KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Kiyoshi Shibamura from Osaka wanted to watch two baseball matches without other people around him, so he reserved the seats around him.

Not just a few seats, but a jaw-dropping total of 1,873 seats for two games, only to cancel them all except for his own so there wouldn’t be anyone within a 300-seat radius.

It was also a chance for him to earn his 15 minutes of fame.

The bizarre incident was reported by Japanese news outlet Sankei News and Hachima Kiko.

The anti-social baseball fan was arrested last week on March 11 for obstructing business after an investigation was carried out.

Shibamura, 41, booked the seats on September 10 last year for two games, the Orix Buffaloes and SoftBank Hawks, on September 28 and 29 at Kyocera Dome in Osaka.

He told police he “wanted to watch the game comfortably with no people around” and that he “wanted to stand out on television.”

The games were popular fixtures with one marking the end of the season and another featuring a visiting team that would later go on become champions of the 2019 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

The seats were worth approximately ¥10.86 million (RM440,000).

Eagle-eyed observers can also pick out Shibamura on the September 29 game highlights where a patch of some 900 empty seats can be seen.

Shibamura went to great lengths to enjoy the games without anyone around him by creating nearly 2,000 fake identities to perform the reservations.

As expected, Shibamura’s peculiar act did not sit well with social media users in the country.

“He didn’t think this through very well, did he?” said one person.

“He committed a crime so he could stand out on TV? There’s a genius,” another commented.

“I’m glad they caught him. Sure, it’s not a major crime but these little things add up and before you know it society is broken,” one weighed in on his selfish behaviour.

Baseball followers also took the opportunity to poke fun at the Orix Buffaloes who are considered a low-ranked team with a small fanbase.

“It’s an Orix game, so it was a victimless crime,” one person said.

“It’s not like 1,800 empty seats at an Orix game is a rare occurrence,” said another.