An American tourist was arrested for defacing one of Tokyo’s most sacred shrines after he allegedly etched letters into its traditional wooden gate.
Steve Hayes, 65, had been touring Japan with his family since Monday and was back at his hotel when police came knocking this week.
CCTV had led them there in search of the suspect they believe to be responsible for using their fingernail to etch five letters into a wooden pillar at the Meiji Jingu Shrine the day before.
They arrested him on suspicion of damaging property.
Built in 1920, the shrine honours the spirits of Emperor Meiji, the first ruler of Imperial Japan, and his wife Empress Shoken. In the Shinto religion, the gate represents a boundary between the living the sacred worlds.
This is the second instance of vandalism at a shrine in Tokyo this week.
On Monday, the kanji character for ‘death’ was graffitied on the stone wall of the city’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours the country’s war dead.
The word ‘toilet’ was previously spray-painted there in red in June. A Chinese resident of Japan was charged with property damage and desecration of a place of worship.
Police put two other Chinese men on wanted lists.
In October, a Chilean fitness influencer apologised after a since-deleted video showed her doing pull-ups on a torii gate of a shrine in Japan.
Such incidents spark tension in a country that’s trying to balance its desire to attract 60million visitors each year in the next five years, with the concerns of locals regarding breaches of cultural etiquette.
Tourists may added nearly £30billion to Japan’s economy this year, but some say they add to instances of vandalism, public drunkenness and overcrowding.
In a bid to curb over-tourism, a small town near Mount Fuji erected a barrier to block a view of the sacred mountain after it went viral online.
Mountain rangers have even introduced trail fees and entry limits for the first time.
Last month, Tokyo’s Shibuya district covered its iconic statue of the Akita dog Hachiko, and banned street drinking, to limit overcrowding and mischief on Halloween.
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