TOKYO - THE body of a man was found in a tank supplying water to a shopping centre in Japan, where it may have been floating for several weeks, police said Thursday.

The man appeared to have committed suicide by jumping from the roof of a three-storey building in Matsusaka, central Japan, ending up in the adjacent tank, local police said.

'He drowned and was floating. But his body was not so swollen because it was cold as it was almost winter,' a police spokesman said. The body was found on November 27.

The man was in his 40s and his family asked police to search for him on November 1 after he went missing, the spokesman said.

The Matsusaka Marm Shopping Centre, which houses 76 shops and restaurants, said a local health office had examined water from the tank immediately after the body was recovered.

'The quality of water has been proven to be fit,' the centre said in a statement.

'We have also inspected, cleansed and disinfected the water tank, the piping and all the kitchen instruments which use water,' it said.

But the centre has been receiving telephone calls asking if there were fears of viral infection and hepatitis resulting from the accident, local media said. -- AFP