This past spring, illustrator Mao Sugiyama prepared a special dinner: Mao's male genitals (penis, testicles, and scrotum) as a ¥100,000 meal. Five diners ate the illustrator's bait and tackle at an event in Tokyo.
The penis eating event raised eyebrows in Japan and outside the country. Cannibalism is not illegal in Japan per se, so if someone deciding to prepare his or her own body parts for dinner, it could be within Japanese law.
Earlier this month, the Japanese police began investigating the event, and it seemed either the event organizers or Sugiyama could catch heat for breaking food hygiene laws.
Instead, the police are bringing charges against the illustrator for breaking the country's public obscenity laws. Perhaps the rationale is that by Sugiyama serving up privates, the illustrator exposed those same privates to people. Who ate them.
「局部を調理」イベント、芸術家を告発へ 東京・杉並区 [Asahi via 2ch]