Sure, our subways are soaked with urine, but at least we’re spared THIS:

[AP reports:] Tokyo’s subway authority will allow a station advertisement featuring a nude and pregnant Britney Spears, officials said Thursday, dropping an earlier plan to censor the photo.

HB Japan Inc., publisher of the Japanese edition of Harper’s Bazaar, plans to rent ad space at the posh Omotesando station next week to promote its October issue with Spears posing naked on the cover.

The ad, in which Spears bares her belly but covers her breasts with her hands, is the same one used in the August issue of the magazine’s U.S. edition. The 24-year-old pop star is pregnant with her second child.

OK, the magazine cover did appear on newsstands here, but at least it was smaller and might be covered up by a copy of Guns and Ammo or Beekeeper’s Fortnightly. This ad will be unavoidable. People of taste will have to hire large people in overcoats to stand in front of the ads and block them from view. It’s an extra expense to clean up the subways, but a necessary one.