American tourist arrested in Japan for defacing a religious shrine
American tourist arrested in Japan for defacing a religious shrine
The 65-year-old reportedly admitted he ‘wrote his family members’ names’ on the wooden pillar
Summary
Steve Lee Hayes, a 65-year-old American tourist, was arrested in Tokyo for allegedly carving family members’ names into a wooden Torii gate at the Meiji Shrine.
Surveillance footage led police to his hotel, where he was detained.
Hayes admitted to the act, which could result in up to three years in prison or a fine of 300,000 yen ($1,900).
The Meiji Shrine, a significant Shinto site, was built in 1920 to honor Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The incident occurs amid a surge in international tourism to Japan this year.
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Do we really need people to look down on that much that it warrants these comments? Don't get me wrong, he is a jerk and behaves like a teenager while 65, but people here act like he jumped a barrier to shit in a millenia old sarcophagus instead of pressing his thumb into 100 year old wood. I think I may have done worse at my old school.
This site's against a police state, but wants the government to crack down on this nuisance with all its might. We're against Religion, but Japan's emperor cult is sacred. Throw molotovs into governmental buildings, but don't you dare touch this wooden arch.
Just let him pay the fine, have the sites insurance cover restoration, big whoop.
To be fair, I personally put Shintoism in a very different box than that of typical Western religions. Shits just about respect and balance, not begging for forgiveness from some god and hating gay people.
Fuck this grown ass man.
I would never generalize a religion that much, especially when I don't know anyone who does practice it or has to live under it. When all you have is how it is represented, you tend to idolize it and miss the practical aspects of the faith, like how hating gays and abortions isn't explicitly in the bible yet those are more important aspects to Christianity in practice than Sola Fide.
I learned my lesson after reading about Buddhism in Myanmar, if you say it's just about respect and balance, I don't believe you.
Religions don't hate lgbtq they just don't support it,Most of them say dont bully them tbh.
Carving letters into the wood equals ‘pressing his thumb’ to you? Did you even read the article? Regardless, let me ‘press my thumb’ into your forehead and see if you think it’s fine, just let me be.
Hayes is accused of “carving the alphabet with his fingernails” into the wooden pillar of Meiji shrine gate in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward around 11am on Tuesday, police told the outlet.
Yes, that's very different than the 'pressing your thumb' like you said in the message I was replying to.
Oh sod off
The asshole defaced a monument and deserves what they get
You sound like the same kind of person that calls every Japanese person racist because some tourist misunderstood something for being racist because they don't speak Japanese and / or didn't realise Japanese culture is different or a small incident got blown out of proportion like one restaurant only allowing Japanese people in when it's just one restaurant and was blown out of proportion by media and people like you
I'm sick and kind of this kind of shitty toxic misinformative behaviour from online users like you
Stop the misinformed hate boner you have for Japan
What?
My main point was that I don't think this guy deserves 5 years in jail or a permanent travel ban, what other commenter here have stated they want for him. He deserves what he got until now, yes, and what the court will likely order: a fine, no jail time, because this offence is minor.
Why do you then go on a tirade? Is even mentioning the Emperor cult in the context of a Meji shrine racist, or what triggered that response?
I appreciate you at least phrasing that tirade with "you sound like", but then you drop that and say that I objectively am misinformed and have a hate boner. Why even quantify the first part with subjectivity if you won't keep it up? Also, I need a few more reasons why you would write this.
A strange response all around.
Realistically you're right, but also tourists disrespecting the cultural sites they're visiting is especially grating, particularly when it's a white guy and in a nonwhite country, and Americans specifically have a reputation for this sort of thing which some of us are embarrassed by and want to distance ourselves from.
Like, if this was a Japanese person who was doing it to spite the imperial family, I'd be totally fine with it, but this guy just seems disrespectful of the culture in general, like, if there was some kind of cultural site dedicated to spiting the emperor, he'd likely deface that just as readily. Practically speaking, whatever punishment is applied to shitty tourists will also be applied to political protestors, so legally it's better if it's a slap on the wrist, but we can still say the guy sucks.
So the cost to deface or damage whatever anybody wants is just $2k?
I very specifically said about this case only, a fine is appropriate.
Can you explain how my comment would read as "defacing anything ever should result only in fines"?
It's because he's American and Lemmy loves to shit all over Americans.
People generally shit on americans because they've earned a international representation of themselves that got even worser recently
We know not all of you americans are horrible but we still do like to shit on the horrible ones
Glad we both agree that Lemmy loves to shit on Americans. Your need to elaborate exemplifies this statement, cause you can't help but waste an opportunity to take the trash talk even further. I didn't trash talk, but stated an honest fact about the perception of Americans on Lemmy, and look at all the downvotes I'm getting. I didn't even defend it, just stating why Lemmy is so contradictory to the norm seen here while hating on the guy in the article. The sentiment here is either "hate America or gtfo".
Lemmy caring about a shrine/monument that was built to commemorate a nation's leader? What happened to all the anti-nationalism that's seen heavily everywhere else on this platform?
To extend an olive branch - The US does deserve a lot of hate after this last election. I'm still dumbfounded that Kamalamaha didn't win. We've been avoiding everything politics related lately because of how upset it's made us.