A television reporter was arrested for flashing his private parts on a Tokyo street in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

Mitsunori Shimamoto, 29, a reporter at TV Asahi's city news department, stands accused of indecent exposure.

The broadcaster has apologized over the incident. "It's indeed regrettable that a journalist has been arrested for such an incident," said an official at the network's public relations division.

Shimamoto exposed his private parts to a woman in her 20s near the Omotesando Intersection in the Minami-Aoyama district of Minato-ku in the early hours of Thursday, investigators allege. Police officers who were on patrol overpowered him at the scene.

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