TOKYO — Japanese police said Wednesday that they arrested a man who reportedly admitted to breaking into more than 1,000 homes in an unconventional way of relieving stress.

Police took the 37-year-old into custody on Monday on suspicion of trespassing on a property in Dazaifu in southern Japan, a police spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

"Breaking into other people's homes is a hobby of mine, and I have done it more than 1,000 times," the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper quoted the unnamed man as saying.

"I get so thrilled that my palms sweat when wondering if someone will discover me or not, and it relieves some stress," he told police, according to the newspaper.