A man arrested for allegedly licking a tabletop soy sauce bottle at a conveyer-belt sushi restaurant in
The case of Ryoga Yoshino, 21, is believed to have been the first instance of a customer being arrested for such behavior, following revelations of similar acts at eateries in
Two other people were arrested in connection with the incident at an outlet of
Yoshino apparently thought he too should jump on the bandwagon when he engaged in the act as social media got awash with similar prank videos, according to his lawyer
But as the video went viral and caused a backlash, Yoshino felt "at a loss about what to do" but did not realize he had committed a crime until he was arrested, Tamura said.
The young man recognized the error of his ways during his detention and, if afforded the chance, hopes to apologize to the sushi restaurant chain operator, the lawyer said.
After the industry was shaken by a string of incidents involving customers licking tabletop condiments and engaging in other unhygienic behavior, the sushi restaurant chain operator installed camera systems equipped with artificial intelligence on the conveyor belts at its restaurants.
==Kyodo
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