The Osaka Minami Police arrested two individuals, including a 23-year-old American national named Ismael Ramsey Khalid, who goes by the name “Johnny Somali,” on September 21st. They are suspected of unlawfully entering a construction site at a hotel in Nipponbashi, Osaka, in order to live-stream what they referred to as “trolling” on the live streaming service “Kick.”
Johnny Somali and the suspect entered a construction site at a hotel in Nipponbashi, Osaka, around noon on the 30th of last month, and they are suspected of trespassing on the premises. Somali, despite wearing a mask, was live-streaming the incident on Kick, and the police, based on this video and surveillance camera footage, concluded that Somali was responsible for the crime. Consequently, Johnny Somali and his boyfriend was arrested on the evening of September 21st in Dotonbori, Minami.
Chanting ‘Fukushima! Fukushima!’… On ‘Kick, there are still videos uploaded by Somali and the suspect from their ‘unlawful entry’ incident. In the videos, they can be seen shouting ‘Get out!’ by a man who appeared to be a construction worker, but Somali paid no heed and continued shouting ‘Fukushima! Fukushima!’
Somali and the suspect began making headlines in Japan for their extremist actions and statements, starting from this spring.
In May of this year, on a train car on the Toei Oedo Line, Somali verbally attacked Japanese passengers in English, saying, ‘Do you know why Japanese people died (from the atomic bomb)? It’s because of the Pearl Harbor attack,’ and ‘I’ll drop another atomic bomb.’ He continued to berate passengers energetically, paying no attention to their puzzled expressions. The video of this incident went viral on social media and sparked outrage.
Subsequently, Somali removed the video from his channel and, on the 26th, posted an apology video, stating that he wanted to sincerely apologize to the Japanese people and acknowledging that he should not have used such language. However, his disruptive behavior did not cease.
In early June, he livestreamed a video from a subway station in which he aggressively proclaimed, ‘I am Shinzo Abe,’ and ‘Kick the damn Japanese people out of here,’ in English. This video also triggered a significant backlash. On June 20th, during a livestream that is believed to have taken place in a club in Bali, Indonesia, Somali searched for a photo of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his smartphone, showed it to the camera with a smirk, and then made a gun-shooting gesture with his left hand. This was seen as a grave disrespect to the deceased and further intensified criticism on social media.
While Somali was believed to have been out of Japan, he re-entered the country on August 17th. It is suspected that he had moved his base of operations to Osaka.
Afterwards, he continued to upload videos of himself obstructing traffic by walking into the road when the pedestrian signal was red, intruding into buildings while wearing a mask to approach elderly women and intimidate them, and even throwing a thousand-yen bill at a female convenience store clerk when she asked him to stop filming. His persistent disruptive behavior was motivated in part by the substantial income he received from viewers for such content, as he had found a taste for being a ‘troll.’
The reporter also reached out to individuals who claimed to have been affected by Somali’s ‘trolling,’ including a staff member at a restaurant in Osaka’s Shinsekai district. Since the arrest, Johnny Somali has wished not to speak until his lawyers arrive.
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he deserved it!