Some 220 million yen was reported stolen from a safe at the home of a 57-year-old man residing in the town of Ichikai, Tochigi Prefecture, Saturday evening, police said.
According to police, Shoichi Suzuki, who currently has no job, notified them at around 7:45 p.m. that a safe in his bedroom had been opened and the roughly 226 million yen in cash inside had disappeared.
The theft was discovered after Suzuki, his wife and his mother returned home from an outing, police said.
At the time of the incident, Suzuki's wife had the key to the safe. The door of the safe had been left open, but there was no sign that the house had been forcibly entered or that the safe had been pried open.
Police said they were asking the couple why such a large amount of cash had been kept in the safe rather than at a bank.