In an interview with Tansa, Takahama repeatedly claimed he wasn’t involved with nor knew much about the problematic apps’ operations.

(Illustration by qnel)

Together with Tansa Editor-in-Chief Makoto Watanabe, I met with Kenichi Takahama in Singapore to ask him directly about the operation of Album Collection.

Takahama had been involved in the operation of Photo Capsule, a predecessor app to Album Collection.

Photo Capsule had been jointly purchased from another company by First Penguin (formerly Infotop), a company Takahama founded, and Max Payment Gateway Services (hereafter “Max”), of which Takahama was president, for its synergy with affiliate marketing.

But Photo Capsule users bought and sold child sexual abuse material.

Video Container and Album Collection, successor apps to Photo Capsule, also proved to be hotbeds of crime.

Why did Takahama continue to operate such apps? When we asked him, he would not give us a concrete answer. Takahama repeatedly told us that the apps were run by another person, Keisuke Nitta. Nitta and Takahama had requested that Tansa delete our articles pertaining to them.

Tansa reporters prepare for their next interview in Singapore. Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2023, by reporters from the NHK Special “Investigative Reporting: The New Century.”

“Bring child pornography from Photo Capsule”

It is public knowledge that Photo Capsule, which Takahama operated, was used for criminal activity.

At the time, there also existed a similar app called Photo Box. A former president of its operating company was convicted of aiding and abetting a violation of Japan’s Child Pornography Law (public display).

Court records contain instructions from the former president to an employee: “Photo Capsule downloaded child pornography from Photo Box and uploaded it to Photo Capsule, so now we will upload from Photo Capsule to Photo Box.”

In effect, Photo Capsule and Photo Box were scrambling to compete for “product” — child sexual abuse material.

We also found a large number of posts on Photo Capsule’s then message board advertising transactions on the app for sexual images of children.

“Nitta continued in Malaysia” despite increase in illegal images

Takahama himself acknowledged that illegal activity had occurred on Photo Capsule.

“The number of users acting indecently increased,” he said. “Nitta also dealt with it, but after a while we were overwhelmed.”

In the end, however, they decided to change the app’s name and site design and continue operating it. Takahama said Nitta was the one who offered to continue.

“Nitta took it to Malaysia, where labor costs are lower, and tried to improve the user base,” he explained.

As far as I could tell from past data, Photo Capsule ended around 2015. Video Container was created that same year, followed by Album Collection in 2017.

The proliferation of sexual images of women and children also occurred on both Video Container and Album Collection.

“Mr. Takahama, you first operated Photo Capsule,” Watanabe said. “Normally, operations would temporarily stop if an incident occurred involving the police. But you continued operating the apps without pause. Why couldn’t you call it off?”

Takahama just repeated the same answer: “That was, well, Nitta,” “That was Nitta’s matter.”

Fear of retaliation

As the operator, Nitta surely had seen the illegal images being traded on the apps. As president of the company that began doing business using Photo Capsule, what reports had Takahama received from Nitta? (Figures in brackets have been added by Tansa.)

“Nitta dedicated himself [to removing illegal images, etc.], so he did as much as he could,” Takahama said. “He basically never neglected to respond to the police; if a third party said something [was a problem], he responded the same way; and if he found a bad account, he deleted it himself.”

However, Takahama and Nitta never made fundamental improvements. The series of apps continued to be hotbeds of crime from beginning operation in 2014 until being shut down in January 2024.

The victims — women and children — were turned into online “products” through the tools Takahama and Nitta were involved with. My friend, as I reported in the first article of this series, was among the victims.

Images disseminated years earlier still haunt victims’ daily lives. In one case, a man became a victim of sextortion: His blackmailers forced him to pay them to remove his images.

This problem will not be solved simply by deletion. The number of deletions would be only a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of harm being caused.

However, Takahama apparently had his own concerns.

“Ms. Tsuji, I think what you’re doing is very responsible and good. … But back then, people were arrested for what they did on Photo Capsule, so it’s not like there aren’t people who might want to get back at us after their address was made public.”

As part of their operation of Photo Capsule and the other apps, Takahama and Nitta have provided the police with information about perpetrators. Takahama was saying that the pair fear retaliation for this.

However, only a small number of people have been arrested for crimes committed on their apps. Meanwhile, an enormous number of victims have had their images disseminated and used for profit. Moreover, the victims are not at fault in any way.

I thought the number of victims with a grudge against Takahama and Nitta must be overwhelmingly larger than the number of perpetrators who were arrested.

The operators “don’t use” sexual images for revenue?

What did the operators do with the profits that came in from the trade in victims’ images? Once again, Takahama answered that Nitta knew but that he himself was unclear.

“Probably, Nitta — myself as well, but considering Nitta’s nature — is probably not complicit in these crimes. He probably refunds the transactions he finds to be illegal. Of course, I think he does. Refunds, or something…” Takahama said.

Watanabe pressed Takahama to confirm whether Nitta refunded the money.

“I think he did. The point is, we didn’t use that [sexual images] for revenue,” Takahama replied.

Did they really give refunds? If so, the apps likely would not have been a viable business — because as far as I could tell, most of what was traded on Photo Capsule, Video Container, and Album Collection was sexual images.

Even though both their names were on the document

I changed the subject to the transfer of Album Collection. A document sent to Tansa by Takahama and Nitta’s lawyers stated that Album Collection had been transferred to Eclipse, Inc., in Hawaii. Takahama surely knew something about why and how the transfer took place.

However, he replied, “I honestly don’t know.”

“I think if Nitta knew, he would say he does,” he added.

This was very strange. Even if Nitta had been the one responsible for the transfer to Eclipse, they had both put their names on the document stating that they transferred Album Collection: Wouldn’t Takahama have properly confirmed the process?

“Nitta has a strong sense of justice”

Although we had succeeded in interviewing Takahama in Singapore, we were not convinced by many of his claims. At crucial points, he often repeated, “Only Nitta knows about that,” or “Ask Nitta.”

However, there were also times when he defended Nitta.

“I’ve known Nitta for a long time, and, from my point of view, he isn’t really the type capable of this kind of bad act; rather, he has a strong sense of justice,” Takahama said. “I know exactly what kind of man Nitta is, so I can say that with certainty.”

We asked Takahama to convince Nitta to be interviewed. Up to then, we had been unable to obtain Nitta’s contact information and were unable to communicate with him directly.

Takahama promised he would get in touch with Nitta, then left.

Three days later, I received an email from Nitta.

To be continued.

(Originally published in Japanese on June 6, 2024.)

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