Lavatorial laureate

This week, Masaki Kinoshita was given a 14 month suspended prison sentence for spraying anti-war graffiti on a public toilet wall in Tokyo. With Japan’s troops now in Iraq (which creates all kinds of constitutional questions), and the frustration that Mr. Kinoshita must have obviously felt, I still can’t condone such actions.

But in summing up, the Judge came out with this statement. “He virtually covered the whole wall with large characters, and spoiled its beauty, resulting in a situation capable of making users uncomfortable and unhappy.”

Now I’m guessing the Judge doesn’t use public lavatories very often, as the word beauty is not a word one usually associates with such places. And as for feeling uncomfortable and unhappy, I thought that was a normal reaction upon entering a dark, damp, and foul smelling public convenience.

Apparently not.