Man marks New Year by stripping naked at Imperial Palace
We’re cracking off 2026 with a belter of a story that is weird and wild, and perhaps could only happen in Tokyo.
On January 2, the Japanese Imperial Family always greets the public by coming onto a balcony to wave at the crowds, who are allowed into the palace grounds (which are usually closed).
The celebratory mood this year was soured, however, by the arrest of a man who stripped naked and tried to defecate in public in the grounds during the fifth and final balcony viewing.
The incident happened right at the front of the crowd, where there is the clearest view of the balcony, and it’s likely that the Imperial Family got a view of the gentleman’s own display before he was surrounded by police and hustled out of the grounds.
A social media posts apparently from the alleged man, who has a shaved head and seems to be in his twenties, appears to take responsibility for the crime and claims he represents the recently founded Yuwa Yurei Religion. He says his name is Yuta Tsuda, though none of this can be verified independently.
His post suggests he did his bizarre stunt for religious reasons, believing by so doing he was honoring the spirit of Susanoo (an ancient god in Japanese mythology who did indeed supposedly defecate) and wanted to achieve eternal peace for the world. Well, that ambitious goal notwithstanding, one thing’s for sure: he’s now getting some peace in a police cell.
Readers with longer memories may remember that the final boss for Imperial Palace nudity has to be the foreigner who inexplicably stripped off and went for a dip in the moat back in October 2008. The terrified look on the cops’ faces as the confront the British man, offset by his hardly athletic and very naked body and the bemused faces of bystanders, is one of the classic images of 2000s Tokyo.
