Smells Fishy: What is ‘sushi terrorism’ that led to the arrest of 3 people in Japan?

Everyone is familiar with the term terrorism. There’s also ecological terrorism, which is destruction, or the threat of destruction, of the environment by states, groups, or individuals in order to intimidate or to coerce governments or civilians. Now, comes a new form of terrorism, which has prompted Japanese authorities to arrest three individuals — sushi terrorism.

Japanese Police issued a statement that they had arrested 21-year-old Ryoga Yoshino and two others — a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old — on Wednesday. The police, according to a BBC report, said their actions constituted obstruction of business under Japan’s Penal Code.

The arrests are believed to be the first in the incidents, which have been dubbed as ‘sushi terrorism’ and caused an uproar in Japan — a country known for its high standards of cleanliness.

Let’s take a closer look at what exactly does sushi terrorism mean?

Smells fishy

Recently, Japan was outraged when videos emerged on social media showing youth participating in unhygienic pranks at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. For the unaware, conveyor-belt sushi (kaiten-sushi) restaurants are a regular feature in Japan and also popular across the world.

The practice of conveyor-belt sushi began in 1947 when Osaka restaurateur Yoshiaki Shiraishi visited an Asahi factory and observed a winding stream of beer bottles floating across the brewery’s filling floor on a conveyor belt. He wondered if he could adapt the same technology at his sushi eatery. After years of fine-tuning his technology, he opened Mawaru Genroku, the world’s first kaiten-sushi restaurant in 1958.

The trend then took off in Japan in the mid-1970s, when Shiraishi’s original patent on the conveyor belt expired, allowing imitators to enter the market. As the nation’s economy cooled in the 1990s, interest in the form grew again, and kaiten-sushi chains also began to expand into Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Primarily, these restaurants serve sushi to customers on a conveyor belt, but the recent pranks have endangered this business across the country.

In a video, which went viral and led to the eventual arrests, one of the three was seen grabbing a piece of sushi from a plate as it passes, shoving the whole morsel into their mouth and then drinking soy sauce directly from a communal bottle at a Kura Sushi conveyor-belt sushi restaurant.

In another video, a customer licks the top of a communal soy sauce bottle and the rim of a teacup he then places back on a shelf, before licking his finger and touching a piece of sushi as it goes past on the belt. This incident took place at a branch of the Sushiro chain in the central Japanese city of Gifu.

Other videos have also emerged showing customers at different chains putting wasabi on passing pieces of sushi or licking the spoon in a communal green tea powder container. There’s also videos of people filming themselves licking presented chopsticks.

Lmao theres trending topic in Japan of “sushi terrorism”started when a kid licked sushi & cups in conveyor belt in Sushiro Restaurant.Which led to posts of other bad behaviours in sushi outlets like stealing food & putting wasabi in conveyors. Guess Japan’s not so clean after all pic.twitter.com/mbzXCv8e22

— Rihito says 我的推特账户已被归还 (@RihitoPhysicist) February 1, 2023

These acts led to a spokesman for Kura Sushi stating that such trends were “extremely dangerous” and posing a threat to the foundation of the conveyor-belt restaurant model.

Others also expressed their scorn at the acts, calling it unhygienic and ‘sickening’. One Twitter user wrote, “I can’t go to conveyor belt sushi restaurants anymore.”

A 20-year-old Luna Watanabe was appalled by the videos. She was quoted as telling AFP, “Omotenashi (hospitality) is an important selling point in Japan, so I think it’s unforgivable. “It’s harmful to customers and employees.”

Also read: Japan's electric chopsticks are not just another fancy gizmo. Here's why

Impact of sushi terrorism

While the pranks seem funny to some, it’s not been a laughing matter for the industry. There are concerns that these pranks could change the kaiten-sushi industry, which was worth an estimated ¥740 billion (Rs 44,555 crore) in 2021.

Since the incidents were caught on camera, eateries have taken a financial hit. For instance, the incident captured on camera at the Gifu eatery prompted stocks in the restaurant’s parent company to plunge nearly five per cent.

Others have had to scramble to prove to customers about cleanliness, forcing some of the restaurants to do away with the attraction completely. Choshimaru, which operates restaurants in the greater Tokyo area, recently said its conveyor belts would grind to a halt, forcing staff to deliver orders by hand.

The Gifu eatery has also changed their serving method. Now, customers will take utensils and condiments to their tables from a serving point.

Sushiro, another sushi chain, also announced that its sushi would be delivered only via an “express lane” to customers who order via touch-screen devices, making it harder for other diners to tamper with food.

And sushi terrorism is just another struggle these eateries have to contend with. These restaurants, considered as part of Japanese culture, have already been struggling — the COVID pandemic and then the war in Ukraine, which has affected global supply chains. These issues have forced these companies to raise prices on their offerings, alienating their customers.

With inputs from agencies

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