An elderly man was arrested Friday on suspicion of starting a fire on a shinkansen bullet train in the western prefecture of Okayama, police said.

The 80-year-old man, who identified himself as Yasuhiro Watanabe from Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, was arrested at JR Okayama Station, they said, adding he has admitted to the charge.

Watanabe was sitting in a window seat in the front car of an eight-car train bound for Kagoshima-Chuo Station in southwestern Japan when he set fire to papers on a seat with a lighter just before the train was due to stop at Okayama.

Passengers nearby put the fire out, the police said, adding no one was injured in the incident.

According to West Japan Railway Co., the Mizuho No. 615 bullet train, carrying about 350 passengers, was cancelled following the incident. Subsequent bullet train services were delayed by up to 19 minutes, affecting around 4,600 people.

The incident took place on the JR Sanyo Shinkansen Line connecting Shin-Osaka in western Japan and Hakata in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan. The bullet train was scheduled to travel beyond Hakata to Kagoshima-Chuo on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line.

In 2015, in the worst ever incident on a shinkansen train, a 71-year-old man set himself on fire on a bullet train travelling in Kanagawa Prefecture, killing both himself and a female passenger as a result. A total of 26 other passengers on board were also hurt.

After that case, railway operators stepped up security measures, including introducing cameras to constantly monitor the passenger cars of shinkansen trains.