On October 9, an 18-year-old American arrived in Japan with his family for a sightseeing trip. While here, they had, in many ways, a typical tourist itinerary, visiting Sensoji, Tokyo’s most famous Buddhist temple in the Asakusa neighborhood, checking out the otaku district of Akihabara, and even making a side trip out to Tokyo Disneyland.
The family was supposed to head back to the United States on October 23, but the young man’s travel plans have now been altered, as on the day of his scheduled departure he was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on arson charges.
In the pre-dawn hours of October 21, a series of seven fires broke out in rapid succession in downtown Tokyo’s Chuo and Sumida wards, all within a radius of approximately two kilometers in residential areas (the response to the fires can be seen in the above video). One of those fires was set in a trash bin located near the entrance of a condominium building in Nihonbashi Kakigaracho, and investigators have reason to believe the 18-year-old tourist was responsible, and it’s currently this crime that he’s been arrested for.
Considering the proximity to the other six fires and similar methods in which they were set, the police think the 18-year-old is likely responsible for them as well, and he has been detained in Japan while the investigation continues. The suspect has denied the charges, in the sense that he hasn’t admitted culpability, but has stopped short of explicitly saying he didn’t start the fires, saying “I don’t remember.”
While “I don’t remember” is an infamously common defense offered in criminal cases in Japan, the tourist may be in for a rude awakening if he thinks it’s going to function as a get-out-of-jail free phrase for him. For starters, “I don’t remember” is most commonly used as a defense in cases of physical violence, groping, or destruction of property involving kicking, smashing, or other forms of forceful impact.
In other words, the defense hinges on sowing seeds of doubt that the actions were willful, suggesting that maybe they were an unintentional case of someone getting carried away or sloppy in their movement. But while it’s one thing to offer the flimsy excuse of “I didn’t mean to break that beer mug” or “I didn’t realize my hand had slipped down to that woman’s posterior,” it’ll be hard for even the most lenient and naive judge to envision a scenario where someone inadvertently started a fire in the early morning hours in a trash container they had no business with in the first place.
There’s also the fact that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police decided to arrest the tourist even as he was, essentially, on his way out of Japan. If the goal was simply to give him a slap on the wrist and deport him, roughly the same result could have been achieved by doing nothing and letting him get on the plane home, after which he’d no longer be posing any danger to anyone in Tokyo or Japan. The timing of the arrest implies that the investigators feel confident they have enough evidence for a conviction, and that prosecutors will seek punishment beyond just a stern frown and an order to leave Japan immediately.
The tourist’s use of “I don’t remember” is particularly unusual, since while it’s a common response to criminal charges in Japan, it’s not a phrase that’s used as often in the U.S. in situations like these. So maybe he’s been keeping up on Japanese crime news while living overseas, which makes one wonder if he’s aware that, though he’d have been tried as a minor just a few years ago, a recent change in Japanese laws means that he’s now a legal adult, and can be tried as such.
Sources: Nitele News, FNN Prime Online
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- American passenger on Tokyo flight arrested for biting flight attendant, says he doesn’t remember
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-- Australian arrested at Narita Airport for graffiti on Japanese train in Tokyo
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2024/10/23/american-teenage-tourist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-arson-in-tokyo-during-family-trip/
34 Comments
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falseflagsteve
Silly Boy. All the trouble he’s caused for his family because of his fire starting, he’s a twisted fire starter.
Fighto!
I'll pay that.
I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator
I'm the fear addicted, danger illustrated
OssanAmerica
Cities in Japan have security cameras all over the place and is a stupid place to carry out multiple acts of arson. Which is stupid in the first place. "I don't remember" is also a stupid answer to 7 fires. If one wants to interact with the J-police, just bring some weed. Don't set fires. They can't be controlled and innocent people might die.
I suppose we'll be hearing from the "there's no justice in Japan" crowd shortly supporting this 18 year old.
nandakandamanda
Parents could have thought a trip all the way to Japan might cure his 'habit'.
Wasabi
Silly boy? If true, he is an arsonist
quercetum
This was well explained and the usage of not remembering well differentiated
Michael Corleone
and not being able to come back because of the criminal conviction...
nuisance foreigner!!
Blacklabel
Can guarantee this isn’t the first time he has done this somewhere else.
karma. Enjoy visiting Japan’s prisons too.
mallace
I committed arson once at the age of 18. I burnt a pile of newspapers outside a shop late at night. The fire department came and put it out while I hid. There was no damage to the building except for some black marks. I was suffering from depression and undiagnosed ADHD and autism at the time.
We don't know what this guy is going through, but I doubt he's just born bad.
obladi
Arson tourist is something you don’t see every day.
Can I just comment on the writing of this article:? Its obviously a direct translation of Japanese and it’s bereft of any facts. I wonder why JT couldn’t write their own version and throw a bit more information in.
Nibek32
While the person is likely guilty, this article is written with so much speculation and few facts.
NCIS Reruns
obladi@ you don't appear to understand how a news aggregator site operates.
From Wiki: Aggregation technology often consolidates (sometimes syndicated) web content into one page that can show only the new or updated information from many sites.
Yubaru
How about instead of all the mumbo-jumbo rationalization, the cops come up with actual evidence to put a suspect in jail.
If they really think they got their guy, prove it, and stop relying on a confession.
No need for one if ya' got the proof!
Yubaru
You really dont want to see what happens, as "conjecture" WILL become fact.
Chromehearts88
Arson is actually a heavy crime because you can't predict how many people you are going to injure or kill.
I say keep him in prison for a long time and why isn't media putting his face up there?
He's legally an adult.
OssanAmerica
What are you going on about? They already had enough proof to narrow down the suspect and arrest him. Probably enough to indict as well. A Confession and Evidence are not mutually exclusive.
And Cops do not put a person in jail. Cops make the arrest but it is the Court that sentences a person to jail if the cops gather and submit the evidence to the Prosecutor.
owzer
Did they arrest him at the airport? That must have been awkward.
Forget about him. We'll hear more mid-November when they decide to hold him for another 4 weeks(?) on another charge. Repeat for each fire that was lit.
kohakuebisu
Keith Flint (RIP) was married to a Japanese lady. He also owned a pub with a fireplace, and apparently above it was a swear box where anyone who made the obvious wisecrack had to insert a pound coin. He must have made a fortune!
As for this kid, yes its a crime and it should be punished. I hope its not a cry for help.
uaintseeme
Whelp, he'll be in jail for at least 21 days eating azuki-pan and rice, and cold karaage until he confesses.
theFu
He could have killed someone.
"I have no clear memory of that event."
Lock him up for a 2-12 months Make him/parents pay the costs for all damages and for firefighter time/equipment used.
Ban him from entrance to Japan for at least 10 yrs.
Japantime
It is amazing that Americans don’t use this excuse at all. I have heard people in other countries say I don’t remember before. I wonder what Americans say. Do they usually confess?
Alan Harrison
Lock him up for a 2-12 months
He has not been indicted yet.
Make him/parents pay the costs for all damages and for firefighter time/equipment used.
His parents have not been arrested. Is the commenter suggesting that there is collective guilt?
kaimycahl
The kid saying he doesn’t remember has nothing to do with whether he lives in the US or in JP. His family probably hired a Japanese lawyer and the lawyer perhaps instructed him do say as Japanese say “I don’t remember”. One thing the kid will learn from this is REMEMBER not to do what he did!
WoodyLee
Soon the J police will learn from his home town Police Dept. that this is not his first.
WoodyLee
Father to son, Don't do anything stupid while in Japan.
Son, Okay dad.
Father, this is not America you understand?
Son, Okay dad.
Father, did you do it?
Son, I don't remember.
Father, remember what I told when we first arrive at the airport?
Son, I don't remember.
Bret T
Someone above said Americans don't use "I don't remember" as a criminal defense. Generally true, except for politicians. Could be true if he got into a beer machine on the street. American teenager maybe he couldn't resist this temptation since beer machines don't exist in US.
Maybe parents hired a Japanese attorney who told him this is a common defense in Japan. One other possibility is someone in the jail told him to say it.
theFu
Lots of guilty people confess. Lots of guilty people do not. Studies about this topic have also shown that certain interrogators are better at pressuring innocent people into confessing too. One study showed that about 25% of people who confessed to a crime were later cleared by DNA evidence.
If this topic really interests you, https://crimeandjusticeresearchalliance.org/rsrch/suspects-likelihood-of-confessing/
indigo
Strange they arrested the foreigner and not japaneses.
.....again, they use the foreigner as a scapegoat. nothing more than speculation. the police can put any words in the mouths of people especially out of context and make a biased report .
tourists need to know that In japan, judgment based on speculation is the norm....
OssanAmerica
Americans who are guilty don't use "I don't remember" as an excuse. They deny the charges completely. And sometimes they claim that "it's all politically motivated".
TokyoLiving
Jail and deport pathetic clown..
Ken
Because it is easier to make up an excuse, but "I don't remember" is just like saying "maybe" and it really is either guilty deny, confess, or you were innocent. It also goes in hand with being an adult or tried as a adult, people will look at you like you're either 5 years old or mentally disabled if you say you don't remember
N. Knight
So do innocent Americans.
At the end of the day they're all Americans
Roger Gusain
North Korea went a bit too far with Otto Warmbier, but you get my drift.
Zaphod
indigo
I do not think so. Yes, the justice system here is flawed, but if they arrested this guy you can be sure they have some evidence, most likely CCTV footage.