A Chilean tourist sparked outrage by doing pull-ups on a sacred shrine gate in Japan.

Video shows fitness influencer Maria del Mar Perez Banus using the holy red 'torii' gate as a pull-up bar at the Yojiroinari Shrine in the Akita Prefecture on October 12.

She also reportedly filmed herself doing handstands toward the torii gates at the Nakajima park in Sapporo on October 10.

Her stunts enraged the Japanese locals, who branded her a 'baka na gaijin' or 'stupid foreigner'.

One even said: This blasphemous person, this stupid, idiot. White woman should never be allowed to enter Japan again. Use common sense, this is extremely disrespectful.'

The backlash caused Maria to switch her Instagram account to private. However, she later apologised on October 15.

Appearing contrite, she said: 'I didn't mean to be disrespectful. It was something I did without thinking.

‘I want to apologise to everyone about the last video I made doing pull-ups in Japan. The truth is, I wasn't thinking about what I was doing. I want to apologise a thousand times.

‘Please stop sending me messages and comments. I am extremely sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I hope you can understand this. Thank you very much, arigatou, thank you.'

Maria is a retired gymnast who previously participated in various competitions, including the 2018 Pan American Games Qualifier where she qualified to the 2019 games, and the 2018 South American Games, where she won silver in the bar final.

A torii gate is a traditional Japanese structure typically found at the entrance of a Shinto shrine. It is said to symbolise the transition from the ordinary world to a sacred realm, and serves as a portal through which 'kami' or deities pass.

Nuisance tourists are a perennial problem in rigid Japan, where rule breakers are especially frowned upon.

On August 7, a male holidaymaker sparked chaos when he climbed to the roof of a convenience store in the Shibuya Ward and refused to come down. Tokyo Metropolitan Police caught the man but let him off with a verbal warning.

American livestreamer Ramsey Khalid Ismael or 'Johnny Somali' faced criminal charges for allegedly blasting loud music in a restaurant in Osaka in December 2023. Before that, he had reportedly broken into a construction site to yell 'Fukushima' at the workers - referencing the tragic Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.