Japan shuts down largest boy porn site

TOKYO (AFP) - Police have shut down Japan's largest underage boy pornography website, which has drawn millions of hits, a newspaper said Thursday.

Police arrested five men on Wednesday on child prostitution and child pornography charges over the website, including a 49-year-old who taught at a cram school, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, quoting police.

A police spokesman in Kanagawa prefecture, where the arrests were reported, declined comment.

The Yomiuri said that the website was drawing 6,000 hits a day before being closed earlier this month, with a total of 6.84 million hits since it was launched three years ago.

Website staff took photos and video footage of naked boys at swimming pools or public baths, the newspaper said. They also pretended to be boys' guardians so they could attend school sports events and take images of children changing.

Police seized 3,000 DVDs, 20 cameras and videocameras and 10 computers, the Yomiuri said.