An American visiting Japan with his family has been arrested on suspicion of vandalism after allegedly desecrating Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Shrine. According to Reuters, the 65-year-old (identified as Steve Lee Hayes) clawed five letters representing family names into a pillar of the Torii gates with his fingernails.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police allege the man used his fingernails to carve five letters into the pillar of a torii gate at the popular tourist attraction.

A 65-year-old American is suspected of carving alphabetical characters into the pillar of a torii gate of the Meiji Jingu Shrine.

The arrest of an American tourist for defacing a revered Tokyo shrine has highlighted a growing challenge for Japan, a country renowned for its politeness and reverence for tradition, now grappling with a surge in foreign tourists who sometimes disregard local customs and laws.

An unprecedented number of tourists are flocking to Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more at straitstimes.com.

TOKYO — Police said Wednesday they have arrested a 65-year-old American male for allegedly defacing Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo earlier this week by using

A 65-year-old American tourist has been arrested in Japan for allegedly carving letters into a torii gate at a Tokyo shrine.

Tokyo authorities arrested a 65-year-old U.S. tourist for allegedly defacing the grate of a local shrine on Tuesday.