AKITA--A high school teacher was arrested Friday night on suspicion of passing counterfeit money he had made. Kazuya Ito, 31, who teaches English at Kosaka High School in Kosakamachi, Akita Prefecture, allegedly handed a forged 1,000 yen bill to a hired driver who had driven him to a hotel in Odate, Akita Prefecture. The forged bill was a single-sided black-and-white copy of a banknote, the center of which featured a portrait of one of Ito's friends, which Ito had manipulated during the copying process to make look more like a watermark, the police said. Ito, who was under the influence of alcohol after drinking with colleagues, hired a designated driver to take him to the hotel and attempted to pass the forged note to the driver at the hotel parking lot, the police said.