American tourist arrested for scrawling graffiti in Shibuya

if you're in tokyo and ride the yamanote between shinjuku and shinagawa, you'll see tons of graffiti sprayed along the walls. i really hate the idiots who do this. japan needs to nip this in the bud before it spreads everywhere. and when they catch the idiots who are doing this, make them clean it up as part of the punishment

Make him clean up for a few hours but that should be about it.

Who's to say that the graffiti some scorn at won't one day be seen as a movement?

What does it matter? If you feel the urge to indulge in artistic expression, fine, buy yourself a sketchbook or a canvas and knock yourself out. If you absolutely must scribble on a wall, that's fine, too - so long as it's your wall.

Don't scribble, daub, spray or otherwise sully anyone else's wall.

Shoplifting in Beijing and graffiti-ing in Tokyo? A  new low-budget tourist will be hitting Asia in time for the Olympics.

Been a few Westerners arrested lately for spraying Graffiti in Japan .

Police said there has been an increase in graffiti in the Shibuya area recently and have stepped up patrols.

Recently?? Well, if 20 years ago can be described as recently, then yes. Graffiti is also bad in neighboring Meguro Ward, especially on the shutters of old buildings. Japan does not seem to use x number of hours of public service as a penalty for vandalism. If they did, these morons could be handed rags and turpentine and put to work expunging their unslightly scrawls.

Make him clean up graffiti for the rest of his stay.

Idiots... probably tags walls at home in Noo Yoik as well.

Scrawling or spraying big colourful words on walls isn't art... it's vandalism, just as much as using a sharpie on a wall is vandalism. As others have said, bottle of turps and a toothbrush should sort the bugger out.

I find graffiti very obnoxious. If he wanted to do it while drunk, there is a good chance he would also do it while sober.

This is not graffiti. It's tagging.

It's a territorial, lazy way of expressing yourself.

He wrote the letters NYC and then drew some squiggles.

Another lame example of cultural imperialism.

Seriously, this is tagging and is always an eyesore. Real graffiti is urban art and is something else, entirely.

one of the reasons i came here is to escape graffiti and petty drug crime. skateboarding will feature in the olympics. as somebody who knows many skaters, their (people i know) sub culture is to spray. temples and shrines seem great targets. stay tuned.

RecklessNov. 16 04:49 pm JST Wow! Not sure graffiti should make national news. I guess need to make an example of foreigners to keep them in their place.

Most of us foreigners don't do stupid things like this. Hope you don't either, makes everyone else look bad.

I don't care what you think of graffiti, this is disgusting.

I know some of you will find this hard to believe, but the military taught me that I was a representative of my country and a guest wherever I was sent. I always did my best to blend in (as much as you can being a 5'10" ginger in Asia) with the locals and I was able to experience things my peers crying about being stuck in a foreign country never did.

When I travel now, I'm embarassed when I see US tourists like this acting like stereotypical Americans. I was in Tokyo during the US presidential election in a capsule hotel and a couple fellow Americans were falling down drunk yelling about how disgusting it was that Trump was elected (oh the irony). When I had to report in the middle of the night that these two idiots had destroyed and flooded the bathroom on our floor, I was horrified when the staff thought that I had done it. Forunately the night manager understood enough English that I could explain who was really responsible.

I may argue against the anti-US military sentiments on this board, but that does not mean I condone idiots like this reinforcing what people believe all Americans act like.

20 years hard labor ?

If someone sprays “NYC” you see it as Western Imperialism or an example of it??

Now Ive heard it all

Indeed. But you didn't read it all (my post).

While I understand and agree with the calls for community service as a suitable punishment, it's not what happens in Japan. Community service like neighbourhood cleanups or weeding communal gardens are what responsible residents get to do as a matter of duty. You're not supposed to think of them as a "punishment".

I wonder if he'll use the "I'm stressed" defense.

The harshest sentencing possible needs to be applied and published as a strong deterent to this B4 the larger influx of Olympic tourism begains. Large cities in the United States haven’t and it’s ramp it everywhere.

In Singapore this would earn him a few strokes of the cane.

Immature behaviour for a 27 year old.

He should certainly be made to clean it up, coupled with a warning regarding his future conduuct and told "grow up".

idiot

graffiti in urban settings doesn't really bother me. I see it as kind of art and a release of tension usually from young kids. If someone spray paints my car or house, or something really vulgar that is a different story.

well, the same holds for me if they spray painted your house or car, i would think that was art but you wouldn't. the problem with this type of art is twofold. one, this "art" is in the eye of the beholder. second, this type of art, where young kids "harmlessly" release their tensions on buildings and walls, usually doesn't stop at buildings and walls. next you'll see it on buses, trains and your beloved house or car. kids will be kids so their sense of control is quite limited. and i'm a huge subscriber to the broken glass theory of crime. one small crack will inevitably lead to other cracks and so on. so nip this in the bud before it spreads.

Welcome to Norman Rockwell country. Maybe now he understands that this is not the postmodern mess he came from.

I like nice graffiti. I think it gives a city a bit of flavour, and you can see some amazing art sometimes.

Sounds like this guy was just writing some crap on a wall though. That I'm not a fan of.

What a loser! Graffiti is so disrespectful.

Since he created filth, he should remove filth as a punishment.

My suggestion: may his tongue serve as a washlet wand for a week.

This numpty comes to Japan and thinks it's ok.

Get him to clean the rest of the wall and us his time to, water on, scrub off, soap on, wipe off, the darn thing.

He sure ain't Banksi.

Just another tourist on a drinking binge that had a bad idea....

Not so, he must have taken the marker pen with him when he went out so he intended all along to do his so-called tagging. That is premeditated vandalism and I hope it's taken into account when he is sentenced.

If someone spray paints my car or house, or something really vulgar that is a different story.

Sounds like you only care when it's your property? Is that what you meant? Graffiti in urban areas is written on somebody's property. It may be their house, or their business. Even if it's public property, no one person has the right to deface a public space without permission - whether it's "artful" or not. This is basic respect for each other as a society.

Require some hours of community service, as well as cleaning up what he did of course.

The other day visiting Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, I was shocked to find so much graffiti carved into the bamboo at the little bamboo grove there. Almost every stalk in reach from the path was carved up. The languages used were mostly English and other European languages. Initials in hearts, "___ wuz here" etc. Really a shame the natural beauty of the bamboo is ruined. I'm glad they have the high brush walls at the Arashiyama grove so no one can reach the stalks.

At least he admitted to the charges, unlike SOME people cough cough who were drunk and can't remember anything.

Japan didn't have graffitti until the 1990s, when I was in junior high. SMAP had a graffitti corner in their weekly program, and then graffitti started to appear. Thanks SMAP! The problem with graffitti here in Japan is that it is so lousy.

Just throw the redneck in question out, there are more serious matters to attend to.

He should certainly be made to clean it up, coupled with a warning regarding his future conduct and told "grow up".

Maybe if he was 17, but at 27, he's already chosen his maturity level. He should receive whatever punishment is normal for someone caught vandalizing public property and then put on a plane out.

Much as I loathe tagging, violence will not solve anything. It is of use only to medieval and backward societies and those who get a thrill from inflicting pain.

Fine the perp and get him to scrub off the graffiti. He'll learn his lesson.

What was he thinking. Japan dislikes foreigners enough as it is, without people doing things like this. Does not set a good example at all and only reinforces the stereotype Japanese have of foreigners.

Another American coming over and making trouble. Knock off the antics. Your giving other hard working Americans who have been here for years a bad rap. If you are going to come to Japan or any other country for that matter. Have some common sense and sensitivity for the culture you are visiting. Now clean your mess. Bow and bow some more profusely while learning the word - Gomenasai- and go back, you hoodlum.

@Nanda, if you mean the UCLA players, they were helped out bigly by the leader of the "free" world. Trump even insisted that they thank him for taking their case all the way to President Xi. Of course it would be nice to know what secret back-room promises led to that outcome. Too bad (or thank goodness) this tag writing fool probably doesn't have the same connections as, say, a member of the Ball family/industry.

Not at all; the US is the birthplace of graffiti. Credit where credit is due.

Not quite.... graffiti was a thing many many centuries before the US was a thing...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti#history

Wish they would clam down on the Japanese kids in my neighborhood!!

He wrote the letters NYC and then drew some squiggles.

hahahaha. "Squiggles"?

Stupid. Its idiots like this digested food in human form who gives other honest foreigners a bad rap by nationals.

Fine the perp and get him to scrub off the graffiti. He'll learn his lesson.

No he won't. Look up the tagger named 'Chaka'. He was all over Los Angeles in the 80s & 90s. He was caught and sentenced to 1560 hours of community service. On the way out of the courthouse, he was caught tagging the courthouse elevator and arrested again before he even left the building.

People like this don't learn lessons by slapping their hand. If he wants to tag, then he's more than welcome to do it in NYC after hes dumped on a plane out of Japan.

Use the “I dont remember” & “I deeply regret”, that should do the trick, he will be out in no time.

Deportation at his own expense is the answer....

fizzbit:

This guy was just writing where he was from, NYC.

So next time invite him to your apartment to write"NYC" on YOUR wall. The owner of the property did not ask him for his improvement. Lock him up and give him some time to think, I say.

Permanent Japan ban at the very least, 30 years hard labor and family fine at the tune of few hundred thousand usd..., well publicized too.. that will prevent all those imbeciles from doing this crap abroad.

Toasted Heretic

If someone sprays “NYC” you see it as Western Imperialism or an example of it??

Now Ive heard it all

They need to cane this idiot, like they did to that Yank a few years back in Singapore

Obviously a noob. If he knew anything of Japan, he would have admitted he was drunk and had no recollection of anything else.

At least he admitted to the charges, unlike SOME people cough cough who were drunk and can't remember anything.

The drunks are the worst, true. I do a feel a certain amount of pity for them. I think they should have mandatory counselling in order to prevent repeat offending.

Not that it's any excuse for vandalism or violence.

20 years hard labor ?

This is Tokyo, not St. Petersburg.

vandalism after he used a black marker pen to scrawl graffiti

Who uses Sharpie to make graffiti?!

But is it art?

Beauty is in the eye and all that. On another thread we see that someone has forked out silly money for a painting. Who's to say that the graffiti some scorn at won't one day be seen as a movement?

So, it's not renaissance art but there is so much room and scope as to what constitutes art.

Personally, I can appreciate "traditional" along with the likes of Basquiat, Warhol, Keith Haring, Dali, Ernst etc.

I won't claim to understand them, though. It's all subjective and down to personal intepretation.

Still missing Stik's work. I think it would brighten up some of the more drab buildings here.

"... he used a black marker pen to scrawl graffiti on the white wall at the construction site .... he wrote the letters NYC and then drew some squiggles."

This is news?

This guy was just writing where he was from, NYC. Hardly the stuff we associate to graffiti, which IMO, is selfish fake art, and people who do that should be arrested and fined. This guy should just get a warning and have him clean it off. It was a construction wall, not a permanent building.

another idiot. Lock him up and throw away the key.

Personally I don’t mind at all if people tag stuff or do graffiti art.

If it’s on old bridges and cement blocks it’s cool and gives it character.

But if they spray someone’s property or deface something good looking that’s totally different.