A 60-year-old American tourist has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of scrawling letters with his fingernails on a traditional wooden gate of a famous Tokyo shrine, local police said, quoted by Le Figaro.
The 60-year-old man allegedly used his fingernails to scratch one of the pillars of a torii, the traditional gate at the entrance to Shinto shrines, at Meiji Jingu, one of the most visited monuments in the Japanese capital.
A police spokeswoman said the American tourist was arrested “on suspicion of damaging property”.
A series of incidents involving foreign tourists
This arrest is part of a series of incidents involving foreign tourists, who are increasingly visiting Japan on vacation, particularly due to the weak yen.
In October, a Chilean influencer with 139,000 followers was the subject of a highly negative online viral campaign for posting a video of herself doing pull-ups on a torii at another Japanese shrine. She later apologized, stating that “it was not (her) intention to disrespect” the sacred site.
Japan, which is enjoying unprecedented popularity among foreign visitors, says it wants to welcome 60 million tourists a year by 2030, almost double the record set in 2019. But tourists’ unruly and uncivilized behavior are sometimes disturbing . In the ancient capital of Kyoto, residents complained of harassment of the city’s famous geisha.
Source: www.descopera.ro
