TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo-based Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee was arrested on Monday on suspicion of obscenity after selling books containing pictures of male genitals at a gallery in Tokyo, police said.

The 41-year-old photographer, known for his pictures of Japanese pop stars including Ayumi Hamasaki, Yumi Matsutoya and Kumi Koda, was arrested along with two Japanese publishing firm employees.

The trio sold seven copies of a book "containing many photographs explicitly showing male genitals and others" to two customers at the gallery in the upscale shopping and entertainment district of Minami Aoyama, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman said.

The book was each priced at 6,000 yen (S$80), he added.

The trio could be jailed up to two years and/or fined up to 2.5 million yen if convicted of the obscenity charge.

Under Japanese law pictures of genitals must be obscured, a process usually done through pixellation, which has given rise to its own genre of pornography.