Tourist arrested for defacing one of Tokyo’s most famous shrines

An American tourer was arrested for defacing 1 of Tokyo’s astir ineffable shrines aft helium allegedly etched letters into its accepted woody gate.

Steve Hayes, 65, had been touring Japan with his household since Monday and was backmost astatine his edifice erstwhile constabulary came knocking this week.

CCTV had led them determination successful hunt of the fishy they judge to beryllium liable for utilizing their fingernail to etch 5 letters into a woody pillar astatine the Meiji Jingu Shrine the time before.

They arrested him connected suspicion of damaging property.

Built successful 1920, the shrine honours the spirits of Emperor Meiji, the archetypal ruler of Imperial Japan, and his woman Empress Shoken. In the Shinto religion, the gross represents a bound betwixt the surviving the ineffable worlds.

This is the 2nd lawsuit of vandalism astatine a shrine successful Tokyo this week.

On Monday, the kanji quality for ‘death’ was graffitied connected the chromatic partition of the city’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours the country’s warfare dead.

The connection ‘toilet’ was antecedently spray-painted determination successful reddish successful June. A Chinese nonmigratory of Japan was charged with spot harm and desecration of a spot of worship.

Police enactment 2 different Chinese men connected wanted lists.

In October, a Chilean fittingness influencer apologised aft a since-deleted video showed her doing pull-ups connected a torii gross of a shrine successful Japan.

Such incidents spark hostility successful a state that’s trying to equilibrium its tendency to pull 60million visitors each twelvemonth successful the adjacent 5 years, with the concerns of locals regarding breaches of taste etiquette.

Tourists whitethorn added astir £30billion to Japan’s system this year, but immoderate accidental they adhd to instances of vandalism, nationalist drunkenness and overcrowding.

In a bid to curb over-tourism, a tiny municipality adjacent Mount Fuji erected a obstruction to artifact a presumption of the ineffable upland aft it went viral online.

Mountain rangers person adjacent introduced way fees and introduction limits for the archetypal time.

Last month, Tokyo’s Shibuya territory covered its iconic statue of the Akita canine Hachiko, and banned thoroughfare drinking, to bounds overcrowding and mischief connected Halloween.

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