SAITAMA, JAPAN - A high school principal in Saitama Prefecture has been arrested for harassing a former student by sending her e-mails and a letter demanding they maintain their romantic relationship.

According to the Saitama prefectural police, the principal of Kawaguchi High School, Kazuo Ichikawa, 56, allegedly sent a letter and two e-mail messages from late November to mid-December to the woman in her 20s.

The messages asked her not to break up with him and said, among other things: "I don't care what happens. I even don't mind killing a person."

Ichikawa, from Ageo in the prefecture, was the vice principal of a high school in the northern part of the prefecture from 2000 to 2002. He began dating the woman in 2002 when she was a second-year student at the school. They continued to date after she turned 20, but she later said she wanted to break up last spring.

Ichikawa has admitted sending the messages, but was quoted as telling the police, "I didn't intend to threaten her."