Man Arrested for Keeping 51 Snakes at Home in Tokyo

TOKYO, Japan, Aug 27, 2008 — -- Japanese police arrested a 41-year-old man in Tokyo on Wednesday on suspicion of illegal possession of 51 snakes, including several venomous ones. The situation came to light after the man, identified as Shinichi Kashiwagi, called for an ambulance, saying he had been bitten.

Police are not sure how the man got so many snakes. Japanese reporters and photographers flocked to a Tokyo hospital Wednesday afternoon to catch Kashiwagi, who had been arrested, leaving the hospital.

He was seen stepping into a police van without saying a word as photographers surrounded him. Kashiwagi reportedly told police he knew his activity was illegal, according to NHK news.

Police say Kashiwagi called for an ambulance on August 15, saying he had been bitten by a "habu," a poisonous Japanese snake from the southern island of Okinawa. But police say they later found out the snake that bit him was a nearly 6-foot-long "green mamba," a native of Africa.

As police searched Kashiwagi's apartment in the quiet residential area of Harajuku, in central Tokyo, they say they found 51 snakes -- and as many as 32 of them were venomous, including mambas and cobras.

Police said the snakes were kept separately in plastic containers that were simply stacked up in the room.

Michihisa Toriba, head of the Japan Snake Institute, told NHK the way the suspect kept the snakes is extremely dangerous.

"Those plastic containers can easily fall and open up if a big earthquake hits. The snakes can easily escape in such an event," Toriba said.

Japanese law tightly regulates and controls ownership of dangerous animals and species. It requires the owners to report to local authorities and to install micro chips in the animals they own.

The Japanese currently recognize roughly 650 types of species such as tigers and crocodiles as dangerous. Kashiwagi did not report any of his venomous snakes to authorities, according to the police.

The police said Kashiwagi's neighbor was bitten by a venomous snake last November and they are investigating whether the culprit was one of his pets.

Kashiwagi's arrest shocked his neighbors, most of whom had no knowledge of the secret collection.

"What if one of the snakes crawls up in my room while I am sleeping? That really gives me a chill," a male resident of the apartment told NHK.

"I had no idea that man kept such things in his room," another man said to NHK.

He reportedly occupies a unit right next to the suspect. "Fifty one snakes in one room? That is just too bizarre."