Austrian man arrested for having sex at Japanese shrine

Tokyo
CNN
—

A 61-year-old Austrian man was arrested last month for having sex at a shrine in Japan with a Japanese woman in her 40s, local police told CNN on Wednesday.

The couple were caught having sex on Aug. 22 on the grounds of a shrine in Kesennuma, a small coastal town about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Tokyo, and faced charges of disrespecting a place of worship.

Police told CNN they arrested the man out of fear he might be a flight risk, but did not arrest the woman after concluding she was not a flight risk.

The man was released, but police have not revealed details of his punishment or clarified whether he was a tourist or a resident. Such cases do not always result in forced repatriation, police added, and can lead to a fine.

Although such cases are rare, there have been other instances of people being arrested for disrespecting Japanese shrines.

Last year, a 17-year-old Canadian was taken in for questioning for allegedly scratching the name “Julian” with his fingernail on a wooden pillar at a UNESCO World Heritage-listed temple in the historic city of Nara, local police told CNN at the time.

“The boy admitted his act and said he did not do it with the intention of harming Japanese culture,” said a police officer. “He is now with his parents, who were with him when the incident occurred.”

Meanwhile, in 2010, famous photographer Kishin Shinoyama was charged with public indecency and disrespecting a religious site when he allegedly took nude photographs in a public cemetery.