The "sushi-terro", the bad taste joke that panics Japanese restaurants

Sushi in a restaurant in Tokyo on February 3, 2023. AFP - PHILIP FONG

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Japan, a series of videos showing teenagers licking their fingers and then touching sushi on a conveyor belt have sparked outrage on social networks.

The restaurant chains that fell victim to these bad taste hoaxes reacted by reinforcing hygiene measures.

Advertisement

Read more

With our correspondent in Tokyo,

One of the videos shows a teenager licking a bottle of soy sauce, then the rim of a teacup.

Then, he licks his fingers before touching, laughing, a sushi on the revolving counter.

The video was filmed at a Sushiro chain restaurant in Gifu in central Japan.

It has been viewed nearly 40 million times.

In a single session, the action of the Sushiro chain on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 5% of its value.

Conveyor belt sushi restaurants in Japan are taking action against customers who committed disgusting, unhygienic pranks at their eateries.

pic.twitter.com/gZTQVNWRzo

— VICE World News (@VICEWorldNews) February 1, 2023

Other videos filmed at other turntable sushi restaurants show, for example, a customer applying wasabi, a mustard-like condiment, to the scrolling plates of sushi.

Another licks the spoon into containers of powdered green tea.

Outrage in Japan

The indignation is great in Japan, a country known for its hygiene above all suspicion.

Internet users call these acts “sushi-terro” or “sushi terrorism”.

The Sushiro channel says the teenager in the 40 million-view video came to apologize accompanied by his parents.

These excuses are not enough.

The chain filed a civil complaint first, then perhaps criminal.

Other chains are reacting with the same firmness and are considering installing cameras to monitor customers.

The Sushiro chain has replaced all of its soy sauce bottles, all of the restaurant cups at Gifu.

She does not hide her emotion when she learns that a support campaign “Save Sushiro!

was launched on social networks.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• Japan

• Feed