A 33-year-old Tokyo man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly signing a speeding ticket in January in the name of the owner of a driver's license he happened to pick up in January 1996, police said.
Highway police did not think anything was wrong at the time, because by coincidence, the suspect and the license's real bearer looked strikingly alike, investigators said.
Arrested was Masashi Ito of the city of Ome, western Tokyo, according to police in Shizuoka Prefecture. Ito was held on suspicion of breaking traffic laws by driving without a license and of forging documents.
Police said that Ito was driving a small truck along the Tomei Expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture in the late afternoon of Jan. 15, 1996 when he was caught going at 103 km per hour. The legal speed limit was 80 km per hour.