First Arrest Made in Japan over Fake New Bank Note

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department recently arrested a man on suspicion of using a fake of a newly circulated 10,000 yen bank note, investigation sources said Thursday.

The suspect, Mizuki Saito, 27, living in the capital’s Taito Ward, admitted using the counterfeit currency. It is the first time that police have taken enforcement action against the use of a counterfeit of any of the new bills that came into circulation in July last year.

According to the sources, Saito allegedly used a fake of a new 10,000 yen note to pay 690 yen for a drink and a packet of cigarettes at a convenience store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on Feb. 10.

Officers found at least 50 forgeries of new 10,000 yen and 5,000 yen notes as well as a color printer in his home. The MPD believes that the suspect forged the bills there.

The sources said that the counterfeit bills were slightly reddish compared with the real ones and did not contain the watermark in the center. The portrait of Eiichi Shibusawa depicted in the 3D hologram on the real 10,000 yen note seems to move when tilted, but that on the forged notes does not.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]