Tansa and its investigative partners found and interviewed one of Album Collection’s founders in Singapore.

(Illustration by qnel)

The smartphone app Album Collection was used to trade sexual images of children and women, causing extensive harm. The app temporarily ranked first in downloads in the “Photos & Videos” category of Apple’s App Store. In January 2024, it ceased all functions.

Who had operated Album Collection? Tansa’s discovery of Album Collection’s two predecessor apps, Photo Capsule and Video Container, led us to two people: Kenichi Takahama and Keisuke Nitta.

We reported our findings in this series in the fall of 2023.

In response, Takahama and Nitta, via a letter from their lawyers that we received on Nov. 24, 2023, demanded that Tansa remove the articles. The stated reason was that Takahama and Nitta only operated the app until March 2020. After that, they said they transferred Album Collection to Eclipse Incorporated in Hawaii and no longer had any involvement in the app’s operation.

However, we had myriad doubts and questions.

For example, if it was true that they operated Album Collection until March 2020, why did they sell the app, where crime was rampant, to Eclipse in Hawaii?

Eclipse showed no signs of activity. How did Takahama and Nitta become acquainted with the management of such a company? Did Takahama and Nitta really have no connection to Eclipse?

Prior to Album Collection, Takahama and Nitta’s company operated similar apps called Photo Capsule and Video Container. Buying and selling sexual images of children and women was also rampant on both. Why did Takahama and Nitta continue business with the same type of app?

The day after I received their article removal request, I headed to Singapore with Tansa Editor-in-Chief Makoto Watanabe to speak with Takahama directly.

Marina Bay Sands, an iconic building of Singapore. Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2023, by reporters from the NHK Special “Investigative Reporting: The New Century.”

In the midst of Singapore’s skyscrapers

According to his profile in a co-authored publication “How to Find Ways to Make Profit, by Five People Who Achieved Their Goal: The Start” (Forest Publishing), Takahama is semi-retired and has moved to Singapore. But, at first, we didn’t know where in Singapore we could find him. With the help of NHK researchers based there, we identified a few places Takahama frequents.

On Nov. 26, the day after we arrived in Singapore, Watanabe and I, as well as a cameraman and a researcher from NHK, headed for one of the locations where we expected Takahama to appear. It was in the center of Singapore, with skyscrapers lining the streets.

We arrived, about an hour ahead of schedule, at an open space nestled among the buildings. While driving around the area, the NHK researcher spotted a person sitting on a bench — it was Takahama. He looked just as he did in the photographs I had seen. I felt my heart beat faster.

From a distance, we waited for Takahama to be alone. After about two hours, as dusk fell at around 7 p.m., Watanabe and I approached him.

“You’re Kenichi Takahama, right? I’m Mariko Tsuji from Tansa,” I said. “I’ve come to talk to you about Album Collection.”

Takahama looked slightly puzzled.

“Does it have to be now?” he asked.

“You can finish your errand first,” I replied, and Takahama agreed to be interviewed, saying he would regroup with us soon.

“I’m not involved in any way”

We interviewed Takahama for about 40 minutes, still standing outdoors. (Brackets in the following exchange have been added by Tansa.)

“I don’t know [if I can answer your questions] because this is the first I’ve heard of your visit,” Takahama said. “I believe I got something in writing, but I didn’t realize until later.”

“In writing” was in reference to questions we had sent Takahama in August 2023, in which we also requested an interview. Takahama hadn’t responded.

When Takahama noticed the NHK camera filming a little distance away, he became irritated. “I didn’t agree to be filmed,” he said. Although we explained that we were jointly conducting this investigation with NHK, Takahama refused to be filmed, so we stopped in order to continue speaking with him.

First, Takahama denied any involvement in the operation of Album Collection.

“I spoke with Nitta as well, and, as a matter of fact, we have absolutely nothing to do with it,” he said.

Absolutely nothing to do with it? That was doubtful.

Takahama and Nitta’s lawyers acknowledged that their clients operated Photo Capsule and Album Collection jointly or independently from September 2014 through March 2020. They only claimed that Takahama and Nitta were not involved after the company was transferred to Eclipse in Hawaii in March 2020.

When I asked Takahama again, this time he denied his own involvement.

“That’s Nitta. I wasn’t involved in any way,” he said.

How many people were involved in operating Album Collection?

“Nitta basically did it alone,” Takahama said.

“First Penguin made the purchase”

In response to Takahama’s insistence that he had nothing to do with Album Collection and that Nitta had managed it alone, I next asked him about Photo Capsule.

Photo Capsule could be considered the prototype for Album Collection. In chronological order, Photo Capsule, Video Container, and Album Collection all became hotbeds of crime, where sexual images of children and women were traded.

Max Payment Gateway Services began operating Photo Capsule in 2014, and Takahama had founded Max. Why had Max begun operating the app?

“Max ran Photo Capsule because First Penguin had bought [the business]. I didn’t buy it, First Penguin did,” Takahama said.

He was saying Photo Capsule was a business purchased by First Penguin from a third party. First Penguin is a company that operates an affiliate service website called Infotop.

Affiliates are online contingency-based advertising. Those who wish to earn advertising fees posts the URL of a company or individual advertisement on their website, blog, or social media. The poster earns money when a reader or viewer clicks on the URL, or when a service or product is sold through the URL.

Why did First Penguin purchase Photo Capsule?

“First Penguin bought Photo Capsule because of the synergy it had with [affiliate service] Infotop,” Takahama said.

Even as founder of First Penguin?

There was a discrepancy in Takahama’s claim that First Penguin, not Max, purchased Photo Capsule: Takahama is not only the founder of Max but also of First Penguin, and it was possible that he was part of its decision.

However, Takahama said he was not actively involved with this either.

“Someone from Infotop [First Penguin] — a director — said they would get [Photo Capsule],” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, ok.’ The extent of my involvement was just that — ‘Understood.’”

“When the director first entered the company, he wanted to make his mark [so he made the purchase]. Basically, he did the M&A. He tried buying something that was generating a certain amount of profit. He bought it because he figured it would be his personal achievement,” he added.

“I don’t think it helped pay”

Takahama claimed that the purchase of Photo Capsule had been led by a First Penguin director who wished to take credit for it. Takahama denied any active involvement himself.

But how would he explain the fact that Max was responsible for operating Photo Capsule? We knew it had done so from the app’s past online records.

“We [Max] were asked [by First Penguin] to manage it. Nitta came to Max [from First Penguin], so [the operation of Photo Capsule] came to Max as well,” Takahama said.

According to past information on recruitment sites, Keisuke Nitta was president of First Penguin in 2014 when it purchased Photo Capsule. Takahama was saying that after he founded Max, Nitta transferred there from First Penguin and took on Photo Capsule’s operation.

If that was the case, then Max was entrusted to operate Photo Capsule by First Penguin, which had originally purchased the app. Did that mean First Penguin had sole ownership?

“Um, at the time, both companies’ names [were on the purchase]. I’m sorry, I don’t remember exactly. Max Payment probably didn’t have much money,” Takahama said with a laugh, “so I don’t think it helped pay.”

He was saying that the two companies jointly purchased Photo Capsule, but Max did not help cover the cost.

Takahama is the founder of both First Penguin and Max. Nitta was president of First Penguin in 2014. It’s possible that First Penguin and Max were, at the time, effectively one and the same.

On his social media profile, Takahama still lists his titles as “Advisor (Senior), Infotop/First Penguin Inc.”

However, Aeria Inc., which later became the parent company of First Penguin, denied that Takahama and Nitta have any involvement its management, and Aeria insisted that it has no connection to Max.

“It is true that Mr. Takahama is the founder of First Penguin and that Mr. Nitta was formerly its representative director, but neither of them is currently involved in the management of the company or its subsidiaries in any way. In addition, First Penguin has no relationship with Max,”

Aeria President and Representative Director Yusuke Kobayashi wrote via email in response to questions from Tansa sent Aug. 28, 2023.

What happened after Video Container?

After Photo Capsule came Video Container and Album Collection.

This process caused much harm to children and women and even led to criminal cases.

What frame of mind were Takahama and Nitta in as they continued to operate apps that had become hotbeds of crime?

Tansa reporters in Singapore. Photo taken on Nov. 26, 2023, by the reporters from the NHK Special “Investigative Reporting: The New Century.”

To be continued.

(Originally published in Japanese on May 30, 2024.)

Uploaded and Re-Uploaded: All articles