Japanese police arrest three ‘sushi terrorists’ who went viral

Japanese police report to the AFP news agency that three youths aged 15, 19 and 21 from the Aichi region have been arrested. They are suspected of having “put a company in difficulty”. This could result in a prison sentence of up to three years, according to AFP.

lick it all

This is the “sushi terror” that hits Japanese restaurants. For the past few weeks, videos have been appearing on TikTok of young people licking food in a restaurant where sushi is passed on a conveyor belt. There were all kinds of different films: plates or sushi were licked and then put back on the carpet.

The young people also drank directly from a bottle of soy sauce which is also used by other tables or licked their fingers with which they then touched the food. In other videos, very sharp wasabi was smeared on food or “sushi terrorists” sprayed hand sanitizer gel on food.

The videos had major implications for Kura Sushi, one of the affected businesses with around 500 locations. Kura Sushi employees have been instructed to clean with extra care. Still, customers stayed in droves and many people filed complaints. The Japanese are known for their attention to hygiene.

‘A crime’

Another company affected, Sushiro, even saw its shares lose value because of the pranksters.

Kura Sushi says in a response that she is very happy with the arrests. “We hope people now understand that these ‘jokes’ undermine our relationship of trust with customers. This is a crime,” the company writes.

Watch how the “sushi terrorists” did it here: