Police in Sapporo have arrested a 43-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of shoplifting at a convenience store on Saturday night. The man told police he took the items because he was hungry.
According to police, the man entered the store in the Susukino district in Chuo Ward at around 6:20 p.m., Hokkaido Broadcasting Corp reported. He is accused of pocketing three food items, including a chicken katsu sandwich, worth 993 yen.
One of the store employees recognized the man from a previous suspected shoplifting incident and went to a nearby koban (police box), while another employee kept an eye on the man.
Police arrived just as the suspect was leaving the store and detained him. The food items were in his overcoat pocket and he had not paid for them.
The man, who had 1,000 yen on him, was quoted by police as saying he was hungry.
© Japan Today
23 Comments
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Newgirlintown
Happy Christmas everyone! Let’s hope the man can have a slap up turkey meal in prison with all the trimmings, which undoubtedly happened as the happy ending to this story….
Yubaru
Hell of a damn sandwich for nearly 1,000! Sad part of all of this is that nearly every single conbini in Japan throws away an incredible amount of food daily. Yeah I get the laws and responsibility issues, but there should be no excuse for anyone here in Japan, to go hungry!
dagon
Meri Kuri in the Beautiful Japan of Abenomics/New Capitalism.
Larger context is apparently verboten.
MarkX
Sitting here this morning having a nice breakfast with family on this Christmas morning, but reading this story makes me feel sad for this man, but so thankful and lucky that I'm not in this poor man's position. Let's hope that he too can find something so that he doesn't have to go hungry!
Mr Kipling
I was hungry? Then buy a sandwich!
Probably already spent all his money on alcohol, cigarettes or gambling.
Yharnam Resident
Hell of an assumption considering there's nothing in the story that remotely points to that. And even if he did, that'd mean he's in a bad spot in life and deserves to be supported towards recovery. Doesn't make him any less human.
Darren Ward
This time of year is not a happy time for a lot of people.....
Feel for the bloke......
Yubaru
Which means he needs even more help than just food! By your comment here he isnt worth feeding because he wasted his money elsewhere.
If you got off your high horse maybe you would show some empathy and sympathy for your fellow human beings.
People in glass houses should know better than to throw stones!
wallace
Feed the hungry.
Danielsan
If there were not many jobs available, Japan would not need to import so many foreign workers.
This incident underscores the fact that a generation of Japanese consider it beneath their dignity to participate in labor necessary for a society to function.
Sad to see that many consider theft preferable to the dignity of supporting one's needs through honest labor.
kaimycahl
The man sad he was hungry. He didn’t steal Alcohol he stole food. I would go even further to applaud this man because in some places he could have easily robbed some innocent person. Merry Xmas everyone.
aaronagstring
And a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous New Year to you to! Ah, the season of Goodwill. It never fails to amaze me.
I hope I never have to go through what this guy has had. And I truly hope for your sake too.
opheliajadefeldt
This poor man was hungry, yet the government can afford to spend 164.7 billion yen on the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka. But then, no officials in office give a dam about him, he just another starving nobody.
Logical_Fallacy_Killer
993 Yen? Let him go. I'll pay for it.
Quo Primum
According to the article, it was three items (the sandwich and two other items) worth a total of 993 yen. Not the sandwich only.
OssanAmerica
Last I checked Japan is not a socialist country that feeds and houses every person who does not work.
No I don't think you get the laws and responsibility issues. What are you suggesting, that the employees should have knowingly let him take the food without paying and ignore it?
Roger Gusain
Wise words from JC: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Yubaru
Actually I do! Better than you do it seems! If the country had a system in place that would allow the needy to get food for free then this would have never happened.
I am saying that the food those employees tossed away should be available for consumption by those who need it to survive!
I used to get "expired" items from a friend who ran a conbini, I knew the risk, so did he, but he hated tossing all the food away, day after day. He helped those who needed it, and his bosses let it go, knowing fully well the risks, but NO ONE told the authorities anything, and those who needed food got fed. Win win!
nandakandamanda
Maybe he's a regular, the 'hungry' just being an excuse.
CKAI
1000 yen in the pocket says different. I can think up a lot better excuses if I wanna
go front page news for katsu sand.
Now take yer ni-man-satsus by the fistfuls no records or mnumbers, no tax paid and decades of grift... now THATS somethin, worth makin excuses for.
kurisupisu
Stealing food in today’s Japan?
Arrest and detention.
Stealing and embezzlement of taxpayers’ money?
A sudden trip to hospital