Sushi pranks at Japan’s conveyor belt restaurants spark outrage

Japan’s famed conveyor-belt sushi restaurants are scrambling to tackle a craze for making viral videos in which customers commit unhygienic acts.

The phenomenon, dubbed “Sushi Terrorism,” gained steam earlier this week after a teenager posted a video to social media filmed in Japan’s largest conveyor belt sushi chain. In it, he licked communal items including a soy sauce bottle and a bowl, and touched sushi as it rolled past with fingers he had put in his mouth.

The video, taken in Gifu city quickly went viral on platforms including Twitter, sparking a wave of copycat incidents and sending shares in the restaurant’s parent company down 4.8% on Tuesday.

The video pranks come at a particularly sensitive time for Japan, which is currently suffering its deadliest Covid outbreak since the pandemic began, and as restaurants struggle to survive amid surging inflation.