Thousands of people have signed a petition demanding that police free a Tokyo artist arrested on obscenity charges for distributing data that allowed recipients to make 3-D models of her vagina.
In the two days following the arrest of Megumi Igarashi, 42, the online petition platform Change.org had registered more than 17,000 signatures from supporters who say the work is a piece of art and not a sex toy.
Masanori Takano, a Tokyo-based programmer who kicked off the petition campaign on Monday, said Igarashi's arrest is an attack on freedom of expression.