A 53-year-old man was arrested Monday on suspicion of killing a man in a traffic accident in Aichi Prefecture in a bid to fake his own death and collect life insurance money, police said.
Kiyoshi Hasegawa was arrested in the town of Kamiyamada in Nagano Prefecture on suspicion of driving a truck into a container trailer in the town of Yatomi on June 15, killing Kazumi Ito, an unemployed 52-year-old, who was seated in the passenger seat, police said.
Police said Hasegawa, president of a small construction firm in Aichi Prefecture, then fled the scene, hoping to make it look like he was the one who had been killed in the crash.
Hasegawa was covered by a life insurance policy that would have paid out tens of millions of yen to his family in the event of his death.
A 14-year-old boy who also was in the truck told police that Hasegawa made Ito drink large amounts of alcohol before intentionally driving into the container trailer, according to police.
Ito was apparently heavily intoxicated with "shochu" when the fatal incident occurred at around 2 a.m. on June 15.
Hasegawa was arrested in Nagano Prefecture after his station wagon was found on a road near the Gifu Hashima Interchange of the Meishin Expressway in Gifu Prefecture.
Last Thursday, police issued an arrest warrant for Hasegawa on suspicion of murder.