WEIRD

Arrests Made in Japanese ‘Sushi Terror’ Craze

Three people were arrested after viral food-licking videos forced Japan sushi-train restaurants to switch off their conveyor belts.

Police in Japan have arrested three people over a series of “sushi terror” pranks that have panicked sushi fans and forced many restaurants to switch off their sushi conveyor belts. The pranks started last month after a video went viral of a many licking a soy sauce bottle and spreading saliva on passing sushi dishes, the BBC reports. Since then dozens of similar videos have been posted online, with “pranksters’” licking chopsticks and even putting cigarette butts in food, despite public appeals from sushi train restaurants for the terror wave to stop. Police said a 21-year-old who licked a soy sauce bottle in the city of Nagoya on Feb. 3 had been detained for obstruction of business under Japan’s penal code, as had two minors.