Japan’s latest tourism headache is American arrested for damaging Tokyo shrine By Reuters
TOKYO (Reuters) – An American arrested for defacing a sacred Tokyo shrine grew to turn into the most up-to-date example of Japan’s fight to address misbehaving traffic amid a increase in inbound tourism.
Japan welcomed practically 27 million traffic via September, a document slide, and their spending added 5.86 trillion yen ($37.5 billion) to the financial system. However incidents of vandalism, public drunkenness, and “overtourism” at original sites private sparked debate about ideas to address the flood of vacation makers and of us that flout the foundations.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrest of a 65-year-feeble American on Wednesday on suspicion of carving alphabetical characters into the pillar of a torii gate of the Meiji Jingu Shrine on Tuesday.
The suspect and his family arrived in Japan for sightseeing on Monday, the Jiji files provider stated. Security digicam photos led police to arrest him at his lodge on suspicion of the spend of his fingernail to etch five letters representing family names into the picket pillar, Jiji stated.
U.S. Embassy workers visited the American and are providing consular help, a spokesperson stated, declining to present additional minute print consequently of privacy concerns.
The case follows two incidents this year of graffiti scrawled on a pillar at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine that is affiliated with Japan’s wartime previous. Police acquired arrest warrants for three Chinese nationals as suspects, in step with the Asahi newspaper.
In October, a Chilean health influencer sparked outrage for posting a video of her doing pull-united stateson a torii gate in Japan. She later deleted the video and posted an apology.
Flocks of traffic private forced authorities to rob drastic measures to curb overcrowding and litter. In Would possibly well furthermore, a minute metropolis near Mt. Fuji erected a barrier to dam a inspect of Japan’s sacred mountain that had turn into viral online. Mountain park rangers this summer season enacted path costs and entry limits for the first time to curb overuse.
And in October, Tokyo’s Shibuya district lined up its iconic dog statue Hachiko and enforced bans on ingesting within the streets to prevent overcrowding and mischief all via Halloween.
($1=156.3800 yen)