and actress Britney Spears, six months pregnant, is shown on the cover of the August 2006 issue Harper's Bazaar

An advertising poster featuring a nude and heavily pregnant Britney Spears was banned in Tokyo subway, branding it "too stimulating" for young people.

The ban on Spears was put into effect in Tokyo, where the subway system refused to allow the publishers of Harper's Bazaar to display a poster advertising the singer's nude and pregnant photo spread, which will appear on the October cover of the magazine's Japanese edition.

The photo in question showed Spears posing in the buff, but with her arms over her breasts and her legs crossed at the knees. The publishers had hoped to post it in a station in a trendy area of Tokyo, but were denied permission.

"We thought some of our customers would find it to be overly stimulating," a Tokyo Metro official explained to Reuters.

Harper's Bazaar could not be reached for comment.

Not all was lost. The Metro and the publishers agreed to display the poster after all but masked the picture below the former teen idol's elbow with a statement reading: "We apologise for hiding part of a beautiful image of a mother-to-be". (source:e!online)