Originally, officials had claimed the provocative pic of Britney Spears was “overly stimulating” for public display. According to the BBC, the censored version of the photo would have masked everything below Britney’s elbow, and had the statement “We apologize for hiding part of a beautiful image of a mother-to-be.”

Another deal had been reached in which the publisher, HB Japan Inc., the Japanese distributor of Harper’s Bazaar, would blacken out the image from the waist down. According to Forbes, the black space would have contained a statement, reading “in this place we are not allowed to exercise the same level of freedom of expression as the original Harper’s Bazaar.”

Officials now say they understand the reason for posting the images in the Tokyo subway system is to portray a happy mother rather than just being sexually explicit. Publishers had originally agreed to the censored image, though officials okay-ed the original photo. Kayoko Higashino, the magazine’s deputy chief editor, was quoted by USA Today as admitting “I’m glad the subway officials understood the meaning of the photo.”

Tokyo Metro spokesperson Tatsuya Edakubo said that in principle, nudity is not acceptable in ads in subway cars and stations. Later, he was quoted as saying “Our earlier request to cover the photo from the waist down was because of nudity, not because we had anything against pregnant women.” Edabuko said that officials later decided that censoring the photo would be inappropriate.

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline were married on September 18th, 2004. They had their first child together, Sean Preston Federline, on September 14th, 2005. On May 10th, 2006, Spears confirmed her second pregnancy on the Late Show with David Letterman last month. Britney Spears is the best-selling female artist of the 2000s, having sold 85 million albums. Britney’s albums include Baby, One More Time, Oops! I Did It Again, Britney, In The Zone, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative and has appeared in movies such as The New Mickey Mouse Club, Crossroads and In The Pink. Her husband, Kevin Federline, is expected to be releasing his debut album, Playing with Fire, in October, on his own record label, Federation Records. Federline’s singles so far include “PopoZao”, “America’s Most Hated” and “Lose Control”.