Civil servant demoted for accessing porn sites 780,000 times during office hours

Friday 02nd May, 02:57 PM JST

TOKYO —

A civil servant was demoted for viewing pornographic websites more than 780,000 times during office hours over a nine-month period, an official said Friday.

The man, an employee of the Kinokawa government in western Japan, visited porn sites from June last year to February 2008, Kinokawa official Tomiko Waki said. The man’s name was withheld.

Despite his frequent porn viewing, none of his colleagues noticed his activities.

“Each desk is set apart from each other,” Waki said, adding that the man accessed porn sites 170,000 times in July alone.

The man’s superiors discovered his extensive porn site visits after his computer became infected with a virus, prompting officials to examine his web browser’s history.

Along with the demotion, he received a 20,000 yen monthly pay cut, Waki said.

Latest 15 of 55 Total Comments Show All

jonobugs at 03:05 AM JST - 3rd May

I can't believe some of you guys are defending this person!

Most companies frown upon personal use of the office equipment such as using the telephone to call your friends or family on non-related business. Surfing the internet to check your email is also a bad idea. Checking out porn is just plain stupid when you're on a company computer. I'm sure most people are forgiving if were an isolated incident, but in this fellows case it's obviously a habit regardless if one click generates multiple hits. He's damn lucky he wasn't just fired for mis-using company equipment.

I think a lot of other people need to be careful as well, regardless of the content. Surfing the internet for personal interest on company time is just asking for trouble! Oh..I better go, the boss is coming!
DirtyOldJoe at 03:46 AM JST - 3rd May

How come the UK news site gave the full story and yet again Japan Today doesn't ?

Agree !!!
WhiteHawk at 03:56 AM JST - 3rd May

A couple of my co-workers would probably admire this guy.

Just don't ask why.
JeromeInJapan at 06:25 AM JST - 3rd May

At least he's not like other guys and groping co-workers or talking dirty to them.
timorborder at 02:08 PM JST - 3rd May

This guy might think of a change of career. With a forehand like that, there is probably a future in professional tennis player. Imagine the backspin he could put on the ball. Sorry, I digress......
Dreamstudio at 05:27 PM JST - 3rd May

He was found out as his computer had a virus (according to the BBC site, JT take note) and had to be examined. His number of hits translates to up to 20 a minute. Obviously this is not possible. Maybe the number was extrapolated, or the virus did it, or, heaven forfend, sensational journalism. Just like when there is a drug bust the value of the dope is 10 times what anyone would pay.
gogogo at 01:46 AM JST - 4th May

How did they come up with that number? There is no way looking at his web history is accurate to get this number? Sounds like the virus made his PC visit those sites.
borscht at 03:02 PM JST - 4th May

In another article about this guy in another country, they give his name and say that he surfed porn sites for up to four hours a day. So I think the 780,000 number was pulled out of someone's ... hat.
DanTheManInJapan at 09:23 AM JST - 5th May

If he were to peep at porn and then clear the pc's history, would they still be able to catch him somehow, a friend wants to know?

Yes.

And depending on what criteria they use to count "accesses", 780,000 might not be such an unbelievable number. Cooked a little to make the story more interesting, maybe, but not impossible. If each page has a few dozen thumbnailed pictures and each picture is counted toward the total, then a few pages per minute can add up to thousands of "accesses" per hour.
eleewhm at 09:24 AM JST - 5th May

damm.. he must have hit those sites which opens mutiple windows..
zzonkerr at 04:00 PM JST - 5th May

780,000 times in a nine-month period?

Amateur.
presidentbaka at 06:38 PM JST - 6th May

780,000 times in nine months is practically impossible. He'd have to be clicking 516 pages an HOUR in a given 40 hour work week. Granted, he was probably working a lot more hours, but even if he was working say 70 hours a week, he'd have to still click approximately 342 pages an hour! If each page takes approximately 5 to 10 seconds to load up, we can see that it becomes near on impossible and senseless to even try, given that he wouldn't have time to view them. Probably clicked on a mere several hundred pages with a crap load of links that work behind the scenes. This would make more sense.

Anyway, obviously the guy's a perv and not very computer literate, otherwise he would have used a legal software program to keep his computer clean such as http://www.regcurescan.com

Never mind reducing his pay - send him to the dole office!
beavis at 12:14 PM JST - 7th May

Civil servant demoted for accessing porn sites 780,000 times during office hours

This guy is my hero!
Hikozaemon at 12:43 PM JST - 7th May

If you could find no other reason to fire him, I would say that 170,000 porn site views in a month could be seen as constructive sexual harassment of IT staff...

Peace
flammenwerfer at 09:57 PM JST - 7th May

what a loser on so many levels and he kept his job, guess that makes him a winner at one thing. I guess he is now the office joke, though being such a loser in the first place he probably already was...

The thing that amazes me the most is how sloppy he was at it, no proxy, no erasing his tracks just a amazon river flow of porn....how sad