Store Warns Thief: ‘Return Item Or We’ll Publish Your Picture’

A Mandarake store

Mandarake, a well-known manga store that was recently targeted by a thief who stole a model worth around $2443, or 250,000 yen, has issued a stark warning to the criminal on their official website: if the model is not returned, then the store will make a photograph of the thief’s face public. This is not the first time that a business has opted to take the law into their own hands over shoplifting; last year, an Osaka fishmonger began hanging up pictures of those who had shoplifted on his stall.

The article below from Yahoo! Japan suggests that the online reaction to this policy has been controversial, with many people disagreeing with the strategy. But the Yahoo! Japan comments tell another story, with virtually every netizen coming out in support of the store.

From Netorabo:

Controversy Over Mandarake’s Warning To Shoplifter: “If You Don’t Return The Product We’ll Remove The Mosaic From The Photo We Have Of Your Face And Make It Public”

The warning uploaded to the store’s website.

On August 5, manga store Mandarake published a warning on their official website aimed at a criminal who shoplifted a product from their store, which read “If you don’t come to return the product within a week, we will remove the mosaic from the picture we have of your face and make it public”. Alongside the warning was a picture of the person assumed to be the criminal, with a mosaic covering their face.

The product that was stolen was a “Nomura Toys Tetsujin 28-go No.3 Walking Zenmai”, worth 250,000 yen [approx. $2443]. The crime was carried out on August 4, at around 5pm in the “Mandarake Henya” in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, and the store announced that if the stolen product was not returned by August 12, then the mosaic would be removed from their face and the photograph would be made public. It is not mentioned whether a crime report was registered with police.

The stolen model, “Tetsu-jin 28-go zenmai hokou no.3”

While a lot of netizens agreed with this this online warning, there were also opinions such as “I understand that they are angry, but it’s going too far to go around saying that this person is the thief and making a photo of their face public to the whole world”. Opinions are divided. When we contacted Mandarake, they replied that “We cannot make any official comment regarding this incident”.

Comments from Yahoo! Japan:

ku1*****:

You know what, if you don’t want your face made public don’t steal, it’s pretty straightforward.
If the people who suffered because of this crime end up being the ones denounced, then it means that this country is finished.

mas*****:

What’s the problem with revealing their face if the picture is without a doubt the person who did it!?
If you don’t steal, then you won’t get revealed.

dr_*****:

This is pure and simple. If you hadn’t shoplifted then you wouldn’t be having this done to you. If the product isn’t returned and you get exposed, then you can’t complain. You reap what you sow.

sik*****:

Let’s ask the people here what they think of this.
If you agree, upvote this.
Disagree, then downvote.
[Comment was upvoted 13892 times]
[Comment was downvoted 451 times]

dz_*****:

Shoplifting or whatever might sound like a petty crime, but in fact it’s theft…if you steal something worth 250,000 yen, then I don’t think you can complain if you get treated this way.

mik*****:

I think that doing this much is fine.

ser*****:

Controversy…
I’m looking at the Yahoo! comments, mixi news comments, and 2ch comments, and there is an overwhelming number of people those who “agree”.

b99*****:

If you become a criminal, then you get your name in the newspaper and on TV, and not just a photo of your face, but even your bloody elementary school graduation essay with be dragged up and made public.
So just putting their face out their and not their name, isn’t that actually pretty kind?

danji-nippon7:

For individual cases of shoplifting, even the police don’t deal with it properly…
If they actually publish the person’s face then they may well be some problems, but I think we should allow them to put at least this much pressure on the thief.

tom*****:

Calling it something as trivial as “shoplifting” isn’t good. They should just clearly call it “theft”. It’s like the term “domestic violence”, when they spread the word too far as a means of trying to get it recognised in society, what actually happens is that people become used to the word and the image of the crime gets trivialized.

hiw*****:

Why is anyone disagreeing with this?
It’s hardly a false accusation.