The Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced a 33-year-old man to two and a half years in prison, suspended for four years, for stealing a pure gold matcha bowl valued at ¥10.4 million ($66,500) from a department store exhibition earlier this year.
The court placed Masaru Horie, who is unemployed, under probation over the theft and other charges. Prosecutors had sought a prison term of two years and six months.
At 11:40 a.m. on April 11, Horie stole the 24-karat gold tea bowl weighing approximately 380 grams from the “Great Gold Exhibition” on the eighth floor of Takashimaya’s Nihonbashi outlet in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward.