OSAKA — Police questioning a 56-year-old man arrested Friday afternoon for alleged attempted blackmail of Santen Pharmaceutical Co. found the suspect had no personal ties to the leading eyewash maker.

Police also said that the suspect, Takeshi Maeda, unemployed, told them that the blackmail scheme occurred to him when he saw an eye dropper in his house.

Maeda, from Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, was arrested on suspicion of sending a bottle of doctored Santen eyewash to the company and demanding 20 million yen from the Osaka-based maker.