Overview

• Fukushima prefectural police arrested Manabe Issa, 23, on suspicion of theft and building trespass tied to a supposed armed robbery at the Big Tsubame Aizuwakamatsu parlor.
• Police allege Manabe reentered the closed store with an accomplice around 1:50 a.m. on Aug. 12, unlocked an entrance and the safe, took the cash, and then phoned in a robbery report as the apparent victim.
• Two suspects arrested earlier—Murayama Ren, 21, and a 19-year-old vocational student—are accused of serving as driver and the apparent perpetrator and face robbery charges.
• Investigators say the gun seen on surveillance was a toy, a point acknowledged by the juvenile and Murayama.
• Authorities say roughly ¥28 million was moved to Tokyo and handed to another person, and they are probing who directed the operation.