TOKYO - A Japanese computer game in which players rape women and girls, impregnate them and then force them to get abortions has stirred international criticism among human rights groups and lawmakers overseas.

New York-based international human rights organization Equality Now has demanded that the sale of the game, developed by a Yokohama-based firm in 2006, be banned in Japan and overseas.

In the video game, a player gropes two girls, who appear to be teenagers, and their mother while on a train, then rapes the three, impregnating them. The player then forces the three to terminate their pregnancies.

The game has been discussed by overseas-based human rights organizations.

In Britain, lawmakers learned that the game could be purchased on the Amazon online shopping site and proposed a motion in Parliament in February expressing their opposition to domestic distribution of the game.

Following this move - widely reported in the British media and other countries - Britain-based Amazon.co.uk halted the sale of the game later that month, with a similar decision made by the Amazon headquarters in the United States soon after.

In Japan, however, regulation of child pornography is lax, so the game is still available via online shopping sites, despite Amazon Japan recently halting sales.

In early May, Equality Now released a statement saying that in Japan the games industry profits from games featuring violence against girls and women. It also criticized the growing market for pornography found in Japan known as "roricon," or "Lolita complex," which has a child pornography theme.

In the statement, the human rights organization also criticizes the government, saying it should take measures to ban the distribution of such games.

On Wednesday, Equality Now began asking its 30,000 members in 160 countries to send letters of protest to those who make and sell computer games that feature violation of women, such as rape and confinement.

It called for letters of protest to be sent to the games maker, companies that stock such games for sale, Prime Minister Taro Aso and other senior government officials.

Japan-based human rights groups also have started lobbying the industry to make changes.

Under domestic law, salacious images of children aged less than 18 are considered child pornography, and production and sale of such images is banned.

However, possession of child pornography by individuals - including images downloaded on computers - is not considered illegal in the country.

The production and sale of animated and computer-generated pornographic images are not regulated under the law.

International groups have called for the possession of child pornography to be made illegal in Japan.

An official of the Yokohama maker in question told The Yomiuri Shimbun: "We were given official approval for domestic sale of this game by the institution the industry established for voluntary screening (of games).

"We weren't aware of the protest by the overseas human rights organization, so I can't comment on the issue," the official said.

Hiroshi Nakasatomi, a gender studies researcher and associate professor of Fukushima University, said, "Japan is known as a leading producer of game software and animation featuring sexual abuse of women. The genre is called hentai (pervert) overseas, and human rights groups abroad have long been critical (of this type of product)."