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Cliff Buddle

Japan could learn from Hong Kong's controls on pornography, a Japanese businessman who was jailed after unwittingly breaching the SAR's obscenity laws said yesterday.

 Seiichi Okamoto, 51, who belongs to an association which arranges cultural exchanges between the two countries, had no idea that sex magazines and videos on sale in his bookshop were unlawful.

 The items can be sold legally in Japan and had been transported to Hong Kong under a valid export permit.

 When police raided the Causeway Bay store and arrested two of his employees, Okamoto flew to the SAR to take responsibility.

 He was jailed for four months by a magistrate, but released on appeal yesterday after serving four weeks.

 The judge substituted a suspended sentence and said he would 'temper justice with mercy'' as Okamoto had experienced prison.

 After the hearing, the businessman, who owns six shops in Japan and Hong Kong, said he had learned a great deal from his arrest and spell in jail.

 'Pornography is very bad in Japan. Very obscene. Maybe it can learn from the laws in Hong Kong,' he said.

 He was particularly disturbed by pornography involving children, which he said was openly on sale in his own country.

 After his arrest, Okamoto, an economics graduate, attended the Obscene Articles Tribunal to find out more about Hong Kong's obscenity laws.

 When he realised he had breached the regulations, he pleaded guilty to possessing the obscene magazines and videos for the purposes of publication.

 Okamoto, who has donated money to the United Nations Children's Fund, said: 'I did not know the Hong Kong law. I did not understand. I only knew the Japanese system, which is different.'  Police seized 800 magazines and 500 video cassettes from the shop. Flora Cheng, for the businessman, said this represented only 1.6 per cent of his stock, the rest of which was not illegal.

 Mr Justice Michael Wong Kin-chow upheld Okamoto's appeal at the Court of First Instance and suspended the four-month jail term for 18 months.

 Okamoto, who lives in Japan but visits the SAR regularly, said his experience had not changed his feelings about Hong Kong and its people. He would continue to promote closer ties between the two countries.



Porn laws lesson for Japanese, says contrite shopkeeper