crime

Man arrested for setting fire to wall at Yasukuni Shrine

17 Comments

Police said Thursday they arrested a 25-year-old unemployed man after he set fire to an outer wall at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, in what he said was a suicide attempt.

According to police, the incident occurred just after 5 p.m. Wednesday, TBS reported. A shrine employee called police to say that the man had started a fire at an outer wall near the Chinreisha (spirit-pacifying wooden Shinto shrine).

The fire took about 30 minutes to extinguish and there were no injuries, police said.

Police found the arson suspect sitting on the ground at the scene. TBS reported that he had four PET bottles containing an oil-like liquid with him.

The suspect was quoted by police as saying he came to the shrine to commit suicide by self-immolation as an offering to the shrine.

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17 Comments
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Went to the shrine to die by immolation, but set fire to a wall instead. Sounds like some weird excuse because how hard is it to pour the fuel over your head. Did he miss?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

why is it always an unemployed person doing this craziness?!

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Obviously mentally disturbed, which is true to a certain extent with all the other ultra-right fascists.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Hino, is quite far from the Yasukuni in metro tokyo -- its way out past Yokota AB, although still in tokyo-to, he came very far to act out, and make a scene or point.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Yesterday and last night was new years day, and many japanese/asian shops etc. were closed. There appeared to be so many vagrants out and about. I guess like you mentioned Disillusioned, agoraphobic, must have been in full effect, since apparently their hangout spots must have been all shuttered up., it was kinda creepy especially riding down some back streets where small groups were transient.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Literally setting a firewall

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Too bad he didn't burn down the whole damn thing.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He shouldn't have tried to burn himself, he should've just lit the fuel and threw the bottles over the fence and torched that horrible shrine!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just to be clear, the article states the guy was trying to make an offering to the shrine, not burn it down. Granted, the offering in this case was was his own charred corpse, but it was an offering all the same. Not sure what his abject failure says about the can-do spirit of these nationalist loons however.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@DaDudeJAN. 02, 2015 - 09:35AM JST I am actually surprised that there weren't more attempts as it is the most hated shrine in China and Korea.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Yiur comment says China and Korea. No mentioing of Japanese. Sounded like you blamed China and Korea. Because there is no mentioning of China or Korea Only you wrote right away. Weren't you blaming China and Korea?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Perhaps he just wanted to be arrested and taken somewhere warm for the first few days of the year.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

It seems that Japanese people tend to find more and more disturbing ways of expressing themselves. The society is a hive and anyone that is not part of the 'in crowd' becomes severely ostracised and to some extent agoraphobic cos they just feel they have vanished into the crowd. Being 25 and unemployed in Japan is a tough situation. There is very little welfare support and if you can't rely on your parents you are on your own. Japan is a very lonely place for those without a job, friends or family to support them. Sadly, this kid will be charged and given warning then, he will be sent back into the fish bowl with no help or counselling. I've said before, Japan is a country of 130 million strangers.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

I think people outside Japan forget even in the country, Yasukuni has a very controversial place in Japanese history. That's why every August 15th you see a lot of political extremists protesting near Yasukuni on both political Left and Right with their big caravans of sound trucks--which many Japanese actually find kind of amusing.

As such, this protest does not surprise the average Japanese.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

"I am actually surprised that there weren't more attempts as it is the most hated shrine in China and Korea".

Except this guy is Japanese.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Except this guy is Japanese.

Never said he wasn't

Never said you did. But don't blame people for thinking you're trying to imply something.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I am actually surprised that there weren't more attempts as it is the most hated shrine in China and Korea.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Except this guy is Japanese.

Never said he wasn't

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

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