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Tokyo police release manager of adult shop charged with ‘obscene’ genital display

MInori Kitahara of Love Piece Club
MInori Kitahara of Love Piece Club
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Sunday announced the release of a female writer who had been arrested last week for her involvement in a public display deemed “obscene,” reports Sports Hochi (Dec. 7).

On Saturday, the Tokyo District Court rejected a prosecutor’s request for the detainment of Minori Watanabe, a 44-year-old charged with displaying a plaster cast of the vagina of an artist in an exhibition at an adult shop she manages in Bunkyo Ward between October of last year and July.

Watanabe was subsequently released.

Of the 19 works in the exhibition, police deemed three items, including that by Megumi Igarashi, 42, to be “highly obscene” and in violation of the law. Officers also arrested Igarashi.

Igarashi had previously been arrested on July 12 for mailing links for the download of 3D-image data of her genitals to donors of an art project. She was released from custody six days later.

Watanabe is an author who works under the name Minori Kitahara. She is the founder of the adult-goods shop Love Piece Club and regularly contributes columns on gender issues to the weekly publication Shukan Asahi.