieces, but is not the work in question.
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
(23,867 posts)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
(62,533 posts)Japanese man makes penis shaped baseball bat and his hailed a hero.
satire folks, satire.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Japan is WAY ahead of us... WAY ahead...
truthisfreedom
(23,152 posts)They're all over the map.
alfredo
(60,075 posts)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
(19,258 posts)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
(60,075 posts)NickB79
(19,258 posts)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
(423 posts)They produce some of the most mind numbing, bizarre, WTF? porn available, but the genitalia
of those involved is always blurred out.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,210 posts)American porn I've seen. Child like characters are perfectly okay. Only making child porn is illegal, but possessing it isn't.
Mosby
(16,342 posts)https://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/japanese-chef-serves-own-genitals-for-dinner?utm_term=.aelDoNllW#.gib3OmEEz