Man arrested for starting fire on Japan's Shinkansen bullet train

An elderly man was arrested by police on suspicion of setting fire on a Shinkansen bullet train in Okayama, western Japan, local police and the train's operator said on Friday.

According to local reports, 80-year-old Yasuhiro Watanabe was arrested by police at JR Okayama Station and admitted to the charge of arson.

Watanabe, who was sitting in the front car of the eight-car train headed for Kagoshima-Chuo Station in southwestern Japan, reportedly set fire to papers shortly after 11 a.m. local time using a cigarette lighter. Along with the papers, part of a seat was also burned.

Nearby passengers, however, were quick to extinguish the blaze and local police said that no one was injured as a result of the incident.

The train, with a top speed of 300 km/h stopped at Okayama Station, and passengers were quickly shifted to other trains.

The Mizuho No. 615 Shinkansen Watanabe was traveling on had its service canceled following the incident and West Japan Railways Co. said that other services were delayed as a result of the occurrence.

Ordinarily, the train connects Shin-Osaka in Japan's west, with Hakata in Fukuoka, in the country's southwest. Thereafter, some bullet trains on the JR Sanyo Shinkansen line continue to Kagoshima-Chuo on the Kyushu Shinkansen line.

Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains have a stellar safety record, although in June, 2015, a man set himself ablaze on a Shinkansen bullet train killing himself and a female passenger in the fire and injuring scores of others, forcing the train to make an emergency stop southwest of Tokyo just before noon.

Eyewitnesses, police and firefighters said at the time that a man doused himself in an accelerant thought to be oil he was carrying in a plastic canister and continued to set fire to himself using a lighter, causing the most serious incident ever on a Shinkansen in the trains' spotless safety history.

Investigators Friday said they are currently looking into Watanabe's motives for starting a fire on one of Japan's iconic Shinkansen bullet trains.