Posted on 04/06/2023 2:32:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The social media views just aren't worth it.
Japanese restaurants have had enough with so-called "sushi terrorism."
On Wednesday, Osaka prefectural police announced the arrests of Ryu Shimazu and Toshihide Oka, two men who posted their recent antics to social media. The video shows them eating pickled ginger from a communal container with personal chopsticks at a local Yoshinoya, the Associated Press reported.
The men openly confessed to their crimes, stating they wanted to make people laugh as they joined in on the hashtag "#寿司テロ," which translates to "sushi terror."
As Business Insider explained, the trend involves pranksters visiting popular conveyor belt sushi restaurants, taking things off the belt, licking them, touching them, or smothering them in wasabi before returning the item to the belt for other unassuming diners to take.
The World's First Cheese Conveyor Belt Restaurant Is a Dream Come True Restaurants have started to fight back, filing police reports against particularly egregious videos or those that gain significant attention.
As for this particular video, Oka told the police he egged on Shimazu to “do something funny” and then shared the video because he simply wanted the attention. According to the AP, if convicted, the duo could face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $3,800 for obstructing business, and up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $2,280 for property destruction.
“It is truly regrettable that this news has caused discomfort and anxiety among customers and has called into question the safety and security of eating out in general,” a spokesperson for the Yoshinoya, which operates about 1,000 restaurants across the nation, shared with The Guardian. “We sincerely hope this will not happen again.”
Shimazu and Oka aren’t the only ones with a newly minted arrest record thanks to an extremely unhygienic prank. According to the Japan Times, three more people were arrested in early March for similar crimes, including one person who drank soy sauce straight from a bottle.
These actions have caused restaurants in Japan to take extreme measures to protect their patrons, including everything from installing AI-assisted cameras to removing the beloved sushi conveyor belts altogether. However, some restaurants are hoping that would be a last resort,
“We’re making changes to have a tamper-proof system,” Akihiro Tsuji, a spokesperson for Kura Sushi, told The Guardian. “Conveyor belt sushi, in a way, is a form of entertainment, and that sense of fun is something we’d like to preserve.”
“taking things off the belt, licking them, touching them, or smothering them in wasabi before returning the item to the belt for other unassuming diners to take”
So it’s the equivalent of those idiots who were licking ice cream containers in the store a couple years ago, eh?
A good public flogging would put a stop to that real quick.
Make them lick toilets in jail for funny clicks online haha
Probably a Tik-Tok thing
Samurai Taylor saddened
“As Business Insider explained, the trend involves pranksters visiting popular conveyor belt sushi restaurants, taking things off the belt, licking them, touching them, or smothering them in wasabi before returning the item to the belt for other unassuming diners to take.”
Too funny!!!
That's why we always try to sit within view of where the sushi chef places items on the conveyor. Haven't gone to sushi boat restaurants since covid started.
If you are doing thing like this for attention you have an emotional problem.
Being punched repeatedly would probably cure it.
Glad to help.
“he simply wanted the attention”
And there you have it, modern youth + internet + mobile devices + social media in a nutshell.
Not funny.
This was during the COVID insanity over there as well, so they’re going to jail for at least a year. Hope they make nice furniture.
I remember being in a sushi bar in the 80s that had a little stream instead of a conveyer and sushi portions on little boats.
Are they like gas station sushi vending machines?
No, you got to a restaurant with a sushi bar, and they have little conveyor belt that goes around, and it has plates with different sushi dishes on it, and you can pick them off it.
There were some of these conveyor-belt restaurants in NYC long ago and they closed because of people taking the food right off the plates as they went by, making the count-the-plates idea useless.
When one of those empty plates went cruising by the workers, there was chaos in Japanese. I can only guess what they were saying.
It’s too bad, really. Kids loved those places.
This is much worse, of course.
Have an AI-assisted security camera that constantly watches the belt.
If anyone besides the chef attempts to put anything ON the belt, it immediately stops and the offender is dealt with. Real-time video evidence to ban the customer from the store, or prosecute, or both.
Food tampering is not funny, and these sushi places will have to fix this if they want to remain in business.
JMHO
—”A good public flogging would put a stop to that real quick.”
Public bare-ass caning! Free internet video for family and former friends.
Flog for the second offense.
That’s funny. Kind of reminds me of bait, LOL.
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