Japan's top court clears Mapplethorpe picturesFlavorマップルソープ？メープルソープ？猥褻か否かＷＷニポン人ヲワタ

Japan's top court clears Mapplethorpe picturesFlavor: Japan , Law and Order , Photography
Japan's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a collection of erotic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe does not violate obscenity laws, a decision that should allow the sale of the book for the first time in eight years.
Hooded Man, 1980
The decision overturns a 2003 Tokyo High Court ruling that the book "Mapplethorpe" was indecent. It was believed to be the first time the top court has overruled a lower court ruling on obscenity.
In Tuesday's ruling, justice Kohei Nasu said the book of black-and-white portraits "compiles works from the artistic point of view, and is not obscene as a whole," the conservative Yomiuri newspaper quoted the judge as saying.
Japanese customs have a long history of applying conservative obscenity standard, by targeting all clear genital images in prints and films across the board, forcing film distributors and publishers to alter the parts, prompting criticisms by artists who said such measures insult their works.
Asai called the ruling "groundbreaking" and said it "could change the obscenity standard" used for banning foreign films that show nudity and censoring photographs in books.
In a commentary Tuesday, the Yomiuri newspaper said that the Supreme Court ruling reflected a change in the concept of what constitutes obscenity.
"Obscene images have spread on the Internet and are accessible to anyone. The supreme court must have decided that calling a highly acclaimed photographer's book 'obscenity' does not fit today's social norm," the Yomiuri said.
Via Bad at Sport.

学界では、相対的わいせつ概念の法理が注目されている。これは、わいせつ物の規制は一応は妥当であるとしつつも、思想性や芸術性の高い文書については、わいせつ性が相対化され、規制の対象から除外されるという理論である。田中二郎判事が初めて提唱した。

尚、“わいせつ”の何たるかについて正面から論じた裁判官は未だにいない。

ただ、古来から日本国民の大多数が信仰している仏教の教えという社会通念で、わいせつ行為は戒律で悪業（罪）という性行為非公然原則なので、法律でもわいせつな行為を慎む条文を書いたと思われる。