Chinese Man Throws Joss Paper When Drawing Lots at Tokyo's Sensoji Temple

Tokyo's Sensoji Temple is one of the most popular temples among foreign tourists visiting Japan, but recently a video of a Chinese man “throwing joss paper when drawing lots” has gone viral on social media, prompting a flood of criticism from netizens who called his behavior disrespectful, absurd, and possibly even illegal.

The video, which has been widely circulated on the social media platform “X,” shows a Chinese man preparing to draw a fortune at Sensoji Temple. Before doing so, he faces the camera and says, “A Japanese fortune cannot bring happiness to a Chinese person. Chinese happiness depends on ourselves.” A friend accompanying him even retorted, “Are you trying to trick the foreigners?”

Next, the man throws Chinese joss paper into the offering box before starting to shake the fortune box. After the box rattles, he draws fortune slip number “68,” which he excitedly shows as a lucky slip. The poem on the fortune reads, “Out of bizarre dreams, heroes arise; What’s in store ahead is doubtful. The fragrance of spring is warm, yet still blooms from withered branches.”

The video quickly sparked a wave of criticism. Netizens left comments such as, “Even the fortune literally said, if you do not respect yourself, the good things you have now are nothing but a doubtful dream,” “Is there some kind of competition for Chinese people traveling abroad? Competing to see who can be the most lacking in morals?” “Only the dead use joss paper, is this idiot cursing himself??” “Using joss paper to pray for your own luck?” “Daring to fool even the deities, retribution isn’t far off!” and “The Cultural Revolution truly wiped out cultural roots very thoroughly.”

One netizen posted relevant Japanese regulations, stating that Sensoji Temple clearly requires a 100-yen coin for drawing a fortune, yet the Chinese man threw in joss paper instead. “Throwing in fake money” already violates the Penal Code, and the netizen urged the temple to report the incident to the police.