Japanese student scrawled on world heritage cathedral in Italy

Wednesday 25th June, 06:00 AM JST

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LFRAgain at 02:32 PM JST - 25th June

A 20-year old Japanese design school student scrawling her name on a World Heritage site in Italy is not indicative of the failings of Japanese society. That other Japanese reported her actions is ample proof of this. Rather, it's indicative of the stupidity of one particular 20-year old Japanese design school student. That's all. Anyone reading anything more into it than that needs to relax or find a more appropriate forum to grind their axe at, like BigDaikon, for example.

But when one of theirs do it, oh, well it's just a name on a little piece of the wall.

"One of theirs?" The barely concealed racism contained in this statement aside, when Japanese commit crimes like this abroad and it makes the news, it's hardly a situation of the Japanese people rising up as a nation in defense of "one of theirs." The event decribed above has likely caused profound embarrassment on the part of the parents, school administrators, and the girl's teachers, from college on down the line to elementary school. In the eyes of these people, this girl's actions were a testament to their failure to raise her properly. They aren't dismissing what she did by any stretch. On the contrary, I can guarantee you they're pretty unhappy with her about what she did and the bad light it puts the rest of her group in. Gifu City Women's College now has the unfortunate distinction of accepting disrespectful troublemakers into its school. Nothing to crow about.
norinrad21 at 02:40 PM JST - 25th June

Anyone got a link to the picture of her and her friends giving the Japanese trade mark? ie i mean the peace sign
sageb1 at 03:42 PM JST - 25th June

the college's Dai Sensei needs to have a talk with this errant collage student.

what? the college has no Dai Sensei? Has no teacher ever been inspired by Great Teacher Onizuka and actually cared about his students rather than dating the girls practising enjo kosai for easy money for clothes and Morning Musume albums?
nigelboy at 03:51 PM JST - 25th June

That's all. Anyone reading anything more into it than that needs to relax or find a more appropriate forum to grind their axe at, like BigDaikon, for example.

Good one LFR.

"One of theirs?" The barely concealed racism contained in this statement aside, when Japanese commit crimes like this abroad and it makes the news, it's hardly a situation of the Japanese people rising up as a nation in defense of "one of theirs."

You're absolutely right LFR. Japanese society, as a whole, condemned the actions of these students. Hence, it made the news. As you and I stated, it was the Japanese tourist who took the photo of the graffitti and sent it to the College officials. Some people here just can't seem to connect the dots.
wilbur at 04:01 PM JST - 25th June

open season on japan's temples then...they could all use a bit of character anyway
niku at 04:04 PM JST - 25th June

Romulus3: People who do graffiti should be rounded up into camps. Then the world would be free of any graffiti! What a great idea?......
sageb1 at 04:23 PM JST - 25th June

too bad she didn't have a can of black spray paint.

but no, she had to use an oil-based marker.

how posh!
nandakandamanda at 05:51 PM JST - 25th June

boonme, wow, they've cleaned it up since I was there! Great news. Thanks for the update. The article doesn't tell us, but I wonder if her handle was in isolation on an otherwise spotless white wall, or just part of a tangle of world graffiti? Just wondering, not excusing! :D
WMD at 10:05 PM JST - 25th June

gaijin just don't know how to behave do they??
VoXman at 03:22 AM JST - 26th June

Notice how calmly the Italians reacted to one of their World Heritage sites being marred with graffitti by no less than a FORIENGER....OMG!
soothsayer at 06:56 AM JST - 26th June

Let's see, spray paint cars or write on a world heritage site. Yeah, I can see how they are the same. I hope you caught the sarcasm because I was laying it on pretty thick. I do think that she should be punished, not just scolded. Give her a failing mark for the class and have her take it over. That would be fair. I also have never written my name on any walls, especially as a guest in another country. If an American did it to a temple in Japan, they'd be screaming outrage. And deservedly so. But when one of theirs do it, oh, well it's just a name on a little piece of the wall. Or, how about the Sistene Chapel? It's just a church...

They say that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and this is a good example of it. An intelligent reading of my comment might have lead you to realise that we actually have the same opinion in this matter.
suckit at 05:04 PM JST - 27th June

i like to tattoo my name on her skin! And the dean of the college should resign for shaming the school
bushlover at 05:21 PM JST - 27th June

She should have to write an essay on why this was a bad move. That's the only way to punish the dummy. Call it "Punishment for Dummies". I should publish this idea.
RepublicofTexas at 05:12 PM JST - 29th June

Why are people proposing revenge on Japanese temples? This is a group of stupid students and has little if anything to do w/ the rest of Japan. In fact all the Japanese people I've heard talk about the incident are thoroughly embarrassed by the whole event.

I agree with the sentence. Being european we got stuff dating back 2000+yrs, this is our history good or bad. If you can't respect it than you got to pay the price. Yet, at the same timeＩ understand that non-europeans(USA, Japan, etc) can not relate to it.

What are you talking about? Japanese civilization has existed since the Jomon period 14,000 BCE and the more "modern" state of Japan rose with the Yamato around 250CE. That's at least as long as European civilization.
keech2 at 09:51 AM JST - 13th July

Small update. Seems the student has flown back, apologized and made a donation.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5ZuwSODp96ooFksyVmPCh3hibgA