An American tourist was arrested in Japan on suspicion of carving letters into a traditional wooden gate at a famous Tokyo shrine, local police said Thursday.
The sixty-year-old would have used his nails to scratch one of the pillars of a torii, a traditional gate erected at the entrance to Shinto shrines, at Meiji Jingu, one of the most visited shrines in the Japanese capital. A police spokeswoman told AFP that the man was arrested on Wednesday “on suspicion of property damage.”
This arrest is part of a series of incidents involving foreign tourists, an increasing number of whom are going on vacation to Japan, particularly thanks to the low yen.
In October, a Chilean influencer with 139,000 subscribers was the subject of a very negative viral online campaign for having published a video of herself doing pull-ups on a torii in another Japanese shrine. She then apologized, saying that “it was not her intention to disrespect” this sacred place.
Japan, enjoying unprecedented popularity with foreign visitors, says it wants to welcome 60 million visitors per year by 2030, almost double the record set in 2019.
But the undisciplined behavior and incivility of tourists sometimes annoys. In the ancient capital of Kyoto, residents have complained about harassment of the city’s famous geishas.
And a town at the foot of Mount Fuji installed a large barrier in the spring, since removed, to deter people from taking photos of a famous volcano viewpoint behind a convenience store, with many venturing onto the road to get the perfect shot.
New crowd control measures, such as paid access, have also been implemented on the most popular trail to the summit of Mount Fuji.
