In the long history of the Japanese paper-folding art known as origami, there is no more of an iconic shape than that of the majestic crane. It became an international symbol of peace due to the famous story of Hiroshima atomic bombing victim Sadako Sasaki who attempted to fold 1,000 of them in the belief that doing so would grant a wish.
With such a bittersweet backstory and endearing message of recovering from the ravages of war and disaster, it’s hard to imagine any way for someone to weaponize these paper birds… but someone has.
On May 11, Hyogo Prefectural Police in Kobe City arrested a 22-year-old man for sending 15 threatening letters and one case containing roughly 1,500 origami cranes to his former driving school.
The incidents occurred between October 27 last year and April 9 this year, in which envelopes with a 39-year-old employee’s name on it were placed in the school’s mailbox. The letters reportedly had messages such as “Die!” and “Quit your job now!” written on them. The paper cranes, however, were simply paper cranes.
Police used surveillance video to track the suspect down and found that he was a former student of the driving school who had failed to get his truck driver’s license last year. After his arrest, the man admitted to the crime and said that he had gotten “angry at their poor teaching style.” When asked the million-dollar question of what was up with the cranes, he told police that folding them helped to calm him down.
Paper cranes have been a somewhat controversial practice in recent years because they would be sent along with much needed supplies during emergencies. This led to instances of aid workers having to awkwardly remind people that their well-intentioned gesture is interfering with their life-and-death logistics work.
However, this may very well be the first instance of someone sending a large number of paper cranes with pure malicious intent. Readers of the news online were nonetheless impressed with his origami skills and some suggested other possible career paths.
“He could do outsourcing for elementary and junior high students across the country and be rich.”
“Maybe he should forget about driving and stick to origami.”
“Why couldn’t he put that effort into learning how to drive?”
“Actually doing the 1,000 cranes thing is really hard, and he went above and beyond that! It’s rather impressive.”
“You really just need to put a small fraction of that effort into studying and you’ll pass.”
“I can barely get past 10 without getting bored and quitting.”
“I’m thinking the school made the right call not letting this guy behind the wheel of a large truck.”
Getting a driver’s license in Japan can be hard and truck-driving certainly isn’t for everyone. Hopefully, this guy can get back on the straight and narrow by finding some way to utilize his remarkable ability to focus and very unique skill set.
Sources: Kobe Shimbun NEXT, Kini Soku
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Victim of 3.11 to people who have never suffered a disaster: Don’t send origami cranes to shelters
-- Low-quality paper cranes folded by young gyaru – Japan’s newest weird capsule toys
-- Meet Orizuru, the origami paper crane that can really fly 【Video】
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2023/05/17/kobe-man-arrested-after-threatening-driving-school-with-1500-origami-cranes/
15 Comments
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BertieWooster
“angry at their poor teaching style.”
And he's not kidding!
Newgirlintown
Most Japanese crime ever?
wallace
If you can't do the time, don't do the crane.
Aly Rustom
assault with a deadly origami
Harry_Gatto
A very much "Only In Japan" moment.
Toshihiro
Crimes like these make my day. I'd rather have this man send paper cranes than to do anything more destructive. But, I really am seeing a trend here, some crimes would fit more into the comedy section of the news than crime.
Sven Asai
I doubt that there’s any applicable law that forbids writing and sending paper letters or some folded paper cranes.
John
He should have been just provided with papers and forced to make 1500 crane. That would be sufficient punishment.
BertieWooster
I wonder if the people who gave me a down vote have any experience of driving school instruction in Japan. It really is terrible. Typically the instructor would walk into the classroom and start reading from the text book. The same text book that each of us had on our desks in front of us. Occasionally, he would take a sentence from the book and write it on the board, sometimes underlining the sentence to show emphasis.
There was little or no actual communication between the instructor and the students. I wonder if he noticed that we were there.
I sympathise with the guy in the article above. The teaching style in Japanese driving schools is poor at best.
Jayel
BertieWooster,
Your experience at Japanese driving schools does not mirror mine.
I received my car license over 15 years ago and my motorcycle license last year from different schools.
Both of them had great teachers who work long hours and tough schedules to teach many different levels of competency. The schools are expensive, that is for sure, but they do not lack for good instructors. However, the government run licensing centers such as Hirabari in Nagoya are a different animal.
The world is what you make it.
Chico3
That dude has a "cranial" mentality. Maybe he should head up an origami school. He sure has the talent.
garypen
Maybe so. But, there's definitely on against sending threatening letters.
"The letters reportedly had messages such as “Die!” and “Quit your job now!” written on them."
garypen
The classroom lessons are a waste of time, anyway. There are study guides for the written test. Why waste time and money in a classroom?
The lessons that matter are the behind-the-wheel lessons, preferably on the actual course where the test takes place.
The police inspectors look for the most trivial non-intuitive things to deduct points or trigger immediate failure. Those are the important things to know, along with the actual route.
I credit our behind-the-wheel lessons and multiple visits to the test course to walk the route with helping us pass on our first attempt, while 80% of our test group failed.
Mr Kipling
This guy has a black belt in origami!
kurisupisu
Maybe all that paper folding was a cry for help?