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.

  • x4740N@lemm.ee
    51·
    6 days ago

    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

    • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
      1·
      6 days ago

      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.