Is obscenity in the eye of the public?

In November 1994, Takashi Asai -- president of Uplink, a movie distribution and publishing house -- published a Japanese edition of "Mapplethorpe," a collection of 260 black-and-white photographs by the U.S. photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who died in 1989 of AIDS.

The photobook, originally published in English by Random House, is included in the collection of the National Diet Library and can easily be purchased in Japan via Internet bookshops. When it fell into the hands of Narita airport customs officials, though, the book was branded "obscene" and confiscated.

In 1999 Asai had taken a copy of the Japanese edition to the United States and Canada to show its printing quality to publishers there during business talks. Returning through Narita airport that September, he submitted the photobook -- which contains some photographs showing male genitals -- to customs officers.