65-year-old male apparently informed authorities he ruined Shinto shrine as a ‘trick’.
Japanese cops have actually jailed a 65-year-old American traveler for supposedly ruining a Tokyo shrine.
The guy, recognized as Steve Hayes, is implicated of utilizing his fingernails to scratch 5 letters into a torii gate at the Meiji Jingu shrine on Tuesday early morning.
Hayes stated he was composing the name of a relative into eviction– which represents the border in between the living and spiritual worlds in the Shinto religious beliefs– as a trick, according to the authorities.
Personnel at the Meiji Jingu shrine, built in 1920 to honour the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his spouse Empress Shoken, found the damage the exact same day and informed cops, who detained Hayes on Wednesday.
It was not instantly clear how they determined Hayes, who authorities state gotten here in Japan with his household on Monday, nor what charges he might deal with.
It is the 2nd such event at a shrine in the Japanese capital today.
On Monday, authorities stated they were examining after the kanji character for “death” was graffitied on 2 areas of a stone wall at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine honouring Japan’s war dead.
The statement followed 2 other defacement occurrences at the very same shrine– which has actually given diplomatic friction with China and other Asian nations due to its ceremony of Japan’s World War II leaders– in current months.
In June, the word “toilet” was discovered spray-painted in red on a stone pillar at the shrine, while video distributed on social networks of a guy urinating on the monolith.
A Chinese guy living in Japan was charged with home damage and desecration of a location of praise in July, while 2 other Chinese males have actually been placed on desired lists.
In August, Chinese characters and some letters from the Latin alphabet were likewise composed on the shrine with a black felt-tip pen, authorities stated.
Japan invited a record 17.78 million foreign visitors in the very first half of this year, with the weak yen assisting to move traveler numbers above pre-pandemic levels.
The increase of visitors has actually provided an increase to Japan’s economy, however likewise triggered grumbles from some residents fed up with bad behaviour and breaches of cultural rules by visitors.
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Al Jazeera and news companies