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What’s Japan’s Problem With Vaginas?

Art or Pornography?

Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi’s vagina kayak is considered obscene, but an annual penis festival is a family event. What’s the deal?

Jake Adelstein

Angela Erika Kubo

Updated Apr. 14, 2017 12:24PM ET / Published Jan. 17, 2015 6:45AM ET 

via Facebook

Artist Megumi Igarashi—known in her home country of Japan as Rokudenashiko ("the good for nothing girl")—is currently awaiting trial for obscenity charges related to selling a 3-D model of her vagina. Yet, Japan is home to a yearly festival that, almost literally, worships the penis.

Featuring video footage courtesy of Alison Klayman, director of the award-winning documentary, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Jake Adelstein and Angela Kubo try to make sense of Japan's confused sexual politics.

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