Japan makes arrests over ‘sushi terror’ where pranksters put saliva on diners’ food
A group of three has been arrested over unhygienic pranks dubbed ‘sushi terrorism’ at restaurants in Japan.
Viral videos show diners contaminating food and table items with their saliva and surreptitious drops of wasabi.
People were so horrified by the disgusting clips that stocks in one restaurant’s parent company plunged after it was included in a clip.
One video showed a young person rubbing their freshly licked finger over the top of sushi as it passes by on a conveyor belt.
In another, a customer sucks on the rim of a teacup before placing it back on the shelf.
A member of the trio that was arrested can allegedly be seen in one video drinking directly from a communal bottle of soy sauce.
The group is accused of seeking to obstruct business at major restaurant chain Kura Sushi, which was bombarded with customer complaints after one video.
While no charges have been filed yet, such an offence can involve prison terms of up to three years.
A police spokesman said 21-year-old Ryoga Yoshino and an unnamed 15-year-old girl were arrested yesterday.
Officers arrested a 19-year-old man, whose identity was also withheld, last month.
Employees at Kura Sushi had to perform emergency cleaning as a result of the group’s alleged antics, ‘making normal business operations difficult’ according to the police spokesman.
But it was not the only Japanese chain to be impacted by the videos.
Stocks in another restaurant, named Sushiro, dropped by nearly 5% after a customer was filmed licking the top of a shared soy sauce bottle at one of its branches.
Later, a clip showing one of its shops completely empty was widely shared.
Customers took to Twitter to voice their support using the hashtag #saveSushiro, with the firm’s president Kohei Nii tweeting he was ‘so grateful I could cry’.
Sushiro said all the soy sauce bottles at the branch have been replaced, all the cups have been cleaned, and new policies have been brought in for their restaurants.
The company that operates Kura Sushi, which has nearly 500 outlets in Japan, welcomed the arrests.
A statement said: ‘We sincerely hope the arrests will spread awareness in society that these pranks, which fundamentally undermine our system based on a relationship of trust with customers, are a crime, and that there will be no copycat acts in future.’
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