AICHI (TR) – Aichi Prefectural Police have arrested two male Japanese nationals for allegedly making child pornography in two countries in Southeast Asia, reports NHK (Aug. 27).
According to police, Kazuhiko Uji, 65, of no known occpuation and living in Nagoya, and Yoshihiro Shirai, a 60-year-old dentist from Osaka allegedly made videos of themselves engaging in lewd acts with girls under the age of 18 in Laos and Myanmar.
Uji is suspected of filming videos of himself engaging in lewd acts with girls under the age of 18 in Laos around March of this year. For Shirai, he allegedly committed the same crime in Myanmar around October of last year.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of violating the Anti-Child Pornography Prohibition Act and other charges, Uji remained silent. Meanwhile, Shirai denied some of the charges. He said, “I didn’t know they were under 18.”
Police said the two men are believed to have paid to meet the girls. Examinations of their smartphones and other data suggest they were exchanging information about child prostitution overseas.
Seized storage media belonging to Uji contained over 1,000 obscene videos. For Shirai, he had over 10,000 obscene videos on media belonging to him.
Japanese Embassy in Laos issues warning
In June of this year, the Japanese Embassy in Laos posted a warning on its website after confirming that Japanese people in the country had made posts on social media that made reference to child prostitution.
According to the warning, Laotian law criminalizes prostitution itself, regardless of whether the person is under 18. Furthermore, the Laotian law prohibiting child prostitution and child pornography includes a provision for “crimes committed overseas.”
The embassy urges people to comply with the laws of both countries and strictly refrain from engaging in illegal activities.
