Educational videos a Taiwanese company manufactured for kindergarten children in Japan based on an order from the Japanese government included pornographic films, Taiwan media has reported.
The Apple Daily, Liberty Times and Next Magazine reported in their Thursday editions that the Japanese government awarded a Japanese firm a contract to manufacture educational videos for kindergarten children across the country.
The Japanese company then subcontracted other firms to manufacture the videos, including a Taiwanese compact disc replication company, Sojean International Co., an affiliate of ABICO-FS Co.
The reports said a Tokyo kindergarten first discovered in March this year that the supposed educational video was actually a porn film. Other kindergartens subsequently made the same discovery.
That prompted the Japanese government to issue a recall. Of the approximately 40,000 videos distributed, about 30,000 have been recalled, over 80 of which turned out to be porn movies, the reports said.
The reports said the Japanese company blamed the Taiwanese firm for the manufacturing blunder, which it said made it "a joke" in Japan's educational circle and that it is planning to file a legal complaint in Taiwan, seeking ¥520 million in compensation.
ABICO-FS Co. dismissed the allegation on Thursday.
"It is an allegation made by a disgruntled company," a person at the firm's public relations department, who wasn't authorized to talk to the media, told Kyodo News.
The company said in a statement issued Thursday that the allegation was a "one-sided story" told by a company that owes ABICO-FS money and that ABICO-FS has filed a legal complaint against it for failing to pay up.