A 65-year-old American tourist has been arrested in Japan for allegedly carving letters into a torii gate at a Tokyo shrine.
The suspect, Steve Lee Hayes, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of property damage, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesperson told CNN.
Police said the man allegedly damaged the pillar of a shrine gate in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on Tuesday, “carving out the alphabet with his fingernails.”
According to public broadcaster NHK, five letters – believed to be the tourist’s surname – were etched into a gate pillar at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.
The police identified the suspect based on camera images and started an investigation.
Located next to the city’s expansive Yoyogi Park, the Meiji Shrine first opened in 1920 and was dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The complex was destroyed during the Second World War, but rebuilt in the 1950s.
A close-up image of scratches on a torii gate at Meiji Shrine taken on November 14, 2024. – Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images
The entrances to the shrine feature enormous wooden gates known as torii, which are topped with striking curved beams.
The suspect, who was visiting Japan with his family, faces a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine of up to 300,000 yen ($1,918) for the alleged vandalism.
The arrest is the latest in a series of tourism-related incidents making headlines as Japan experiences record numbers of visitors.
Earlier this year, a small town at the foot of Mount Fuji gained international attention for blocking views of the famous icon with a black barrier after it was overrun by photo-hungry tourists. According to some residents of the city, the visitors left behind garbage and ignored traffic rules, despite the presence of signs and guards.
In September, local police told CNN that a 61-year-old Austrian man had been arrested for having sex on the grounds of a shrine in Kesennuma – a small coastal town about 500 kilometers north of Tokyo – and charged with disrespecting a place of worship worship.
Meanwhile, in 2023, according to local police, a 17-year-old Canadian was brought in for questioning for allegedly carving a name into a wooden pillar at a UNESCO World Heritage-listed temple in the historic city of Nara, Japan.
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