A Canadian teenager is being questioned by police in Japan after he allegedly defaced a 1,200-year-old temple in Japan by carving his title right into a wood pillar, BBC reported.

The incident occurred on the centuries-old Toshodaiji Kondo temple complicated in Nara, Japan on the afternoon of July 7. Notably, the temple is a chosen UNESCO World Heritage Web site and certainly one of eight websites that make up the Historic Monuments of Historical Nara.

{The teenager} is reported to have written the phrase ”Julian”, scratching the title into the Eighth-century woodwork utilizing his naked fingers. The incident got here to mild after a Japanese vacationer noticed the teenager defacing the pillar and advised him to cease earlier than notifying temple staff. 

”On the southwest facet of Toshodaiji Kondo, there are wood pillars supporting the roof. On the pillars to the facet, the boy carved ‘Julian’ on a wood pillar about 170 centimeters above the bottom together with his nail,” a police official advised CNN.

After the incident, temple workers alerted close by police and {the teenager} was introduced in for questioning the next day, stated the official. 

”The boy admitted his act and says it was achieved not with the intent of harming Japanese tradition. He’s now together with his mother and father, who have been with him when the incident occurred,” the official added.

Nonetheless, a monk on the temple advised the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi that “regardless that it might have been achieved with out malice, it’s nonetheless regrettable and unhappy”.

The official additional stated that if the teenager is discovered to be in violation of the Regulation for Safety of Cultural Properties he shall be referred to prosecutors. Nonetheless, he is not going to be detained.

Underneath Japanese regulation, any one that has broken an object of ”essential cultural property” may withstand 5 years in jail or a fantastic of 300,000 Yen (about $2,819), stories BBC.