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US influencer Johnny Somali’s arrest in Japan shows lengths people take to be ‘famous’

arifnsn September 26, 2023

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Following Japan’s arrest of an American influencer who carried out a series of provocative stunts that triggered public outrage, there are concerns such cases could encourage others to commit mischief in an effort to become “famous” online.

Ramsey Khalid Ismael, a 23-year-old who goes by the screen name Johnny Somali, was arrested in late August after allegedly breaking into a construction site in Osaka.

Local police said Ismael was formally charged with trespassing on September 21. The next day, another American, believed to be the cameraman and identified as Jeremiah Dwane Branch, was also charged.

The two had been travelling around Japan for more than a month and sharing videos on the live-streaming website Kick, although the Johnny Somali page appears to have been deactivated since his arrest.

My worry is that his actions are going to attract a lot of attention among other people and encourage them to do something similar to be ‘famous’

Makoto Watanabe, media communications professor

Previous clips had shown Ismael entering a truck belonging to a private delivery firm, dancing on a rush-hour commuter train, and walking around Tokyo Disneyland shouting “ Fukushima! Atomic bomb! Shinzo Abe!”. Ismael was also filmed on a train telling Japanese people that “we’re going to drop another atomic bomb”.

Earlier this month, footage appeared to show him verbally abusing women in the entertainment district of a Japanese city. It ended when a foreign man approached Johnny Somali and punched him, causing him to fall to the ground.

“My worry is that his actions are going to attract a lot of attention among other people and encourage them to do something similar to be ‘famous’,” said Makoto Watanabe, a professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University.

Johnny Somali was arrested after allegedly breaking into a construction site in Osaka. Photo: X/@AsianDawn4

Perhaps this is what motivated Ismael to visit Japan. In 2018, controversial US vlogger Logan Paul was criticised after he broadcast footage of a body in a place known as a “suicide forest”, near Mount Fuji, and joked about the corpse. YouTube removed his channels from its preferred programme and suspended future projects.

More recently, Australian TikTok user Turan William Salis shared a 21-second clip of him boarding a women-only train carriage in Tokyo, introduced to combat the problem of women being molested during their commute, and declaring himself to be a “women inspector”.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno addressed the Johnny Somali furore this week: “Of course, we must ensure the freedom of YouTubers and other broadcasters, but within that we must ensure that they do not violate the privacy of others or act as a nuisance.”

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Social media reaction has been less restrained, with some commenters on the Yahoo Japan news site demanding authorities impose clear rules on what is acceptable. Others said Ismael should be prosecuted, deported and never allowed back in Japan.

But Watanabe pointed out that Japan also had its own mischief-makers, as there had been several cases involving Japanese youths posting inappropriate content online.

In the most notorious incident, a customer at a sushi restaurant was filmed licking the spout of a communal soy sauce bottle – an exploit that was quickly described as “ sushi terrorism”.

Johnny Somali has been charged in Japan over a series of provocative stunts that has triggered public outrage. Photo: X @g_menguts_ch

“Many young people who have grown up in the digital age have the sense that they know everything and can do anything they want, in part because they have seen other people do such things,” Watanabe said.

“The man who licked the soy sauce bottle lacked the manners and ethics that he should have learned as a boy from his parents, his family, his community,” he added.

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