Tokyo police said Wednesday they have arrested a 14-year-old boy on suspicion of forging 1,000 yen bills using a scanner and personal computer.
The teen is a student at a junior high school in Setagaya Ward. Police said they took into custody, but did not arrest, three other boys at the same school on suspicion of helping with the forgery or with passing the fake bills.
Police said they also plan to notify a local child consultation center about five other students at the school who might have participated in the counterfeiting.
They suspect the boy forged three 1,000 yen bills at his home in early November.
Some of the pupils said they forged more than 100 bills and passed 80 of them.
They said they learned how to forge the bills from an article in a magazine they bought via the Internet, the police said. The forged bills are the old 1,000 yen bills. Last month, the Bank of Japan issued new 1,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 10,000 yen bills that are harder to counterfeit.