Japan worker in 780,000 porn hits

By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo

At his peak, the worker was looking at almost 10,000 pages a day

A council employee in Japan has been punished after officials discovered he had logged more than 780,000 hits on porn websites at work in nine months.

His superiors were only alerted to the problem when his computer became infected with a virus.

The 57-year-old man, who has not been named, works for the city of Kinokawa in southern Japan.

He held on to his job, but has been demoted and his wages have been cut by about 20,000 yen ($190; £80) a month.

Productivity question

Each day he would turn up to work, but once in his office it seems unlikely he got much done.

A council investigation found that he visited porn websites almost every day, often spending hours looking at them, a city official said.

His habit reached its peak last July when he surfed for porn more than 177,000 times during office hours.

A council official, trying to explain why no-one had noticed, said that each employee's desk was set apart from the others.

The man was discovered only when his computer became infected with a virus, prompting officials to look at his web-browser history.

He has not been sacked but he has been demoted and his pay cut by about $200 a month. No doubt he is also proving to be a little more productive now.