Video footage shows the suspect in a road rage case that occurred on the Joban Expressway in Ibaraki Prefecture on Aug. 10. (From “Mr. Sunday,” a TV program aired by a Fuji Television-affiliated station)

Police turned over investigative papers on a monk suspected of assaulting another motorist for flashing his headlights at him in Osaka Prefecture earlier this year.

The case is the latest disclosed road rage incident in a string across Japan, involving even those in presumably dignified positions.

The Buddhist priest, 61, from Matsubara in Osaka Prefecture, was driving a car on a prefectural road in Kita Ward of Sakai in the same prefecture after leaving a parking area around 1:30 p.m on Jan. 20 when a minivehicle behind him flashed its lights, police said Aug. 22.

The monk became enraged and then hit the brakes of his vehicle nearly 10 times over about two minutes, according to police.

When both cars stopped at a red light, the monk reportedly exited his car, approached the minivehicle driver, a 36-year-old male company employee, and grabbed him by the collar.

"The driver was flashing his headlights, and I wanted to advise him not to do that," the monk, who admitted to the charge, was quoted by police as saying.

Police referred the case to Sakai's Local Public Prosecutors Office.

The driver of the minivehicle told investigators, "I flashed my headlights once because the monk's car suddenly entered the road."

In another road rage case, a 42-year-old man from Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, was arrested on suspicion of assault, police announced Aug. 21.

Yoichi Hayashi reportedly struck a 52-year-old man in the driver's seat of a car on a prefectural road around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 3.

After bringing his car to a stop to prevent the man's vehicle from moving, Hayashi is believed to have hit the man in the face repeatedly, grabbed his hair and pulled him from the car, saying, "Are you making fun of me?" and "I'll kill you."

Hayashi denied the charge, saying, "I don't remember that," according to police.

The driver suffered injuries to his neck that required one week of recovery.

The men apparently did not know each other.

Prefectural police believe that the incident may have been prompted by a traffic conflict.