A Peeping Tom alleged to have followed 1,900 women and taken hundreds of photographs of them through peep holes has been arrested on suspicion of trespassing, police sources said April 29.

Genichi Iidera, a 51-year-old former employee of a major computer manufacturer, the name of which is being withheld, collected personal data on 2,600 women, rated their appearances and filed the data in his personal computer, the sources said. Iidera reportedly took up stalking in 1990. He quit his job following his arrest, the sources said.

To take the women's photos, Iidera would take off the lens of the peep hole and press his camera against the opening, the sources said. No reports about his actions had been filed with police. The sources say that victimized women were unaware of the invasion, probably because Iidera always replaced the lens before leaving the scene.

Of the 2,600 women, 1,900 were seen on streets or trains and followed to their homes to document their names and addresses. Data on the other women was compiled from companies' lists of female employees, the sources said.

Iidera, of Tokyo's Ota Ward, was arrested earlier this month after a 22-year-old woman in Tokyo's Meguro Ward felt suspicious about the man who was lurking in front of her apartment and called police. When officers from the Himoiya Police Station checked his bag, they found "a set of gadgets," including a camera, a pen-light, a monocular and gloves, they said.

The names and addresses of some 300 women were written on A4-size sheets of paper, and alphabetical ratings were written next to their names, according to the sources. Following his arrest, police confiscated from his home hundreds of candid photos of women taken from peep holes, the sources said. "I like women," Iidera reportedly told police. "But it's gone too far."