In a matter of weeks, viral teenage pranks at conveyor-belt sushi chain restaurants across Japan have ballooned into a moral panic over hygiene. Socia

“Sushi terrorism”: Viral pranks have caused an all-out panic in Japan

submited by

Style Pass

2023-03-16 18:00:03

In a matter of weeks, viral teenage pranks at conveyor-belt sushi chain restaurants across Japan have ballooned into a moral panic over hygiene. Social media users and the Japanese press have branded the incidents acts of “sushi terrorism,” or ＃寿司テロ.

Police arrested three suspected “terrorists” earlier this month. Restaurant chains are phasing out conveyor belt systems in favor of higher-tech (and lower-risk) ordering methods.

A video circulates in Japan: A customer at the chain restaurant Hamazushi furtively adds a pile of wasabi to sushi on the conveyor belt. Unsettling, but not criminal.

Another clip goes viral on Twitter; this time, more nauseating. A giggling high-schooler licks a soy sauce bottle and the whole rim of a tea cup, then touches raw fish on a conveyor belt with a saliva-slicked finger. Internet sleuths trace the incident to the Gifu Prefecture branch of the conveyor-belt sushi chain Sushiro.

Quickly branded the latest instance of “sushi daeki tero” (sushi saliva terrorism), the incident becomes an overnight national PR crisis. Food & Life, the parent company of Sushiro, sees its stock drop nearly 5% in one day of trading.