Tokyo police are investigating yet another case of graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine in the capital.
The shrine honors Japan’s war dead. Those remembered include leaders convicted of war crimes after World War Two.
Police say they received a report from a shrine staff member at around 3:50 a.m. on Monday saying there was graffiti on a stone pillar near a Torii gate at the main entrance.
Police officers went to the scene and found that the surface of a stone pillar with the name of the shrine inscribed on it as well as its base had been defaced with black marker ink in three spots each.
The police say the graffiti included characters resembling the Chinese word for “toilet,” along with some alphabetic letters.
They are investigating the case on suspicion of damaging property.
In a similar incident in May, the same stone pillar was defaced with red paint.