TOKYO (AFP) - The Japanese police have arrested a man after a teacher in his son's school shot a chair in the staff room with the father's revolver, officials and reports said Tuesday.

Staff at the junior high school in Shime, western Japan, confiscated the weapon from the boy last Wednesday, believing it to be a dummy, and kept it in the communal office.

The unidentified teacher, who reportedly thought the gun was a fake, fired it at the furniture on Saturday, broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said.

Officers arrested the boy's father on suspicion of possessing a revolver and several bullets in violation of the Firearms and Swords Control Law, a police spokesman said.