Apple debunks bogus story of Steve Jobs' throwing star troubles [u]

Update: After the story gained attention Tuesday, Apple gave an official comment to John Paczkowski of Digital Daily, dispelling the tale as false.

“Steve did visit Japan this summer for a vacation in Kyoto, but the incidents described at the airport are pure fiction," the statement reads. "Steve had a great time and hopes to visit Japan again soon.”

In the original story from Bloomberg, Japan's SPA! Magazine reported that Jobs was the subject of a security scan at Kansai International Airport in July as he was returning home from a family vacation on his own private jet. The executive was allegedly stopped because he had throwing stars in his carry-on luggage.

"Jobs said it wouldn't make sense for a person to try to hijack his own plane, according to the report," the translation reads. "He then told officials he would never visit Japan again, the magazine reported. Apple declined to comment."

Lending some credibility to the story was the fact that a spokesperson for the airport did confirm that a passenger traveling on a private jet was stopped at the end of July for carrying "shuriken," which is the Japanese word for throwing stars. The passenger reportedly agreed to throw away the weapons, as the airport does not have separate security policies for flyers on a private jet.

But Apple's comment would suggest that the incident involved someone other than the chief executive.

As a multi-billionaire and one of the most famous executives in the world, Jobs' activities in public are often publicized, though reports are typically more mundane than the tall tale from a Japanese airport.

In August, a photo of Jobs was snapped as he left a popular San Francisco, Calif., restaurant, where he couldn't get a seat because he didn't have a reservation. And in March, he and Google CEO Eric Schmidt were spotted drinking coffee together in Palo Alto, Calif.