A knife-wielding 46-year-old man was arrested Wednesday, roughly 16½ hours after taking a woman in her 20s hostage at her apartment in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, police said.
After hours of pleas by authorities to free the woman, the suspect, identified as Kazuhiro Honda, released his hostage unharmed and was arrested at around 1:30 p.m.
Police said the woman, who lives in the Matsuyama flat, had previously been in a relationship with the man.
After the woman's parents reported her missing Tuesday, investigators visited her apartment and found the man holding her at knife-point and shouting at them not to enter.
The three-story building, located in a residential area just over a kilometer northwest of JR Matsuyama Station, had been cordoned off and surrounded by uniformed police officers and investigators wearing tactical gear.