Japanese girl band star at centre of 'child porn' investigation
Police in Tokyo are interviewing a magazine publisher over a photograph showing a young female pop star in an 'inappropriate pose' with a boy.
The photograph, showing AKB48 singer Tomomi Kasai, 21, naked with a blond child cupping her breasts from behind, was to be published in Shukan Young Magazine.
Publisher Kodansha was planning to run the photograph, which came from a forthcoming book of photographs of the singer, in its weekly manga (or comic-style) magazine earlier this month.
But that edition didn't make it to the newsstands, and detectives were called in after concerns were raised that the picture might infringe even Japan's notoriously lax child pornography laws.
Tomomi Kasai is a huge star in Japan, where she has been a singer since the age of 14 and is best known for being a part of the phenomenal, 91-strong girl group AKB48.
The group _ the world's largest _ is one of the highest-earning musical acts in the world and recruits new members through Pop Idol-style auditions.
All the girls must be well-behaved, and they perform in a theatre every day, with tickets only available through a heavily-subscribed lottery.
Initially Kodansha said the delay in getting the magazine out was due to it containing an 'inappropriate expression' but police said they needed to investigate further and called staff in to be interviewed.
Kodansha pulled the photograph and postponed the sale of the magazine from January 12 to January 21. They also took it out of their planned collection of photographs of the singer.
Investigators, who say their first job is to discover if the photograph is real or not, say they will take into consideration the fact that the edition featuring the picture was scrapped before it was published.