Suspect of 'Restroom' Graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine in Japan Leaves for China

A suspect who vandalized the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, where Class A war criminals from the Pacific War are enshrined, by spray-painting the word "toilet" in red has been identified as having already left for China.

Graffiti video of Yasukuni Shrine posted on Chinese social networking service (SNS) [Image provided = SNS video capture]

On the 3rd, local media including the Yomiuri Shimbun reported this citing investigation officials. The man, who had been pursued by Japanese police on charges such as property damage, was confirmed to have left the country on the 1st, the same day the graffiti was discovered on the stone pillar at the entrance bearing the name Yasukuni Shrine (靖國神社). The Sankei Shimbun reported that he appears to reside in Shanghai.

The red spray-painted graffiti was first discovered by a passerby around 5:50 a.m. on the 1st. Later that day at 7 p.m., two pieces of paper written in Chinese were found near a statue inside the shrine and reported. The notes contained Chinese phrases saying, "The people of the world unite," and "But you are not included."

On the same day, a video was uploaded on Xiaohongshu (小紅書), a Chinese social networking service (SNS), showing a man spray-painting red graffiti on a stone pillar at Yasukuni Shrine and appearing to urinate.

In response, Japanese police believe the man spray-painted the graffiti between 9:55 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the 31st of last month and have been tracking him as a prime suspect. They have also been investigating another individual who filmed the SNS video. Fuji TV reported that around 10 p.m. on the 31st, a man accompanying the suspect was captured on nearby closed-circuit television (CCTV).

There have been multiple incidents such as graffiti and explosions at Yasukuni Shrine in the past. Yasukuni Shrine is a facility commemorating the spirits of approximately 2,466,000 people who died in civil wars around the Meiji Restoration and numerous wars waged by Imperial Japan. It also enshrines 14 Class A war criminals from the Pacific War, including former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was executed following the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trials).