Tokyo Man Collected Spit From Hundreds of Little Girls
This is one of the most weird and creepy news stories I’ve seen in a while:
A 55-year-old unemployed man was arrested in Tokyo because he had a very strange hobby. He would approach elementary school girls on the street and ask them to provide him with saliva samples for his “research.” If girls agreed, he would film them as they spit into cups.
Since 2005, Tokyo police had received 125 complaints from residents who were disturbed by the man’s behavior. According to police sources, the man told them that he collected to spit for his own sexual gratification. The man said he’d been doing this for 17 years and had collected spit from 500 little girls.
The local kids had a nickname for him: “Mister Give-Me-Spit” (つばくれおじさん).
While the guy may have been creepy, was he really committing a crime? He didn’t force girls to give him spit. An article on J-Cast notes that a lot of Japanese netizens reacted to the news by questioning the legal grounds under which police arrested the man. A police spokesman explained that the man was violating the following section Tokyo’s Nuisance Prevention Ordinance:
- (「公共の場所又は公共の乗物において、人を著しくしゆう恥させ、又は人に不安を覚えさせるような卑わいな言動をしてはならない」- 迷惑防止条例の5条1項)
The ordinance bans vulgar speech or actions in public that cause unease and anxiety to other people. Although many of the girls initially consented to his polite requests for saliva samples, they were apparently not prepared for the creepy “research” video-taping.
If the case goes to trial and he is convicted, he could face up to 1 year in prison and a fine of up to 1,000,000 yen.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
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