ISLAMABAD/TOKYO: Three people were arrested in Japan for unsanitary pranks at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant after a video of their antics, dubbed “sushi terrorism,” went viral.
Police accused the young trio of attempting to obstruct business at major restaurant chain Kura Sushi, which flooded with customer complaints after the video went viral. The video shows one of the group members grabbing a piece of sushi from a passing plate, stuffing the entire morsel into their mouth, and then having a drink of soy sauce directly from a communal bottle.
Similar videos shot at various chains surfaced last month on platforms such as Twitter and TikTok, with some appearing to be weeks or even years old.
Outrage in Japan
Three people were arrested in the central Aichi region, according to local police on Thursday. According to a police spokesman, Ryoga Yoshino, 21, and an unnamed 15-year-old girl were arrested on Wednesday.
At the same time, the group’s third member, a 19-year-old person whose identity was also withheld, was apprehended last month. The arrests are considered the first in the saga, which has sparked outrage in Japan, a country known for its high cleanliness standards.
The group’s antics forced Kura Sushi employees to perform emergency cleaning, “making normal business operations difficult,” according to the police spokesman. While no charges have been filed, under Japanese law, “forcible obstruction of business” can result in severe penalties, including a three-year prison sentence.
The firm stated, “We sincerely hope that the arrests will raise awareness in society that these pranks, which principally undermine our system based on a trustworthy connection with customers, are a crime” and that no copycat acts will occur in the future.
Sushiro, which saw its stock plummet last month after a clip showed an apparently teenage customer licking the top of a shared soy sauce bottle at one of its stores, is one of the other chains affected by the series of incidents.
