Photo/Illutration Graffiti on a stone pillar near the entrance to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward was erased by the evening of June 2. (Daichi Itakura)

A Chinese national living in Japan was arrested over his suspected involvement in spray-painting the word “Toilet” in English on a stone pillar near the entrance to war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in May.

His two alleged co-conspirators, both Chinese nationals, are believed to have left Japan after the incident.

Tokyo police announced the arrest of the 29-year-old Chinese national on July 9, saying he conspired with the two others to vandalize the shrine with red spray paint around 10 p.m. on May 31.

The Public Security Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department obtained arrest warrants for the three men on suspicion of destruction of property and desecration of a place of worship.

But the 36-year-old man suspected of spray-painting the graffiti and his alleged 25-year-old accomplice who recorded the act on video are now back in China, police said.

Police said the 29-year-old suspect, who lives in Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, and whose occupation is unknown, apparently purchased the spray can used in the act of vandalism.

They made no mention of whether the suspect had admitted to wrongdoing.

Video footage posted on social media shows a man spray-painting the pillar with graffiti near the entrance to the Shinto shrine, a site of major controversy because it memorializes 14 Class-A war criminals in addition to honoring Japan’s war dead.

Police identified the three suspects based on security camera footage around the shrine and other evidence.

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