TOKYO (TR) – The number of cases of child pornography hit a record in Japan last year, the National Police Agency said on Thursday, reports Jiji Press (March 25).
According to the NPA, the number of incidents involving the production or distribution of child pornography reached 1,828, an increase of 184 (or 11.2 percent) over the year before. The number of the victims rose by 15.5 percent to 746 over the same period.
Both figures are the highest recorded since the NPA began keeping such statistics in 2000.
Of the 746 victims, 138 were below elementary school age, an increase of 50 percent. The majority of these cases involved sexual assault (97 victims) or the mailing of naked pictures (22).
In July of last year, the child pornography law was modified to include a ban on secretive filming (tosatsu). Following the change in legislation, police acted in a total of 29 cases that took place at hotels, bathhouses, toilets and changing rooms.
In November, Ibaraki Prefectural Police arrested a 32-year-old male elementary school teacher who used cameras hidden inside the clips of pens for illicit filming. Five months before, a man in Hyogo Prefecture was taken into custody for filming a girl bathing with her parents with a camera inserted in a wristwatch.
