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A Japanese YouTuber and two men were referred to prosecutors Monday for allegedly placing a mattress on the sidewalk in front of the busy Shibuya crossing in central Tokyo as part of a prank video, sources in the investigation said.
Masahiro Harada, a 29-year-old YouTuber known as “Hezumaryu,” and the two accomplices who appeared in the video are suspected of obstructing pedestrians on the sidewalk near the famous intersection on July 2 by placing the futon-style mattress. Japanese before one of them was lying on him, according to sources.
Harada, who has traveled to Japan to create YouTube videos, was quoted by sources as telling investigators that he had thought his action would not be considered a crime as long as they did not use a bed.
In 2019, Tokyo police referred a different group of pranksters to prosecutors for a stunt in which they placed a bed with a YouTuber inside in the middle of the Shibuya crossing as pedestrians passed through it.
The indictment against Harada is the latest in a string of arrests, including one in July after he allegedly ate unpaid fish at a supermarket in central Japan’s city of Okazaki, for which he was charged in August.
While in custody, the YouTuber tested positive for the new coronavirus. As a result, several people who were in close contact with him, including some police officers, were found to have contracted the virus.
Harada was arrested again on October 16 for obstructing the business by claiming that the brand’s T-shirt he bought from a store in Osaka city, western Japan, was fake, even though the product was actually genuine. . He was later released.
