Google is being swamped with requests from Europeans trying to erase unflattering links to their past from the world's dominant internet search engine.

Google has received nearly 145,000 requests from people in Europe looking to polish their online reputations, according to numbers released by the company.

That's an average of more than 1,000 requests a day since late May, when Google began accepting submissions after Europe's highest court ruled that some embarrassing information about people's lives can be scrubbed from search results.

The "right to be forgotten" requests can be made by more than 500 million people living in 32 countries.

The removal requests covered more than 497,000 web links, and Google has removed 42% of them.

The numbers emerged as a judge in Japan ordered Google to remove the search results of a man's unflattering past.

Tokyo District Court ordered Google Japan to remove search results that hinted at the man's relations with a criminal organisation after he complained that his privacy rights were violated.