Police probe Yahoo! Japan in child porn case

TOKYO -- Yahoo! Japan Corp., Japan's most popular Web site, said Monday that police raided its Tokyo office to investigate the possible sale of illegal pornographic material on its auction site.

Japanese newswire Kyodo News reported that a male suspect, who has been arrested, advertised and sold pornographic videos featuring children on Yahoo!'s auction site. The advertisements for the child porno videos were posted on the site between June and August, according to police.

The suspect, 38-year-old dance-school operator Shinichi Hori, was quoted as telling detectives that he had sold the videos to some 300 people through the auction site.

The investigation comes as Japan is still forming policies and laws over content on the country's burgeoning Internet.

The raid is a new wrinkle for Yahoo! Japan's parent, Yahoo! Inc. (yhoo) of Santa Clara, Calif. Last week, it was ordered by the French government to block French users from Nazi-related materials found on its U.S-based servers. -- WSJ Interactive