Four men robbed a pachinko parlor Monday in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, with three of them making off with 36 million yen in cash, local police said.
The fourth man, identified as Seiji Seguchi, 21, was arrested on the spot for robbery after being subdued by a parlor employee, they said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.
The robbery occurred at around 9:10 a.m., right after the parlor opened. About 30 to 50 customers were inside.
According to police, the four men entered the first-floor office of the pachinko parlor, threatened a 28-year-old male employee with a club and tied his arms behind his back with rope.
They then ordered a female employee at knifepoint to open the safe, which was in the next room. When the male employee untied himself and entered the room with the safe, Seguchi was still there and was wrestled down.
Seguchi, who has no fixed address or occupation, was quoted as telling police he was approached by an older man near Nagoya Station after noon the previous day. Seguchi said the man offered to let him in "on a good job," which turned out to be the burglary, investigators said.
This man did not take part in the robbery itself, and Seguchi maintained that he did not know any of the other men in the heist. Because the suspect had the keys to the robbers' car, the remaining three are believed to have fled on foot, police said.