65-year-old man allegedly informed police he defaced Shinto shrine as a ‘prank’.
Japanese police have arrested a 65-year-old American vacationer for allegedly defacing a Tokyo shrine.
The person, recognized as Steve Hayes, is accused of utilizing his fingernails to scratch 5 letters right into a torii gate on the Meiji Jingu shrine on Tuesday morning.
Hayes mentioned he was writing the identify of a member of the family into the gate – which represents the border between the dwelling and sacred worlds within the Shinto faith – as a prank, in keeping with the police.
Employees on the Meiji Jingu shrine, constructed in 1920 to honour the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his spouse Empress Shoken, found the harm the identical day and alerted police, who arrested Hayes on Wednesday.
It was not instantly clear how they recognized Hayes, who authorities say arrived in Japan together with his household on Monday, nor what expenses he may face.
It’s the second such incident at a shrine within the Japanese capital this week.
On Monday, police mentioned they have been investigating after the kanji character for “demise” was graffitied on two spots of a stone wall at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine honouring Japan’s conflict lifeless.
The announcement adopted two different defacement incidents on the similar shrine – which has been a supply of diplomatic friction with China and different Asian international locations on account of its commemoration of Japan’s World Struggle II leaders – in latest months.
In June, the phrase “rest room” was discovered spray-painted in pink on a stone pillar on the shrine, whereas footage circulated on social media of a person urinating on the monument.
A Chinese language man dwelling in Japan was charged with property harm and desecration of a spot of worship in July, whereas two different Chinese language males have been placed on wished lists.
In August, Chinese language characters and a few letters from the Latin alphabet have been additionally written on the shrine with a black felt-tip pen, police mentioned.
Japan welcomed a document 17.78 million overseas guests within the first half of this yr, with the weak yen serving to to propel vacationer numbers above pre-pandemic ranges.
The inflow of holiday makers has delivered a lift to Japan’s economic system, but additionally prompted grumbles from some locals fed up with poor behaviour and breaches of cultural etiquette by guests.
