Photo: SoraNews24
crime

'Android' arrested for rice ball theft in Japan; Android Woman denies involvement

15 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Instead of having a sit-down breakfast at home in the morning, a lot of young people in Japan just grab an onigiri (rice ball) at the convenience store. Of course, after grabbing the rice ball, you’re supposed to pay for it, but that’s not how things transpired at a convenience store in the town of Eniwa, in Hokkaido Prefecture, on January 25.

At about 8:30 a.m., a 29-year-old woman walked into the shop, grabbed a 213-yen onigiri from the shelf, and walked out with it. A clerk called the police and told them what happened, and when officers arrived on the scene and questioned the woman, she admitted to stealing the onigiri and was placed under arrest for shoplifting. When asked her name, however, she replied with “Android.”

To clarify, no, “Android” is not a Japanese name, but it is a relatively understood loanword in Japan with the same meaning it has in English: a humanoid robot. News of “Android’s” arrest quickly spread through online circles in Japan, prompting a response from yet another self-claimed android.

Android Woman (“Android no One-san” in Japanese) is a YouTuber and media personality who’s appeared in TV commercials and in-person/in-robot at events. Also known as Android Woman Saori, her hook is that she speaks and moves like an android, with a controlled, even measure to her voice and precise, controlled movements.

Android Woman has never listed her age in an official profile, but since she has the appearance of a woman in her 20s. So when people began hearing about a 29-year-old woman calling herself “Android” who’d gotten in trouble with the law, some assumed it must be Android Woman who’d been caught shoplifting.

That’s not the case, though, Android Woman says. “Today I have an urgent announcement,” she begins in a video posted the day after the shoplifting incident. “On a certain Internet forum, I saw a thread with the title ‘Android Woman has been arrested,’ so I would like to clear things up. That android is not me…We are close in age, so even I was surprised, but I am not in Hokkaido now.”

▼ Android Woman’s self-introduction video

As dedicated to her performances as she is, Android Woman goes on to say that if she were ever the subject of a police questioning, she would drop the shtick and give her actual, legal name. Meanwhile, the identity of the “Android” who took the onigiri, as of this writing, has not yet been revealed.

Sources: FNN via Otakmu, Sponichi Annex via Hachima Kiko

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Saitama man robs 7-Eleven with knives, steals 3 onigiri

-- “I want to be the street” — Man arrested AGAIN for hiding in drain to take upskirt photos

-- Geminoid F: Japan’s android actress with a starring role in a new film 【Video】

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

15 Comments
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Glorious Japanese weirdness. Laugh if you will but for me there is something both refreshing and somehow reassuring about it. Japan is what it is, and it is not a bad thing. Men walk down the street in bunny outfits. A woman acts like an android. Weird, funny and harmless. Japan has an offbeat sense of humor. Innocent (mostly) weirdness is preferable to the sinister violence that predominates too many other countries.

5 ( +13 / -8 )

Another delusional YouTuber twit. Her punishment should be no internet for a year.

5 ( +12 / -7 )

You need a good mix of slow burning carbs and protein for breakfast if you are an active person especially if a man, stealing some of those hard boiled salted eggs would be better

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

There must be some errors in programming for this android. Recall her and the same type.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Still bothers me to see android used as if it originally meant "humanoid" when it actually meant Man (male) shaped.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Japan is what it is, and it is not a bad thing. Men walk down the street in bunny outfits. A woman acts like an android. Weird, funny and harmless. Japan has an offbeat sense of humor.

While I agree that Japanese are nonconformists with an eclectic sense of humour - theft from conbinis is NOT "harmless". They are on wafer-thin profit margins, and what you may term as a bit of harmless theft can actually run them out of business.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

virusrex - Still bothers me to see android used as if it originally meant "humanoid" when it actually meant Man (male) shaped.

Are you 100% sure about that? The term "Man", until recently, has been used synonymously to mean "Human".

So, back when people originally came up with term, chances are they meant human-shaped or person-shaped, not specifically male-shaped, despite the technical Latin translation of man-shaped.

The use of "Android" to describe human-like artificial organisms, both mechanical and organic, has been used for hundreds of years. Are you one of those Immortals from Highlander or a vampire or something?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Desert Tortoise

Glorious Japanese weirdness. Laugh if you will but for me there is something both refreshing and somehow reassuring about it. Japan is what it is, and it is not a bad thing. Men walk down the street in bunny outfits. A woman acts like an android. Weird, funny and harmless. Japan has an offbeat sense of humor. Innocent (mostly) weirdness is preferable to the sinister violence that predominates too many other countries.

Have you never been to Los Angeles or New York? There's much weirder and funnier crap going on there, I assure you.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Desert TortoiseToday  06:49 am JST “ Glorious Japanese weirdness. Laugh if you will but for me there is something both refreshing and somehow reassuring about it. Japan is what it is, and it is not a bad thing. Men walk down the street in bunny outfits. A woman acts like an android. Weird, funny and harmless. Japan has an offbeat sense of humor. Innocent (mostly) weirdness is preferable to the sinister violence that predominates too many other countries. “

Well said…; agreed(!)…; thank you for your post…; excessive negativity usually makes people forget that Japan is (still) one of the best/most interesting places in the world.

..

garypenToday  06:44 pm JST “ Have you never been to Los Angeles or New York? There's much weirder and funnier crap going on there, I assure you. “

True, but that weird, funny cr-p is overshadowed by the fact that LA and NY are extremely dirty, violent and expensive.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Are you 100% sure about that? The term "Man", until recently, has been used synonymously to mean "Human".

"Android" is not originally an English word and its meaning is well known and defined, using it in English (and other languages) to mean human is the mistake.

Not to count that in other contexts it is still used now in the original sense of male, not human. For example in Orthopedics where an Android pelvis is the one that is not conductive to an easy birth because it resembles the male shape, in medicine in general the suffix "andro-" is frequently used in different words with the mean of male, like androgen, androgynous, andrology, etc. There is no need to live for centuries to recognize the original meaning still being in use today.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

While I agree that Japanese are nonconformists with an eclectic sense of humour - theft from conbinis is NOT "harmless". They are on wafer-thin profit margins, and what you may term as a bit of harmless theft can actually run them out of business.

I was thinking more of the Youtuber who calls herself an android. I fully agree with you regarding theft. I have no sense of humor regarding theives.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Have you never been to Los Angeles or New York? There's much weirder and funnier crap going on there, I assure you.

I grew up in LA. I drove school buses there to pay for my bachelors degree. The weirdness there is mostly not so innocent.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

that's a pretty hefty hit of publicity for just ¥213... whch she didn't pay anyway, so even IF she gets a small fine......

0 ( +0 / -0 )

oh! seems I got hold of the wrong end of the stick.... but who knows....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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