TOKYO (TR) – Downloading and streaming — both legal and otherwise — may be here to stay when it comes to the consumption of films and music.
Yet for Japan, many adult video fans still hold the DVD in very high regard, making it their medium of choice.
To wit, Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted an illegal mail order operation based in Osaka City that collected nearly 500 million yen in sales over a four-year period, reports TV Asahi (July 15).
According to police, Junji Matsumoto and seven other male and female suspects sold 26 adult DVDs in which genitalia was not obscured (as mandated by law) through their online service to two persons in Tokyo.
As well, the suspects were accused of possessing 218 illegal DVDs at a factory in Joto Ward, Osaka City. Police also seized computer equipment and about 105,000 illegal DVDs from that factory and another location this month.
Matsumoto and six other suspects admit to the allegations. The eighth suspect has declined to comment, police said.
NPO complaint
The illegal operation emerged after an NPO lodged a complaint with police on behalf of a woman who indicated one DVD for sale featured her when she was an actress.
Since 2016, the operation is believed to have accumulated 470 million yen in sales, police said.
The arrest is at least the second for Matsumoto. In 2015, he was accused of running a similar operation from a location in Naniwa Ward.
