A prison inmate already awaiting trial for two murders was served a third arrest warrant Tuesday on suspicion of killing a housewife in Saga Prefecture in December 1988.
Teruhiko Matsue, 39, is believed to have murdered three women whose bodies were found together in woods in the town of Kitagata in January 1989.
The latest arrest warrant relates to the killing of Kiyomi Nakashima, 50, from Kitagata, which is also Matsue's hometown.
Matsue allegedly strangled Nakashima on the evening of Dec. 7, 1988. She was reported missing after going to a sports center a few hundred meters from her home.
Earlier this year, Matsue was served arrest warrants and charged with the murders of Sumiko Fujise, a 48-year-old restaurant employee, in July 1987, and Tatsuyo Yoshino, a 37-year-old seamstress, in January 1989.
Matsue has denied all the charges against him.
He was already in prison when first arrested in June on suspicion of murder. He was serving a two-year sentence, imposed in March, for breaking and entering.
He admitted murdering the three women in 1989, when he was arrested in a separate case, but later retracted his confession, saying it had been made under duress from the police.