ODATE, Akita -- A post office director was arrested Friday for forging about 490 10,000-yen notes in an attempt to cover up embezzlements from his post office, police said.

Yoshitaka Saito, 48, director of the Odate Tokiwagicho Post Office in Odate, stands accused of counterfeiting currency. He has told investigators that he forged the bills to make up for the money he'd stolen.

Saito used his personal computer and a color scanner to counterfeit about 490 10,000-yen bills in early February, local police said. The bills were based on an old 10,000 yen note design that has no anti-counterfeiting hologram.

The city's main Odate Post Office discovered the counterfeits when a bill counting machine rejected almost 5 million yen in cash collected from the Tokiwagicho Post Office.

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