Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, was found dead in March 2007 on the balcony of an apartment in Chiba, east of Tokyo. She was an English teacher at a private language school and the apartment belonged to one of her students, Tatsuya Ichihashi.
The 30-year-old Ichihashi, who had been on the run since police found the body, was arrested on suspicion of abandonment of a body after being spotted at a ferry terminal in the western city of Osaka, a police official said.
Ichihashi has undergone cosmetic surgery several times while travelling across the country, forcing investigators to verify his identity through fingerprints, the Osaka police official said.
In London, the victim's father, Bill Hawker, told reporters: "The battle is over. We've worked tirelessly as a family, we've never given in. We wanted justice and we finally got justice."
He said his family is so relieved by Ichihashi's arrest and that "I can go down to my daughter's grave to tell her."
In Gifu, the suspect's hometown in central Japan, Ichihashi's father, Masayoshi, said he was "relieved" by his son's arrest. He told his son via an interview with NHK: "You committed a crime. You must be brought to justice. I want you to atone for what you did."
Police recently offered a 10 million yen ($110,000) reward for information leading to Ichihashi's arrest, raising the amount by 10 times from an initial offer.
