Japanese police have arrested a man suspected of cremating the body of his deceased wife at the zoo where he worked in the north of the country, officials and local media said Friday, following the discovery of human remains.

Law enforcement arrested Tatsuya Suzuki on Thursday, suspecting him of having "transported the body to a tourist site" on the northern island of Hokkaido and of "destroying it by incineration on site," a local police official told AFP.

According to local media, the body was that of Yui Suzuki, his 33-year-old wife. The cause of death has not been specified by the police.

During a previous voluntary interview, Mr. Suzuki admitted to using the zoo's incinerator - intended for the disposal of waste and dead animals - to burn the body "for several hours", according to these media outlets.

His confession led the police to search the incinerator for his remains, the partial discovery of which paved the way for Mr. Suzuki's arrest.

During her lifetime, the wife had confided with concern to relatives that her husband threatened to "burn her until there is no trace left" of her, reported the public broadcaster NHK, citing sources close to the investigation.

This macabre affair has forced the Asahiyama Zoo, a popular tourist attraction but closed since early March for maintenance work before the summer, to postpone its planned reopening on Wednesday.

The zoo finally reopened to the public on Friday, and officials bowed to visitors to apologize for the inconvenience. "The zoo is currently going through an extremely difficult situation," said Hirosuke Imazu, mayor of Asahikawa City, which manages the facility, according to NHK.