Passengers at the Tokyo International Airport, commonly known as Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters
Arrested by Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department was Ryu Matsumoto, 21, from Ota Ward in the Japanese capital.
Matsumoto admitted to the charge, saying, "I wanted a thrill stealing cash."
He also said, "My job is hard, so I thought of quitting and planned to use the money (I stole) to support myself."
Around 6:25 pm on Saturday, Matsumoto is suspected of stealing 90,000 yen from a tray during baggage inspection for a male passenger at Terminal 1 of the airport, pretending to organize the man's belongings while the victim looked away.
Matsumoto allegedly slipped the cash into his shirt pocket, and then moved into a toilet stall and hid the money inside a toilet roll.
The victim noticed that the money was missing after his body check.
Matsumoto was identified as the suspect through security camera footage.
The police suspect that Matsumoto stole a total of about 1.5 million yen in cash from 70 to 80 passengers since around August using similar methods.
Matsumoto joined a security company in Tokyo in April that is entrusted with security checks by Japan Airlines.
He was in charge of guiding passengers for baggage checks at the airport's security checkpoints.
