A student in Japan is facing legal action by a restaurant chain, after filming himself sneakily licking sushi on the conveyor belt that goes on to be eaten by other diners.
The revolting footage went viral and garnered more than 22million views, as people slammed the student for his inappropriate behaviour.
The 48-second video, which was taken down by the original poster, shows a young student directly touching and prodding the sushi as well as licking a soy sauce bottle and a cup before placing it back for others to use.
But this wasn't an isolated event, as other videos of the same nature in other chains around Japan have been circulating on social media.
Another clip, which was shared on Twitter, showed a man eating sushi off of the conveyor belt and touching the food with their used utensils.
In another viral incident, at the chain Hamazushi, a customer dropped wasabi on another diner's sushi as it passed by their table.
Following this, Japan’s conveyor-belt sushi chain operators are looking to take strict action, including dealing with the incidents as "both criminal and civil cases" and installing cameras above the conveyor belts to detect problematic activity.
The videos also caused outrage across Japan, with many social media users requesting the sushi chains take legal action against the “sushi terrorists”.
One person wrote on the re-circulating video on Instagram: “Not even just rude but can also harm someone severely, people with allergies exist!!!!!!”
While another wrote: “I sure hope that this restaurant takes legal action."
And other users took to Twitter, to share their disgust at the viral videos, writing that "I can't go to conveyor belt sushi anymore."
A second person echoed their comments, and said: "Certainly, I think it would be better not to go to conveyor belt sushi anymore."
Following the incident where the student placed his mouth on a soy sauce bottle, the chain the incident occurred in, Shushiro said: "A damage report was submitted to the police on the afternoon of 1/31."
They added: "We were contacted by the person who caused the nuisance and his/her guardian, and we met and received an apology. We will continue to deal strictly with both criminal and civil matters."
Meanwhile, the operator of the Hamasushi chain has filed a damage report to police over the video of the man putting wasabi on sushi.
An official at Zensho Holdings, the parent of the operating company, said: "I hope (the perpetrator) will become aware that he did something that should not be done."
Meanwhile, Sushiro operator Food & Life Companies released a statement saying it will seek 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.”
"We have implemented thorough disinfection and disposal of soy sauce bottles in the store where the incident apparently occurred," the company told media outlet Mainichi.
"We'd like to consult with police after conducting a thorough internal investigation. We consider the incident a serious matter causing anxiety among our customers. We hope that those involved in the case will take full responsibility for their actions."
They added that they if customers feel uneasy about the tableware at any of their Sushiro stores, "please let us know and we will replace them with disinfected ones that are stored separately".
Food & Life Companies also said that they are actively looking to put more safety measures in their stores, in order to avoid repeat incidents occurring.
The chain said: "At the target stores and nearby stores, we apologise for the inconvenience, but we will set up a place to store dishes, seasonings, etc. We will immediately install some acrylic plates between the seats and the lanes provided."
Meanwhile, another video showing three men at a Kura Sushi outlet has started circulating online again.
Although the video of the men placing sushi that they took from a conveyer belt back into a cover on the belt is believed to have been taken four years ago, a Kura Sushi official said that the company will “take strong, decisive action after consulting the police”.
The chain added that it is planning to put CCTV cameras above the conveyor belts to detect problematic activity.
