The flagship Eslite Bookstore in Taipei, on Dunhua S Road, was left red-faced and embarrassed after a Japanese man was wrongfully accused of being a pervert, and assaulted and manhandled by the store’s security guards.
The man was also arrested by police and taken into custody, before eventually being exonerated.
One TV news station reported the visitor, surnamed Fujimoto (藤本), came to Taiwan as an independent tourist and quoted him as saying he wanted to make a “pilgrim visit” to the 24-hour flagship Eslite Bookstore in Taipei.
On Tuesday night, Fujimoto visited the store, carrying his camera. However, a Taiwanese customer in the store thought he was acting suspiciously.
The customer was quoted as saying the man was following a female customer and seemed to be taking pictures of the woman’s underwear from below her skirt, so he alerted the store’s security.
When the guards approached and wanted to question him, they said the visitor turned away and tried to leave the store by running down the stairs.
At that point, he was surrounded by a group of men, including a security guard, an Eslite store employee and several male customers who said they were morally outraged about the incident.
They zeroed in to tackle the tourist, putting him in a headlock and placing his hands and legs in lockholds.
One witness said: “The Japanese man kept shouting, ‘I-tai, i-tai, i-tai’ [“painful” in Japanese]. That was the only word I understood. Maybe it was because no one in the store could speak Japanese, and it led to the misunderstanding.”
The man told them that he had done nothing wrong and that he had not taken pictures of the woman.
The grappling and manhandling of the visitor caused a scene in the store, with a crowd gathering and some people captured the incident on their smartphones.
Despite his plea of innocence, the store called in the police to make an arrest. The man was restrained and taken into custody, then questioned at the police station.
When the police checked the visitor’s camera and smartphone, they did not find any photographs of a sexual nature.
According to a TV news report, the police then searched his hotel room, but found no suspicious photographs and no incriminating evidence. The tourist was released, with the police saying it had been a misunderstanding.
The TV news report said the man felt he was a victim of an unfortunate incident, and did not file a complaint, nor press for a lawsuit.
However, a legal expert said incidents such as this have been happening increasingly of late, warning that actions such as placing the victim in a headlock, or restraining his hands and the other forms of physical assault in this case could lead to charges of causing bodily harm with negligence, especially in a case of wrongful arrest and detention.
Netizens denounced the actions of Eslite Bookstore and the police.
One netizen surnamed Hung (洪) said: “If I carried a camera in the bookstore, and someone thought I was following a woman, maybe I would be accused of being a pervert and might get arrested as well.”
Several people wrote that Eslite and the customers who assisted staff owed the innocent man a big apology.
A man surnamed Su (蘇) said: “This incident is a national disgrace. I feel very sorry for the Japanese tourist. He got badly treated, and I wouldn’t blame him for having a bad impression about Taiwanese.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
 - Copy.jpg)
The Tourism Bureau plans to offer incentives to attract international tourists as the nation plans to gradually lift all travel restrictions to contain COVID-19, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The incentives would be funded by surplus national tax revenue from last year, Wang said. The funding could be appropriated after the legislature passes draft special statutes governing the use of the surplus tax revenue in the upcoming legislative session, he said. Of the NT$450 billion (US$14.97 billion) in surplus tax revenue, the government plans to spend NT$100 billion on seven categories of projects to bolster Taiwan’s
RSS