Two men have been arrested for allegedly faxing a bomb threat to a Tokyo college, police said Wednesday, adding that the pair are suspected of sending over 300,000 similar faxes to other schools, firms and local governments across Japan.
Sho Okuma, 26, and Nao Sato, 22, were arrested by police on suspicion of obstructing the business of Tokyo College of Music on Jan. 23 by sending a fax stating that 334 bombs were planted at the school and that they would be set off if ¥300,000 ($2,000) was not paid.
There were no explosives at the college, according to police.
The suspects have sympathized with a group called Koshinkyo that is known to have attacked a lawyer via online forums, police said. Many of the faxes sent from January to May insinuated that they'd been sent by the lawyer and demanded that money be transferred to a bank account.
Okuma was quoted by police as saying, "I first learned about Koshinkyo when I was in high school and wanted to seek attention so I came up with an idea of using faxes to harass people."
Sato, meanwhile, told police that he wanted to publicize the ideas of Koshinkyo, adding, "I thought it would be fun if this became a big deal."
The group has been active since the 2010s and has sent a considerable number of bomb threats to schools and public institutions that were purportedly sent by the lawyer, according to police.
Investigators have found records in a computer seized from Sato that showed the suspects had sent over 300,000 faxes using an online bulk fax service.
The suspects sent the faxes using Tor, software that anonymizes the user's identity, investigative sources said.