The Chiba Prefectural Police on Tuesday arrested a 20-year-old male university student of Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, who turned himself in last month, claiming he has sent bomb threat emails to several local governments, some of which took preventive action due to the threats.

The police said they are investigating the man, who was arrested on suspicion of stealing two name plates from a building in Tokyo's Minato Ward, also in connection with the bomb threats.

Local governments in municipalities such as Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, and the cities of Chiba and Nagano have said they received emails from a person who claimed to be a lawyer saying he had placed a bomb in municipal government buildings.

The Kofu Municipal Government closed all public day care centers and elementary and junior high schools in the city for safety reasons on Monday afternoon, as the email said the bomb would explode at 3:34 p.m. Monday. The municipal government building was also closed temporarily the same day.

Children and students of all public kindergartens and schools in the city of Nagano went home in the early afternoon on Monday.

Similar emails had been sent to municipalities since last year. The man presented himself at a police station in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, in January and said he sent the emails, but he was not arrested at that time.