PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images
- Japanese police arrested three diners accused of "sushi terrorism."
- Unhygienic pranks in Japan's conveyor belt sushi restaurants have become a viral sensation.
- The pranks have forced some restaurants to close their sushi conveyors.
Japanese police have arrested three people accused of "sushi terrorism," as a wave of unhygienic sushi conveyor belt pranks sweeps social media.
In recent weeks, videos have spread on social media of diners in Japan's famed Kaiten-sushi restaurants performing unhygenic stunts.
These include licking communal soya sauce bottles, putting cigarette butts into pickled ginger, and spreading saliva onto dishes.
The pranks have been dubbed "#sushitero" or "#sushiterrorism," and have led to a legal crackdown.
Japanese Police said they arrested a 21-year-old, a 19-year-old, and a 15-year-old after they allegedly performed "sushi terrorism" stunts at a restaurant in Nagoya, central Japan, on February 3. The stunts included contaminating a soya sauce dispenser with saliva, AFP reported.
The restaurant targeted in the prank was a branch of Kura sushi, which has more than 500 outlets in the country.
"We sincerely hope the arrests will spread awareness in society that these pranks, which fundamentally undermine our system based on a relationship of trust with customers, are a crime, and that there will be no copycat acts in future," the firm said.
Japan is renown for its exacting standards of hygiene and cleanliness and the pranks have shocked customers, and led restaurants to introduce special measures to ease concerns.
Kura Sushi is installing AI cameras in its restaurants to monitor for sushi terrorism, while Sushiro, another popular chain, is shuttering its conveyor belts system for unordered food.