Boy Referred to Prosecutors over Sushi Store Pranks in Japan

Jiji Press

14:04 JST, June 29, 2023

GIFU (Jiji Press) — The police sent papers to prosecutors on Wednesday on a 17-year-old boy who allegedly engaged in pranks at a Sushiro conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in Gifu Prefecture.

The boy is suspected of property damage after touching sushi that was on a conveyor belt with a finger covered in saliva at a restaurant in the city of Gifu on Jan. 3, according to Gifu prefectural police.

He appeared in a video that went viral on social media, in which he put his mouth on a soy sauce bottle and engaged in other pranks at the Sushiro store. The video was posted by a different person, according to prosecutors.

Akindo Sushiro Co., the operator of the Sushiro chain, had filed a complaint against the incident with the police.

Separately, the company filed a lawsuit against the boy at Osaka District Court in March, demanding some ¥67 million in damages over a drop in customers following the incident.

While admitting to carrying out the inappropriate acts, the boy is demanding that the suit be dismissed on the grounds that the fall in customers may have been due to competition with other stores.

A Sushiro representative declined to comment on the referral of the boy to prosecutors.