An elementary school teacher in Hyuga, Miyazaki Prefecture, has been arrested after it was discovered that he had lied to a newspaper reporter regarding the presence of a foreign substance in a rice ball ("onigiri") lunch that he purchased at a convenience store.
According to police, on Feb 25, Akira Kuroki, 46, told a national newspaper that an "onigiri" he purchased at a convenience store contained a tooth filling, TBS reported.
It was later discovered that it had in fact been Kuroki's own filling and that his statement had been falsified, seriously damaging the store's reputation.
Police arrested Kuroki for harmfully disrupting the operations of a business.
© Japan Today
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smithinjapan
Hope this guy's end-game was to get arrested, fired, and to further harm the reputation of the teachers in this nation, because I can't think of what else he hoped to gain (unless he had a personal grudge against the store, to whom he's going to have to publicly apologize). Moron.
FrancescoB
Arrested? I think there is a good chance that he simply made a mistake.
Regardless, the charge of disrupting operations being applied over lodging an allegation and complaint is misuse of the law to the degree of jack-booted fascism! I would like to know the name of the person behind that decisions because he needs to be removed along with his armband!
I would think the civilized course of action would be for the store to sue the man and demand an apology.
And then he sues his dentist in return perhaps?
smithinjapan
FrancescoB: He made a mistake and THEN also falsified the report? And you call the people charging him 'jack-boot thugs' while you make radical accusations about them? What should the police have done for this man's breaking the law? If he had not falsified the report you might have a claim about the mistake thing, although you would think a filling gone missing would have immediate and painful signs (most people I know who lose a filling know right away).
Kaerimashita
He should have told the tooth to the police......
FightingViking
With teachers like that... what kind of education are the children getting ? It's almost every day some teacher "slips up" somewhere...
Monozuki
Even if he claims his innocence tooth and nail, chances are very high that the arrest this time will cost him the job of teacher before too long filling him with gloom. And what's worse, getting his new job will be harder as well. At any rate, he'll take a one-two punch if he has been proven guilty.
cardsfan5
Except, I think we all know here, that he won‘t lose his job. I think the guy was looking for someone else to pay for his dental work.
I would think one would notice a missing filling.
I imagine this crap isn‘t so uncommon elsewhere, either. Japan has a lot of people, bound to bad apples in the bunch.
CH3CHO
I agree with FrancescoB.
If a tooth-filling falls off accidentally while eating, one is not likely to recognize it as his own tooth-filling but rather as some foreign object in the food.
He apparently did not have criminal intent, and therefore the arrest is illegal.
avigator
He could say that it came off while he was eating and did not realize it was his, so the obvious thing to think is that it came with the onigiri.
Fadamor
Most people, upon seeing a filling in food they've been eating, are going to initially assume the filling was theirs rather than assume it was someone else's and check their mouth. Besides, the very next bite of ANYTHING and during every meal afterwards would have alerted him that something was wrong. The fact that this guy went to a newspaper reporter rather than checking to see if he had all of his own fillings tells me that this was an intentional false claim. He had criminal intent.
Educator60
So how long did the police have to drill him until he confessed?
FrancescoB
SmithinJapan, lying to a reporter about a business is not disrupting operations. Its just defamation. Arresting people for defamation is outrageous. In 2012 the U.N. commission on human rights ruled that treating defamation as a crime violated freedom of expression and was inconsistent with the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. It looks to me like the disrupting operations is nothing more than a ploy to get around that ruling. And that is the act of a jack booted fascist.
Fadamor, I would not assume anything like that concerning "most people". And I certainly would not attempt to use what " most people " would do as proof that one particular person is lying.
Sloppy dental work can result in fillings and caps coming off. Dead and drilled out nerves do not transmit pain. Particularly if a filling or cap falls out from a top molar that has a root canal done, it might not be noticed right away except for having that something floating around your mouth.
I have actually lost chips of tooth while eating and at first I thought there was something in my food. It was only differences in temperature that started causing me pain later, and then I realized where that hard piece of something came from.
I also had a filling come out while brushing and did not feel a thing. In fact, I had that crater of a tooth for years after and zero pain from it.
I will further point out that the guy did not even try to blackmail the company before going to the reporter. Seems strange that he would lie and I see no proof he lied.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Now he will be looking for a "fill in" job. Ouch
Fadamor
Who's to say he didn't try to do so? If the company told him to take a hike, I could easily see him making a beeline for a reporter to publicly shame the company.
Want proof he lied?
"Falsified" - verb
alter (information or evidence) so as to mislead. prove (a statement or theory) to be false: "the hypothesis is falsified by the evidence"DaDude
Unfortunately though his filling fell out, his next "appointment" will be in the court of law.
Educator60
I have had fillings fall out a few times. Even though there was no pain, there was definitely a feeling of something missing. And I think the first move of most people upon finding a filling in their food would be to check their own mouth.
The article says he report had been falsified. It doesn't say he made a mistake and unwittingly filed a false report. If that is accurate then of course he should have been arrested for willfully trying to cause trouble for the company.
FrancescoB
Yes Fadamor, I do. If the word of the police and the press is good enough for I am afraid we are at an impasse. I require an explanation for the claim, especially since the police clearly misapplied the law to arrest him. I don't trust the police.