The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Monday 23 November 2009

In the article below we said that the body of Lindsay Hawker, a British teacher, was found at a flat in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo: in fact the city is Ishikawa



Police in Japan say they are questioning the man suspected of murdering Lindsay Hawker, a British teacher whose badly beaten body was found in an apartment near Tokyo in March 2007.

TV reports said Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, had been arrested in Osaka, western Japan, days after it was revealed he had attempted to transform his appearance by undergoing extensive plastic surgery.

The development came just over two and a half years after Hawker's body was found at Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa, a suburban town in Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo.

The 22-year-old, from Brandon, near Coventry, had been severely beaten and strangled, and her arms and legs bound with plastic cord.

The British teacher's father, Bill Hawker, welcomed the arrest of her suspected killer as "a good day for the Hawkers".

He said he would travel to Japan as he "wanted to look Ichihashi in the eyes himself. We wanted justice and we've finally got justice," Hawker said.

He added that Ichihashi had shown "no remorse" over the past two and a half years. "This has been a long hard battle and the battle is over. We have worked tirelessly as a family, we have never given up," Hawker said. He added: "I hope the Japanese society give him the maximum punishment available."

Early reports said police had stopped Ichihashi as he was about to board a ferry for Okinawa.

Earlier Ichihashi's mother called a TV programme to plead with her son to give himself up, the first public comment made by his parents, both wealthy medical professionals, since his disappearance.

"It's mum, Tatsuya," the woman said in an audio message aired on Fuji TV. "Dad and mum have decided to speak about our feelings, although we know you won't like this."

She said she and her husband were pleased to hear comments in the media by his construction site colleagues that he had been a hard worker and wanted to be good to his parents. "If so, please go to [the] police station and tell them the truth. Please."

The Japanese media reported today that Ichihashi had lived in the Osaka area for just over a year until last month, working as a day labourer for a construction firm. He is thought to have saved about 1m yen (£6,600), enough to pay for cosmetic surgery.

Ichihashi's fingerprints were found in a dormitory belonging to the firm, along with comics, an English dictionary and a passport application, leading police to believe he may have been planning to flee overseas.

Ichihashi, who had stalked Hawker and followed her home on one occasion, evaded nine police officers when he was approached for questioning and has remained at large ever since, despite fleeing in bare feet and with no money.

Hours before her death, security cameras captured Hawker giving Ichihashi a private language lesson in a nearby cafe after he had begged her to teach him English. One theory is that he lured her to his flat after pretending he had insufficient cash with him to pay for the lesson.

Subsequent leads have come to nothing, despite 8,000 reported sightings. In June, police increased the reward for information leading to his arrest from 1m yen to 10m yen.

Hawker had been teaching English at a branch of the Nova English conversation school since October 2006, after graduating from Leeds University that year.