Police have yet to make any significant progress in the Lucie Blackman case, despite the arrest last week of a company executive suspected of having had some connection with the missing Briton.
Joji Obara, 48, was arrested Oct. 12 on suspicion of molesting a Canadian bar hostess at his seaside apartment in 1996 after plying her with alcohol. Similarities between that case and Blackman's led police to believe Obara may know of Blackman's whereabouts.
Blackman, 22, who was working as a bar hostess in Tokyo's Roppongi district, told a friend by phone shortly before her disappearance on July 1 that she was going for a drive with a man to a beach.