SAGAMIHARA, Kanagawa -- A man here has been arrested on suspicion of taking a woman who had been sleeping on a train back to his apartment and confining her there, police said.

Police officers at Sagamihara Police Station arrested Yoshifumi Kurita, 33, a dispatch worker from the city's Chuo Ward, on suspicion of confinement. They allege that between June 4 and 5, Kurita confined a 28-year-old woman living in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, in his apartment. They say that the woman boarded a train at a JR station in Tokyo early on the morning of June 4 and fell asleep, and when she woke up on the morning of June 5 she was in an apartment in Sagamihara. Kurita was in the apartment, but the woman was able to flee when he let his guard down.

Police say that Kurita is maintaining silence when asked about the motives for and method used in the confinement. They also say that since the end of last year, there have been five other cases of women who say they boarded trains in Tokyo or Kanagawa Prefecture in the early morning hours, fell asleep and woke up in an unknown man's residence in Sagamihara. Police are investigating these other cases as well.