  High contrast coronagraphic imaging is challenging for telescopes with
central obstructions and thick spider vanes, such as the Subaru Telescope. We
present in this paper the first laboratory demonstration of a high efficiency
PIAA-type coronagraph on such a pupil, using coronagraphic optics which will be
part of the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme-AO (SCExAO) system currently under
assembly. Lossless pupil apodization is performed by a set of aspheric PIAA
lenses specifically designed to also remove the pupil's central obstruction,
coupled with a Spider Removal Plate (SRP) which removes spider vanes by
translating four parts of the pupil with tilted plane-parallel plates. An
"inverse-PIAA" system, located after the coronagraphic focal plane mask, is
used to remove off-axis aberrations and deliver a wide field of view.
  Our results validate the concept adopted for the SCExAO system, and show that
the Subaru Telescope pupil can properly be apodized for high contrast
coronagraphic imaging as close as $\approx$ 1 $\lambda/D$ with no loss of
sensitivity. We also verify that off-axis aberrations in the system are in
agreement with theory, and that the inverse PIAA system recovers a wide usable
field of view for exoplanet detection and disks imaging.

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics