Tokyo, Oct 20 (IANS): Police in Tokyo and its three neighbouring prefectures have set up a joint investigation headquarters amid a spate of robbery cases targeting private homes in the Tokyo metropolitan area since August, local media reported.

In several of the 14 cases investigated by Tokyo police and their counterparts in Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, the same account names on a highly confidential messaging app were used to contact the perpetrators, who used similar tactics to break into homes and steal cash, Kyodo News reported, citing investigative sources.

Among the newly emerged cases was a possible robbery case in Yokohama, capital of Kanagawa, in which a 75-year-old man was found dead in his home, Xinhua news agency reported quoting Kyodo news.

Hiroharu Goto, 75, was found dead Wednesday with his hands and legs tied at his home in Yokohama and signs of having been beaten, while his house was ransacked and around 200,000 yen (about $1,300) had been stolen, according to the Kanagawa prefectural police.

On Thursday, a woman in her 50s went missing after her home in Ichikawa, Chiba, was vandalised. The female resident was found later that day at an accommodation facility in Saitama Prefecture, where police arrested Shu Fujii on the spot for allegedly confining her. Money was missing from a purse left at the house, the report said.

The police, meanwhile, found Fujii's fingerprints in Goto's house in Yokohama, it added.

The investigation headquarters is working to uncover the structure and other details of a possible robbery syndicate, the report said.