TOKYO — A Japanese man was arrested on Wednesday for using a stun gun to discipline his three children, police said.

The 45-year-old man in the southern city of Kitakyushu told police he used a stun gun on his two daughters, aged 17 and 13, and 11-year-old son "when they didn't follow the rules," a police official told Reuters.

The boy suffered a minor burn on his arm and there were no visible injuries on the girls, the official added.

A series of high-profile child abuse cases in recent years has shaken Japan, including the death last year of a 5-year-old girl, Yua Funato, whose father beat and starved her in the name of discipline.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at the time her death was "soul-crushing" and he promised steps to prevent more deaths.

Legislators in the powerful lower house of parliament on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to ban corporal punishment of children by their parents, paving the way for passage of a revised law during the current session.

More than 50 countries — mostly in Europe — have laws prohibiting corporal punishment of children in the home.

Japan would be the third country in Asia to institute such a ban after Mongolia in 2016 and Nepal two years later.