Japanese-Peruvians living here expressed shock and worried about their community's image after a man of Peruvian and Japanese descent was arrested Wednesday in connection with the murder of a 7-year-old girl in Hiroshima.

Kensuke Ogata, 75, a second-generation Japanese-Peruvian who heads the Peru Friendship Association in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, said members of his community were good people.

"Many Japanese descendants are working hard while leading decent lives," Ogata said. "We staged an event for friendship exchanges just last week. I am speechless."

A Japanese-Peruvian man living in Mie Prefecture, where suspect Juan Carlos Pizarro Yagi was arrested, said: "It's hard to believe someone would kill a small child. I am worried that the Japanese people may develop feelings that Peruvians are bad.

"Peruvians generally like children and are warm-hearted, so I am shocked by the arrest."

According to the Justice Ministry, about 21,000 Peruvians were living in Japan as of the end of 2004, making them the second-largest community of Latin Americans after Brazilians.

In Lima, news of the arrest baffled the Japanese-Peruvian community.

The Japanese Peruvian Association there said it had received numerous inquiries, including several from Japanese media organizations, about the suspect.

The association said it had no information about a man matching Yagi's description.

A Japanese news media source in Peru said resident registration papers that listed a person as Japanese-Peruvian were sold at one time for about $7,000 each to anyone who wanted to work in Japan, a scandal that made headlines in the 1980s and 1990s.

"The suspect could also be faking his identity as a Japanese descendant," said the source.

According to Peruvian police sources, there is a resident registration -- required for all Peruvians aged 18 or older -- for a Juan Carlos Pizarro Yagi, born in 1974 in Trujillo, about 500 km north of Lima.

However, it is not known if the registration is for the same man who was arrested in Hiroshima.