A 29-year-old man was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of dismembering and abandoning the body of a woman, which was found in a former company dormitory in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, police said.
The suspect was identified as Masahiro Hasegawa, an unemployed man from Sakura in the prefecture.
According to investigators, Hasegawa has admitted the allegations, saying he met the woman through a telephone dating service and somehow found himself strangling her. Police will soon obtain another warrant for alleged murder, investigative authorities said.
Investigators claim that Hasegawa met the woman in February or March last year and strangled her in a car on the day they first met. He then carried the body to the building. Toward the end of December, he cut off the left arm using a saw in an attempt to dismember the body and bury it, they said.
The woman gave her name as Miki or Mika, Hasegawa was quoted as saying. Police are still trying to identity her.
The decomposed body was found Tuesday afternoon by children who were playing nearby. Several plastic bags and a saw were discovered near the body, according to police. Hasegawa gave himself up to police in Narashino on Friday morning, accompanied by his 66-year-old mother.
Hasegawa had a key to the abandoned dormitory as he and his mother, who was its caretaker, had lived on the first floor of the building until it was shut down nine years ago.