A computer-system engineer was arrested Monday on suspicion of creating a bogus version of Yahoo Japan Corp.'s Web site to steal personal information from users of the nation's largest portal site, police said.

It is the first arrest for "phishing" in Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said.

Kazuma Yabuno, a 42-year-old Osaka resident, is facing charges of copyright violation and unauthorized access, after he allegedly created and ran a Web site that looked like Yahoo Japan's site — except the main logo, according to the police.

Yabuno, an employee of a computer-system management firm, is also suspected of gaining illegal access to the Yahoo Japan server in late February by using a Yahoo member's account and password obtained from his fake Web site, the police said.

They recently raided his home and confiscated 12 computers and other items, they said.

Police were alerted in late February to the existence of the strange Web site.

Phishing is a scheme to lure Internet users to a bogus Web site that uses the real organization's logo to trick users into providing private information.

Yahoo Japan is a Tokyo-based firm that operates an online information portal offering a search engine, auctions, online shopping and other features.

According to the police, the Web site allegedly created by Yabuno had almost the same design as the genuine one, with the only difference being that the letter "h" in "Yahoo" was replaced with an "f."

Member accounts and passwords were automatically forwarded by e-mail to Yabuno's mobile phone.

About 70 people accessed the fake Web site in the month after the Web site opened in February. Of them, about 20 entered their accounts and passwords.