More than 84,000 e-mail messages carrying the "Love Bug" computer virus had been detected as of Monday evening in Japan, leading antivirus software provider Trend Micro Inc. said.

Sony Corp. said that its employees had received about 70,000 e-mail messages apparently infected with the virus at its domestic group companies, but the firm avoided damage by deleting the messages as soon as they reached server computers, Sony officials said.

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry detected 20 infected e-mail messages.