Overview
- Iwamizawa Police opened a property damage investigation after staff found widespread damage at Shinozutsuyama Cemetery, which the town manages.
- Officers counted 58 toppled gravestones in one section, including 12 pushed off their bases.
- A town office worker alerted police after a site manager reported roughly 60 stones down during a morning check.
- A caretaker had seen no problems around 5 p.m. the previous day, narrowing the window to overnight.
- The affected plot is a prisoners' burial ground from the Meiji era linked to Kabato prison, where inmates helped build Hokkaido’s early roads.