Fukuoka Airport is seen in this June 2019 file photo. (Mainichi/Osamu Sukagawa)

       FUKUOKA -- A 67-year-old man from the southwest Japan city of Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, has been indicted without arrest for insulting a woman on a plane by saying, "Your face looks like the coronavirus," the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

       The Fukuoka Local Public Prosecutors Office indicted the man, who manages a company, at the Fukuoka Summary Court for the contempt charge, which was dated Nov. 24.

       According to the written indictment and other sources, the two were on a plane parked at Fukuoka Airport in the city of Fukuoka's Hakata Ward before flying to Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, on Feb. 11. After the woman from Fukuoka Prefecture warned the man in a nearby seat for not covering his nose with his mask, he allegedly insulted her publicly, saying, "Your face looks like the coronavirus," among other comments.

       The woman then consulted Fukuoka Airport Police Station, which sent papers on him to prosecutors in May.

       (Japanese original by Yuta Hiratsuka and Rokuhei Sato, Kyushu News Department)

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