(Tokyo) A teenager licks his fingers then touches sushi on the conveyor belt: In Japan, a series of tasteless pranks have caused the stocks of restaurant chains to plummet, sparking legal action and outraged comments on the Internet.
Several videos showing this type of unhygienic jokes have been circulating in recent days on social networks, facts baptized by Japanese Internet users “sushi-terro”, abbreviation of “sushi terrorism”.
Some seem to have been filmed several weeks or even several years ago.
In one, viewed nearly 40 million times on Twitter, a young customer licks a bottle of soy sauce and the rim of a teacup which he then places on a shelf, then licks his fingers before touching, laughing, a sushi on the revolving counter.
The video, filmed at a Sushiro chain restaurant in Gifu, central Japan, sent the restaurant’s parent company’s stock plummeting nearly 5% on Tuesday.
Other videos show patrons at competing restaurant chains applying wasabi to scrolling plates of sushi, or licking the spoonful from containers of powdered green tea.
These apparently isolated incidents, however, caused an outcry in Japan, known for its strict standards of hygiene and cleanliness.
“It’s sickening,” wrote one Japanese user on Twitter, with another saying, “I can’t go to revolving sushi restaurants anymore.”
#savesushiro
In a statement, the Sushiro channel said the teenager in the viral video had apologized, but a complaint had been filed against him. “We will continue to react firmly to civil and criminal matters,” added the company.
The chain assured to have replaced all the bottles of soy sauce and cleaned all the cups of the restaurant and reinforced its hygiene measures.
Two other chains, Hama-sushi and Kura Sushi, have also announced legal action, with one planning to install cameras to monitor customers, the Jiji news agency reported.
In Japan, “the omotenashi (art of receiving, editor’s note) is important, so I think it’s unforgivable,” reacted Luna Watanabe, 20, interviewed by AFP in Tokyo.
“It has consequences for the image” of Japan, judged Takanobu Watanabe, a 65-year-old real estate employee. “People who do this are horrible and don’t think about our country,” he added.
Others, however, said they did not take offense. “On the contrary, there must be fewer people in the queues” of restaurants now, philosophized Tetsuya Haneda, 51.
After the initial outcry, a wave of support swept through social media, accompanied by the hashtag #savesushiro.
The president of the chain said on Twitter “moved to tears” by these testimonies.