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Tokyo police have obtained an arrest warrant for a Chinese teenage boy for alleged property damage after graffiti was found at Yasukuni Shrine in August, investigative sources said Thursday.
The suspect, who also faces a charge of desecration of a place of worship, has already left Japan for Hong Kong. He is accused of writing Chinese characters meaning "toilet" on a stone pillar of the Tokyo shrine using a black felt-tip pen shortly after 10 p.m. on Aug. 18.
The suspect was caught on a security camera climbing onto the pedestal of the stone pillar on the evening of that day and is believed to have posted an image of the graffiti on Chinese social media, the sources said.
He is thought to have written the graffiti alone, although he came to Japan with several people a few days before the incident.
The same pillar was defaced in May with the English word "toilet" in red spray paint, leading to the indictment of a Chinese man by Tokyo prosecutors in July for property damage and desecration of a place of worship.
Two other Chinese men who both left the country have been put on wanted lists for their alleged involvement in the May incident.
Yasukuni has long been a source of diplomatic friction with China and other Asian countries as it honors Japan's wartime leaders, who were convicted as war criminals in a post-World War II international tribunal, along with the war dead.
© KYODO
6 Comments
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marc laden
Give that boy the same punishment which CCP give to him if he had done something similar in China.. Then such nuisances can prevent ..
Fighto!
At least he didn't firebomb it like other Chinese have.
Chinese leading the way in these types of shocking attacks.
sakurasuki
Never too early to know about to learn about international dispute.
That pillar is being favorite target for Chinese tourist now.
Falco1
That boy is the product of the Chinese hate propaganda that is bombarded through their media to nurture hate against a pacific neighbour country.
The teen must face the consequences of his acts but the core problem must be faced also to the Chinese authorities and urge them to put a break to these revengist sentiments otherwise it will be a never ending problem.
uaintseeme
Why spend all that money to go to another country just to get arrested.
browny1
While the act is delinquent and illegal, it is necessary to keep it in proportion to other more serious crimes esp those of violence.
A marker pen scribble of kanji characters by a youth is not the end of the world.
That this case should be pursued overseas would be a needless waste of time, effort and money.
And those that think this is some CCP hatched plan for revenge are just way off the mark.
I suspect that all of the media focus re this has created an air of notoriety for the boy and possibly encourage copycat acts.
To simply and quite easily remove the ink with no publicity, will do more to stifle such further vandalism than an OMG uproar.