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When putting out your trash in Japan, you always have to be conscious of what you’re putting out on burnable garbage day. One reason for this is Japan’s complex recyclable classification system, which requires residents to sort their glass, plastic, metal, and paper items separately. The other reason, though, is that once you put something out as burnable trash, there’s probably no hope of ever getting it back.
As an example of that second point, consider the case of Takehiro Tsutsumi, a 45-year-old idol otaku living in the town of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture. Like a lot of idol singer fans, Tsutsumi purchases merchandise from artists he admires, but back in early October he threw out a T-shirt for one of his favorite groups, on burnable trash day, only to later try to reclaim it.
He managed to deduce that his home’s burnable trash gets taken to an incineration center in Osaka City’s Nishiyodogawa district, so he contacted the facility and told them “I want you to return the female idol group T-shirt I threw away.” Unfortunately for Tsutsumi, the incineration center staff had been working efficiently and the delivery batch that included his idol shirt was now nothing but smoke and ashes, and the center informed him that they were unable to return it.
In contrast to the speedy incineration, Tsutsumi’s anger appears to have simmered over the next several weeks. Finally, on Dec 1 he took to social media, but not to ask the group to reissue the shirts or to see if a fellow fan had a spare they’d be willing to part with. Instead, he posted a message saying “The Nishiyodogawa Incineration Center will explode in two hours.”
Maybe there would have been a time when the message would have been dismissed as the inconsequential blathering of an angry internet troll, but in the post-Kyoto Animation arson attack climate, the incineration center wasn’t going to take any chances, so the facility was quickly evacuated. The subsequent investigation led the authorities to Tsutsumi, and though the lack of any explosives found at the facility suggests the idol fan had been making an idle threat, on Monday he was arrested on charges of forced obstruction of business activities.
It’s not clear what turn of events caused Tsutsumi to go from throwing the T-shirt in the trash, and on burnable garbage day no less, to wanting it back so desperately that he’d threaten to blow up a building. Maybe he threw it away by accident, or maybe he momentarily felt like one of the idols had broken his heart and wanted to cut emotional ties, only for his infatuation to recover the next day.
Source: Sankei News via Hachima Kiko
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2020/12/10/idol-otaku-arrested-for-bomb-threat-after-his-idol-t-shirt-gets-burned/
22 Comments
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foreignbrotherhoodarmy
45 year old man obsessed with teenage girls... how does japan NOT have a problem with this?
therougou
We already know the facts in the article, and have already concluded that the guy is a lunatic with no valid reasoning. So your failure to add anything new may be why your comment got voted down. Then again, everything gets voted down these days...
Yubaru
If it weren't for guys like this one here, there wouldn't BE any "idols" in Japan.
Mocheake
Even before reading this I managed to deduce his age and I can even see what he looks like because unfortunately for my eyes and nose, I have to see and smell him a thousand times a day on my commute. I also am sure he still lives with his mother. Grow the hell up!
tamanegi
45 years old. Lunatic.
StevieJ
Typical otaku man-child.
Hiro
Another selfish nutcase
murabito
Good to see this guy being caught, The KyoAni tragedy was caused by one of these deranged people, any threat should be treated seriously.
Monozuki
Ah, that makes sense. Let alone the bomb threat.
shogun36
psycho..................
Goodlucktoyou
If he can live in Ashiya, the most expensive postcode in Japan, he he just buy a new t-shirt.
sir_bentley28
First off, if its in the trash, the incinerator company is correct to assume you don't want it, hence the reason it is where it was. They also aren't in the returns/delivery business.
For a t-shirt? Why not buy another one?
Yubaru
Good! This should be a message to other idiots here who make stupid comments that could put people's lives in danger or worse!
NOMINATION
I am sure that idol group would want that loser as far away as possible from them.
sir_bentley28
Wow! Why are there so many negative people? I was just pointing out facts in this article and making sense of his reasoning for wanting to bomb a place.
bag of hammers
I imagine the author for this article had a giant grin on their face the entire time they were writing it.