TOKYO — Japanese police are searching for suspects in the spray-painting of the word “toilet” on a Tokyo shrine that commemorates the country’s war dead, in an apparent protest against the ongoing release of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, news reports said Monday.
The red graffiti, spray-painted on a stone pillar at the entrance of Yasukuni Shrine, was discovered early Saturday morning. In a video posted on Chinese social media, a man who identified himself as Iron Head criticized the discharge of wastewater from the damaged nuclear power plant into the ocean. Then in another video taken at night, he is seen apparently urinating on the pillar and then using a can of spray paint to write the word “toilet” in English.
Tokyo police are investigating two suspects, the person who appeared in the video and another who shot the video, according to Japanese media, including NHK public television and Kyodo News agency. Police believe the incident occurred late Friday after the shrine closed and that the perpetrator is believed to have already left Japan, they said.
Police declined to confirm the reports.
The discharge of wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been opposed by fishing groups and by neighboring countries, especially China, which imposed a ban on all imports of Japanese seafood immediately after the release began last August. The ban has particularly affected Japanese scallop growers and exporters to China.
Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism. The countries criticize visits by Japanese lawmakers to the shrine as signs of their lack of remorse over Japan’s wartime actions.
The spray-painted graffiti was covered with a tarp over the weekend but appeared to have been cleaned by Monday.