Graffiti charge against Japanese artist dropped in U.S.

Japan would lock him up for minimum 10 days and probably 20 days for the same act. one night in central booking seams light in comparison. He went before a judge and was given a conditional discharge which goes away after 6 months with good behavior.

That's unfortunate.

In Hawaii, we put them out on weekends in very public places cleaning up any kind of graffiti. It's a lesson for many would-be vandals.

Usually highschoolers although, yes, some highschoolers in their twenties never grew up...

This tool used this to get "street cred" both in Japan and in the states and to get publicity for his "exhibit."

I suspect he made a donation to the police retirement fund in order to pay for his "publicity"

What one calls Grafitti is another's art. -Tag me.

what? no pics of the offending grafitti???

here's what he left in a NYC bar:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Yoshitomo_nara-graffiti-niagara_bar-2009.jpg/800px-Yoshitomo_nara-graffiti-niagara_bar-2009.jpg

The arrogance of these self-absorbed graffiti vandals is unbelievable. They creep around in the dark painting subhuman daubs on other people's property and then try to justify their furtive scribbling as art. Pathetic.

I agree the sen tence is too light as I don't accept "art" as an excuse for property damage. Unfortunately, it's in the Judge's discretion and they usually take past record into account, so it would be unlikely they would throw the book at him like they would to a repeat offender.

New York is fool of wierdos, so I am surprised this funny guy from Tochigi just did not fit right in! To one man it is art, to another it is just plain dirty graffiti, right?