"Renowned photographer Leslie Kee arrested in Japan over obscene photos"

From Japan Today, 2/5/13:

Tokyo-based Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee was arrested Monday on suspicion of obscenity after selling books containing pictures of male genitals at a gallery in Tokyo, police said.

The 41-year-old photographer, known for his pictures of Japanese pop stars including Ayumi Hamasaki, Yumi Matsutoya and Kumi Koda, was arrested along with two Japanese publishing firm employees.

The trio sold seven copies of a book “containing many photographs explicitly showing male genitals and others” to two customers at the gallery in the upscale shopping and entertainment district of Minami Aoyama, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman said.

The book was each priced at 6,000 yen, he added.

The trio could be jailed up to two years and/or fined up to 2.5 million yen if convicted of the obscenity charge.

Under Japanese law pictures of genitals must be obscured, a process usually done through pixellation, which has given rise to its own genre of pornography. 

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/renowned-photographer-leslie-kee-arrested-in-japan-for-alleged-obscenity

Leslie Kee Official Website: http://www.lesliekeesuper.com/ 

UPDATE: "Fashionistas defend 'obscene' photographer Leslie Kee" (Japan Today, 2/6/13)

Japanese fashionistas on Tuesday came to the defense of Tokyo-based Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee after he was arrested for selling books containing pictures of male genitals.

Kee, who has snapped megastars including Lady Gaga and Super Bowl sensation Beyonce, was arrested Monday on suspicion of obscenity after selling the books at his Tokyo gallery.

The 41-year-old photographer could be jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to 2.5 million yen ($27,000) if convicted.

Pornography is widely available and produced in Japan, but under domestic law genitals must be obscured, a process usually done through pixellation.

“I am stunned by the news of Leslie Kee’s arrest,” Yamamuro Kazz, a leading fashion journalist and magazine editor in Japan, wrote on his website.

He questioned police motivation for the arrest because Kee’s works were available at a gallery event, a forum only open to people familiar with the artistic nature of it.

“The legal interpretation of whether genitals were exposed or not (and whether the work is obscene or not) is totally irrelevant to the intention of an artist,” he said.

“Under their narrow interpretation, works by Terry Richardson and Robert Mapplethorpe are all considered obscene,” he said, referring to prominent U.S. photographers.

Popular model Ai Tominaga tweeted “I am shocked. I am shocked for Japan”, and was joined by others online who expressed similar dismay. Twitter user @onda_natsue said the arrest showed how unsophisticated Japanese culture is.

In 2008, Japan’s top court ruled that nude pictures by Mapplethorpe were not obscene, in a verdict hailed as a victory for artistic freedom in the country, ending a decade-long battle over the censorship laws.

The plaintiff, a Japanese publisher, filed the lawsuit after his copy of a Mapplethorpe book was seized in 1999 when he tried to bring it from the United States for personal use.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/japan-fashionistas-defend-obscene-photographer