So any idea what happened? Was the face revealed or toy returned? Butanohana shared a news items with Mandarake pixelated on his blog, I guess it might have something to do with it. Anyone can read it?

It pretty much repeats what we already know, adding that Nakano police and some Japanese lawyer association have advised against actually publishing the full picture of the alledged thief since it could have legal ramifications, make him flee, etc.

^ Hey cool! You could start doing fan-subs for us right?

I love this animation.

Revealing his CGI face does what exactly?

Perhaps it's a pressure tactic to threaten shame on the culprit and perhaps the family too? "Losing face" (sorry, no pun intended) is to be avoided in Asian cultures in particular (at least that applied for the older generation, not sure how the youngsters feel about that?)

Where have you folks followed the story? I just stumbled upon this that has some conversation about the case starting at about 26.00.

Thanks for sharing that. Interesting discussion--ethics and the slippery slope. Thank goodness it's just a toy and not a life & death decision. Reminds me of my class discussions on bioethics. Boy, that guy is lucky he didn't commit the theft in the USA, there'd be no question about publishing the identity (but then again, we'd all forget him within a month or so)...

Indeed, interesting video. The concern Japanese people have with privacy is quite interesting. The Japanese FB, Mixi, allowed you to know who checked your profile and exactly what they checked. Which, for me anyway, has the effect of me not checking anything at all for fear of how it would be construed.

As the oyajis are saying, there -are- psychos in Japan and stalkers seem more common than here for whatever reason, but the crime rate in general is much lower. It's just that it is heavily, heavily reported in the news (And when you think Japanese crime news, think news report with a scary soundtrack and horror-movie style fonts. Yeah, I know). I'm not sure if that's why many people seem to be totally paranoid about crime.

While the decision is influenced by culture, it also makes you think about the science and social behavior in animal colonies. Living in such a densely populated region, the "hive mind" means that there is more sensitivity to conforming to society and playing by it's rules. An aberrant "specimen" in an animal hive is viewed as abnormal, identified, and possibly eliminated. It doesn't mean that you're more likely to behave yourself (as a human anyway), but the fear of being branded with the scarlet letter, prevents you from deviating from the "norm". With animals having behaviors that conform to the colony, you support the collective, but give up your individuality (efficiency at the price of individualism). Humans living very closely have to conform somewhat to the collective, otherwise we'd all go postal on each other at the slightest annoyance. ...philosophical musings , and it started with a toy. Mr. Freud will be looking into this one On a more practical note, I remember walking around Seoul at 3 am, and feeling perfectly safe. The streets, subways, public restrooms are SPOTLESS. How do they manage that when there are no public trash cans (on the streets)? Had to stuff an apple core in my pocket once ). There is something to be said about strict laws and penalties, and it's also interesting that the stigma of shame is a great preventative in Asia, but perhaps less so in the western culture.

It's been 2 days past the deadline, what happened in the end? I haven't truly kept up with the news and few of them are in english, so I trust my fellow board members for info.

Thanks for posting both those videos, actually. The animation was great, I would love to see a subtitled version of it.

As for the discussion on identity, ethics, and the role of police vs. the public in the enforcement of laws and civil conventions, it is certainly an interesting one. We could go about it, and anlayse different situations in depth, but I think a lot of us have our own inner definitions - wherever they might develop from - but there are always going to be 'grey' areas. I had not seen any of those oyajis videos before, but it was surprisingly good for what I would expect from youtube. Anyhow, I am keen to see how this all plays out as well. Props out to CollectionDX for the sneak capture on the T28 though!

They removed the picture completely as per the police's recommendation.

the end?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interes ... -in/.77735

As with most things, not with a bang but a whimper.

I'm just glad this thief didn't steal the two items I recently ordered. Whew! Dodged a bullet there

Well, to be fair, they are a lot harder to walk out with. Were they able to send those couches by SAL?

Lucky for me he wasn't my size and also into mermaid unicorn cosplay.

Couch reference level. It's over 9000! Hahaha

Did I miss something in that article? It didn't mention much. It was on the news here last night that he sold the T28 to another shop right after stealing it and didn't know about all the fuss until later, by then it was too late to give it back if he wanted to. He also said that the case had been left open a little and that's how he was able to get into it.

He was interviewed? He was caught or gave himself up?

Gave himself up according to the link hellscrape posted

Let's hope he gets some fun jail time.

"The suspect was quoted as telling police he wanted to buy a figure of “kaiju” monsters with that money."

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/0 ... _QUf8V_t_A

Couch reference never gets old!

Someone who lost the latest HxS lottery for sure