LEAD: 7 nabbed for producing pornography using Thai girls

Asian Economic News, Nov 13, 2000

YOKOHAMA, Nov. 7 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH ARRESTS OF 7 PEOPLE IN PORNOGRAPHY SCHEME)

Seven Japanese were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of producing and selling obscene videotapes featuring teenage Thai girls last year, police said.

The suspects, including Akihisa Kuga, 51, president of Connection, a Tokyo-based video production and sales company, and video cameraman Tatsuya Kobayashi, 35, are accused of producing a videotape featuring two Thai girls, aged 16 and 17, in Thailand in December last year.

Kuga and two of his firm's employees are also suspected of selling copies of a separate pornographic videotape featuring another Thai girl to three people in Japan in November and December last year.

The suspects are accused of violating a Japanese law, which came into effect in November last year, banning prostitution involving children aged 17 or younger. However, they deny the allegation, telling investigators they thought the girls were at least 18.

Investigators believe that the suspects began producing and selling videotapes featuring young girls from around 1989. Last year, the business earned some 800 million yen in sales made at retail outlets and over the Internet.