TOKYO — A former school principal accused of paying for sex with 12,700 women in the Philippines — including minors — was arrested in Japan, according to police and local media reports. 
 
 Yuhei Takahashi, 64, was arrested on Wednesday for filming sex acts with minors between the ages of 13 and 14 at a hotel in Manila in January 2014 and for producing child porn, Kanagawa Prefectural Police told NBC News. 
 
 The police raid of his home turned up roughly 400 photo albums containing images of over 12,000 women in their teens and some as old as in their 70s, according to the Asahi Shimbum daily newspaper. According the Asahi report, the photographs are believed to have been taken over the course of 20 years during Takahashi's 65-plus visits to the Philippines — dating back to 1988 when he taught at a Japanese school there. 
 
 Takahashi told police he met the women in the Philippines and remembered thinking the "price was cheap," the newspaper reported, citing a police source. It added that Takahashi also told police that deviating from "moral behavior" gave him a "sense of freedom." 
 
 The local education board in Yokohama city apologized for the incident at a Thursday press conference, saying that Takahashi began teaching in 1975 and later served as a junior high school principal until his retirement in 2012. 
 
 One of the officials present could not hide his disbelief: "He was a principal and as someone who served at a post which requires responsibility conducted these acts — when we first heard it we just could not believe it." 
 
 — Arata Yamamoto 

 Story highlights Police: Yuhei Takashima, 64, says he had sex with girls as young as 14 in Philippines 
 
 Officers seize nearly 150,000 photos that the former principal kept of his activities 
 
 Tokyo (CNN) A former school principal in Japan says he paid for sex with more than 12,000 women -- some of them girls as young as 14 -- during repeated visits to the Philippines over more than a quarter of a century, according to police. 
 
 Now, at the age of 64, he's facing criminal charges. 
 
 Japanese police say they arrested the man, Yuhei Takashima, on Wednesday over allegations he photographed an obscene act with a girl of 13 or 14 and produced pornography in a hotel room in Manila, the Philippine capital. 
 
 Police officers seized 147,600 photos that Takashima took of his activities over the years, said Takeshi Akimoto, the police officer in charge of crime involving minors in Kanagawa, a prefecture south of Tokyo. 
 
 The pictures were kept in more than 400 photo albums, he said. 
 
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 The former principal of a junior high school in Yokohama was arrested Wednesday for taking photos of sexual acts with a teenage girl in Manila at around the start of 2014. 
 
 Police sources said officers found nearly 150,000 such photos involving more than 12,000 females, contained in around 400 albums, in the home of Yuhei Takashima, 64. 
 
 The sources said Takashima admitted to violating the law on child prostitution and pornography and told them he had wanted to keep records of females he met. 
 
 He allegedly told the police that about 10 percent of the females were younger than 18. 
 
 He reportedly began to buy sex from local females when he spent three years in the Philippines on business starting 1988. Since then, he has traveled there 65 times.
– Police say they've discovered a disturbing collection of 147,600 photos of women and minors in the home of an ex-principal they arrested in Japan. Yuhei Takahashi, 64—who faces child pornography charges stemming from photos he allegedly took of sex acts involving a teen in the Philippines in January 2014—reportedly told Japanese authorities he first began paying for sex while posted at a Japanese school in Manila in 1988. He made 65 return trips to the country after the 3-year job ended because the sex was "cheap," NBC News reports, via Japanese paper Asahi Shimbum. Police say Takahashi admitted to paying for sex with 12,700 girls and women, ranging in age from 13 or 14 to their 70s, over 27 years. The Japan Times reports Takahashi told police that 10% of the women were under 18. The AFP reports he also admitted to documenting the women "to keep the memories" and reportedly said that engaging in immoral behavior gave him a feeling of "freedom." Takahashi began teaching in 1975 and served as a junior high school principal from 2008 until his retirement in 2011, CNN reports. "He was a principal and as someone who served at a post which requires responsibility conducted these acts—when we first heard it we just could not believe it," an education official said at a press conference. A police rep says Takashima had been under investigation since 2013. The AFP notes Japan is able to prosecute certain crimes, even though they might've been committed abroad. (Read how a Walking Dead actress helped rescue sex slaves in Colombia.)