Police arrest US man for allegedly scratching letters into Japanese shrine
Al Jazeera
65-year-old man allegedly told police he defaced Shinto shrine as a ‘prank’.
Japanese police have arrested a 65-year-old American tourist for allegedly defacing a Tokyo shrine.
The man, identified as Steve Hayes, is accused of using his fingernails to scratch five letters into a torii gate at the Meiji Jingu shrine on Tuesday morning.
Hayes said he was writing the name of a family member into the gate – which represents the border between the living and sacred worlds in the Shinto religion – as a prank, according to the police.
Staff at the Meiji Jingu shrine, constructed in 1920 to honour the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken, discovered the damage the same day and alerted police, who arrested Hayes on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how they identified Hayes, who authorities say arrived in Japan with his family on Monday, nor what charges he could face.
