NARA (Kyodo) A man from Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly running a computer server to possess and exchange child pornography on the Internet.
Yoshinori Tanaka, 39, described as self-employed, is the first computer server manager to be arrested on suspicion of violating the law against child prostitution and pornography, police said.
He allegedly possessed pornographic video images on the server that he would provide to an unspecified number of Internet users.
People in the videos included a 10-year-old girl and a 14-year-old, police said, alleging that Tanaka belongs to a ring of pedophiles who exchange files through his server.
So far five people who used Tanaka's server to download images have been indicated, and four have been convicted with their rulings upheld.
The files were distributed via Utatane file-exchange software, by which a user can download files from another user's computer through the server and the Internet.
Utatane is allegedly often used by active pedophiles. The arrest of the operator of the server "will help reduce the number of victims," a police investigator said.