Diners in Japan arrested for dipping their own chopsticks in communal bowl of ginger

Japanese crackdown on wandering customers over 'sushi terrorism' intensified after two men were arrested for using their chopsticks to remove a condiment from a container common at an Osaka restaurant.

The arrests of Toshihide Oka and Ryu Shimazu come as the country's budget restaurant industry tries to stem a wave of bad behavior among the clientele that started earlier this year at popular restaurant chains.

Oka, 34, and Shimazu, 35, are charged with obstructing business after using their chopsticks to eat pickled ginger from a container for all customers at a restaurant run by the gyūdon (beef bowl) Yoshinoya chain in September, police said.

The men, whose clip of the prank was widely shared on social media, are also accused of destroying property by contaminating the container and the ginger with their utensils. Diners are supposed to use separate chopsticks to add toppings to their dish.

The video appears to show a man, believed to be Shimazu, repeatedly shoveling pickled ginger - a gyūdon staple – in his mouth.

"I wanted to make people laugh," Oka told police, according to the news agency Kyoto. "I asked [Shimazu] to do something funny, and he suddenly ate it. I shared it on social media because it was so funny. I wanted everyone to see it. The newspaper said the two men confessed to the allegations.

The news that disbelieving diners targeted gyūdon will horrify many Japanese people. The dish, featuring seasoned beef and onions over rice – often accompanied by bright red strips of pickled ginger – is a sustainable comfort food whose price is an unofficial indicator of the health of the world's third-largest economy.

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Yoshinoya, who operates around 1,000 restaurants in Japan, reported the incident to police after learning of the video in February and was forced to temporarily close the outlet. sale of Osaka, to replace pickled ginger and to sanitize all its containers.

"It is truly unfortunate that this news has caused discomfort and anxiety at customers. and questioned the safety and security of restaurant dining in general,” a company spokesperson said. "We sincerely hope this doesn't happen again."

The arrests come a week after a man was charged with licking the top of a sauce bottle common soy in a rotating sushi restaurant in February. Two other people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

The accused 21-year-old was allegedly encouraged by social media posts showing people committing acts of sushi terrorism, including an incident in which a teenager licked the rim of a cup of tea before replacing it on a shelf, then wiped saliva off a passing plate of sushi.

After being charged with obstructing business, he reportedly expressed remorse for his behavior and indicated that he wanted to apologize to the restaurant operator, Kura Sushi.

The sushi chain described the pranks as a "public nuisance", adding that it hoped the arrests would deter other would-be pranksters. It has since installed security cameras equipped with artificial intelligence to monitor customers, while other high-tech kaitenzushi chains have shut down their conveyor belts.