Summary
Steve Lee Hayes, a 65-year-old American tourist, was arrested in Tokyo for allegedly carving family members’ names into a wooden Torii gate at the Meiji Shrine.
Surveillance footage led police to his hotel, where he was detained.
Hayes admitted to the act, which could result in up to three years in prison or a fine of 300,000 yen ($1,900).
The Meiji Shrine, a significant Shinto site, was built in 1920 to honor Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The incident occurs amid a surge in international tourism to Japan this year.
America: making Japan worse since 1853 (with a brief pause in the mid-20th century while they did it to themselves).
We’re doing it to ourselves again
Would Japan have been better had the shogunate continued?
I’ll let you know when my window into parallel universes has been completed, but I promised someone else to look into whether or not the Aztecs would have been worse for Mexico if the Spanish hadn’t invaded first.
Damn, I was asking myself this very question about the Aztecs about a week ago. Also how would the indigenous people in america progress if the colonizers didn’t discover America. I believe they are nomads?
One of the reasons the Spanish were able to contact the Aztecs is that their neighbors were really tired of being conquered and forced to pay tribute. So I’m guessing the Aztec empire in Mesoamerica would have gotten and the already massive Inca empire would have become far more massive. Not sure about any of the cultures other than those.
Do we really need people to look down on that much that it warrants these comments? Don’t get me wrong, he is a jerk and behaves like a teenager while 65, but people here act like he jumped a barrier to shit in a millenia old sarcophagus instead of pressing his thumb into 100 year old wood. I think I may have done worse at my old school.
This site’s against a police state, but wants the government to crack down on this nuisance with all its might. We’re against Religion, but Japan’s emperor cult is sacred. Throw molotovs into governmental buildings, but don’t you dare touch this wooden arch.
Just let him pay the fine, have the sites insurance cover restoration, big whoop.
Looks like the Temu version of Bannon.
Americans being dumb cunts. What a surprise.
Like our election didn’t give it away?
The rest of the world has known this for years.
So have we.
Yeah, that sounds like an American.
No offense, but Germans are no match for the reputation our tourists have…
How about tourists suck in general https://youtu.be/kYbnsoWux4s?si=ABpSjAuKWPMT8bkZ
Why people want to carve names on stuff… It’s the same people who write their names on bathroom doors
No idea but it’s been going on for millennia
Bathrooms are like the only place this is OK…but do it in sharpie so it can easily be removed
Like how dumb do you have to be?
… Checks timeline. Oh thats the norm…
As he should be, what an absolute moron.
Asshole should have his passport revoked on top of being jailed.
what a stupid fuck
I could have guessed he was over 60 because he wasn’t live streaming the whole thing. Just an old school asshole, not an influencer.
All that really proves is that people don’t need YouTube to do things for attention.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
Put that fuckin Boomer in prison for 3 years.
Bordering on Gen X but anyone this disrespectful is still a boomer. They need to jail him. A fine is too easy.
I was under the impression that gen x started in the mid 60s, whereas 65 would put this guy at 1959ish
Genx is 1965 – 1980.
At 65, he’s 6 years too old to be Gen X.
That’s a slap on the wrist if they only impose the fine. That should be a five year jail sentence at least.
You cannot act like a dick like this in other countries. Defacing a religious site no less.
Prison would be most appropriate.
The fine sure seems low for defacing an important religious shrine.
I completely agree
Not sure that shrine in particular but I do think torii gates in some shrines are replaced somewhat often. At Inari they had business names behind them which I assume are the ‘sponsors’ of that torii, probably they pay to have the gate fixed and I imagine that brings luck to that business. In short, he might have been lucky to deface the least critical part of the shrine.
That’s good at least. I’d hate to think this was a century old (or whatever) torii he defaced.
oh, Im just guessing here though (from what I saw when visiting), hopefully that is the case
Kinda like Americans donating to have a bench named after them in a park.
My understanding is that the business names are there because Inari is a kami associated with merchants and businesspeople. They donate a gate, slap the company name on it, and Inari provides.
The toriis at meiji jingu are gigantic. It would unfortunately cost millions to replace one.
Then the sentence makes no sense to me
