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.
The Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered Megumi Igarashi, known as alias Rokudenashiko, or good-for-nothing girl, to pay a fine of Y400,000 ($A5,077) yen over the illegal distribution of her scanned vagina data.
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.
