YouTuber apologises after sparking outrage for traveling across Japan 'for free'

A YouTuber has apologised after posting a video showing how he attempted to travel 'for free'.

If that sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.

YouTuber Fidias Panayiotou had not in fact found a way to get around Japan for free, he was just dodging train fares.

The video showed him hiding in the toilet on the bullet train. When a conductor confronts him he pretends to be ill, and then hops off the train and onto another to do it all again.

Another part of the video shows him falsely claiming to be a guest staying at a hotel in order to take advantage of the free breakfast.

YouTube/FidiasPanayiotou

One section also sees him begging for a bus fare, only to be locked in the bus and taken to the police station when he still comes up short for the ride.

Panayiotou has since apologised for the video, saying: "Hello beautiful people, I apologize to the Japanese people if we made them feel bad that was not our goal!"

Despite this many people have condemned the video and called for it to be taken down from his YouTube channel, which has 2.4 million subscribers.

The video has since been removed from YouTube for breaching community guidelines.

Panayiotou's channel on YouTube sees him carrying out stunts, such as surviving on an island for seven days with 'only a knife' or standing up for a long time, while others show him meeting celebrities.

YouTube/FidiasPanayiotou

Needless to say, people were not impressed with his behaviour in the video.

One person wrote: "Another strange, annoying YouTuber from abroad has emerged. In addition to this guy Fidias, the three others should be arrested."

Another posted: "This is so wrong. This is just stealing people's money and behaving rudely to others."

A third commented: "I am really disgusted by people like you guys who take advantage of the kindness and politeness of the Japanese people."

It's not clear exactly when the video was shot, or if the YouTuber is still in Japan at the time of writing.

Panayiotou is not the first YouTuber to get into trouble while filming in Japan.

In 2017, Logan Paul travelled to Tokyo into Aokigahara, also known in English as the 'Suicide Forest' due to its association with people taking their own lives there.

A video posted by Paul about his visit caused uproar after it showed the body of a suicide victim which he found in the forest.