Conveyor-Belt Sushi Chains Taking Action after Social Media Posts

Tokyo, Feb. 1 (Jiji Press)--Conveyor-belt sushi restaurant chain operators in Japan are looking to take strict action following social media posts showing inappropriate behavior by customers.

The operator of the Hamasushi chain has filed a damage report to police over a video that started to circulate in early January. The video showed a man at what appears to be a Hamasushi store putting wasabi on sushi ordered by another customer. The sushi was moving on a conveyor belt.

"I hope (the perpetrator) will become aware that he did something that should not be done," an official at Zensho Holdings Co. <7550>, the parent of the operating company, said of the reason for filing the damage report.

Another chain Sushiro has faced a similar issue, with a video going viral of a man putting his mouth on a soy sauce bottle and touching sushi with fingers that he put in his mouth.

Sushiro operator Food & Life Companies Ltd. <3563> released a statement saying that it will investigate to identify the store where the acts took place and "strictly deal with the incident as both criminal and civil cases while consulting the police soon."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]