A 44-year-old man arrested last week on suspicion of passing forged 10,000 yen bills may have used nearly 1,500 counterfeit bills nationwide, police said Friday.
Takeshi Asakura, who is unemployed and has no fixed address, told investigators he had produced and used a massive number of counterfeit bills since 1999 at various locations across Japan, they said.
On Saturday, Asakura allegedly used a fake bill at a bookstore in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. He was soon captured by police and arrested after they searched his hotel room and found around 500 fake 10,000 yen bills and several dozen bogus 5,000 yen bills.
They said about 150 counterfeit 10,000 yen bills and some 1,300 fake 5,000 yen bills similar to those used by Asakura have thus far been identified across the nation.