Kanazawa is a genteel small city near the western coast of Japan, sandwiched between the central mountains and the Sea of Japan. It is home to samurai houses, art museums, a famous garden, and an old geisha district. In other words, it is like an alternate Kyoto.
But don’t be fooled. Underneath this exterior of tranquility and grace there is a hotbed of fetishism.
Local police arrested a 21-year-old fourth-year college student from Takaoka City in neighboring Toyama City on suspicion on sneaking into an elementary school in order to steal girls’ indoor shoes.
“I wanted to smell the indoor shoes,” said suspect Kyosuke Minamitani.
He was found at around 4pm on March 14th by a member of the school staff and detained.
There have been around 30 cases of girls’ shoes being stolen at elementary schools in Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures since mid-February. Since December to March, 11 elementary schools in Kanazawa City alone had 24 shoes left in the entrance stolen from the premises.
“I did slip into other schools. I used my car to do this,” confessed Minamitani. It seems he just could not control his addiction to the smell left by young girls’ feet in the shoes.
