TOKYO, JAPAN: A Japanese official has been suspended for clicking on pornographic web sites 780,000 times during working hours in just nine months, press reports said Friday (May 2).

The 57-year-old man, who has not been named, was allowed to keep his job despite accessing adult sites a massive 170,000 times in July alone - an average of 17 clicks a minute if he worked a normal eight-hour day.

He was suspended from his job as deputy head of the land registry division in Kinokawa, a rural city south of Osaka, for three months and demoted to a lower position, domestic news reports said.

"I feel sorry for what I have done. I will never do it again," he was quoted as saying.

The land registry official started accessing overseas pornographic sites in June last year at his terminal, where he was supposed to formulating documents.

His secret habit was only discovered in January, when his computer was hit by a virus and officials checked his online history, the reports said.

Kinokawa Mayor Shinji Nakamura said: "We will make efforts to enforce discipline and restore public trust in us," according to the reports.

No one was immediately available at the city office to confirm the reports.