The leaflet put under the rear window wiper is seen in this photo provided by the car owner.

       MAEBASHI -- A resident of the east Japan prefecture of Gunma found an enraged leaflet on his car with our-of-prefecture license plates on Aug. 28, reading, "Don't bring the coronavirus to Gunma Prefecture from an urban area ever!"

       The resident in his 20s found the leaflet under his car's rear window wiper in the parking lot of the Lirica shopping mall in the Gunma prefectural capital of Maebashi. The man, whose car has plates from neighboring Nagano Prefecture, told the Mainichi Shimbun, "I find it hard to believe such a thing could happen in this day and age."

       According to the man, he noticed the sheet at around 4:30 p.m. after shopping for about 30 minutes at the mall. Also written on the paper were, "The entire prefecture is under a state of emergency," "Never come back to Gunma Prefecture!!" and "I'll post your license plate and the car on the internet." The man, who moved to the prefecture in April, said that he plans to change the license plates, and that he had consulted with the prefectural police about the harassment.

       The man posted a photo of the note on Twitter, and it was retweeted about 20,000 times.

       While "Jotomachi 3-chome residents' association" was printed at the bottom of the leaflet, association head Kenichi Ito, 63, denied writing the leaflet, saying, "The shopping center and the Jotomachi 3-chome district are more than 1 kilometer apart. I wonder why our group's name was used." Another association board member, 77, added angrily, "Our residents' association's name was disgraced." Ito said that there have been no reports of the leaflet being put on other cars.

       Gunma Prefecture, where coronavirus infections have spread rapidly, was placed under the COVID-19 state of emergency by the central government on Aug. 20.

       (Japanese original by Hinako Kikuchi, Maebashi Bureau)

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