Six men were charged Friday with abducting and confining the president of the major daily Mainichi Shimbun for about two hours in January, police said.

The suspects, all under arrest, including Yukihiro Fujita, 65, president of a coffee bean sales company, allegedly abducted and confined Akira Saito, 70, near his home in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Jan. 31. Saito was released unharmed some two hours later, police said.

They said the suspects told them that they are former business partners in a Mainichi Shimbun affiliate and that they confined Saito in order to get him to resume the business.

Police said the six abducted Saito on a street near his home at around 9 a.m. that day, covering his head with a cloth sack and pushing him into a car.

They drove to a public parking lot, where they they ordered Saito to take off his clothes. They then proceeded to bind his hands and feet with duct tape and took photographs of him, according to police.

They then threatened Saito, saying they would distribute the photos publicly if he did not step down from the presidency of the paper.

The suspects were charged Friday with abduction and confinement and attempted extortion, police said.

Saito was released near his home, after which he notified the Metropolitan Police Department. Fujita told Saito his name during the abduction, according to investigators.

A Mainichi Shimbun spokesman told a news conference later Friday that the suspects might have come up with the idea of threatening Saito after failing to resume their business with the paper's affiliate.

"Both Saito and the Mainichi Shimbun are outraged at such heinous criminal acts and have taken a resolute attitude toward the incident," the daily said in a statement.