Japan Eateries to Deploy AI Cameras in Fight Against ‘Sushi Terrorism’

A sushi restaurant chain in Japan is rolling out artificial intelligence to spot dishes that have been tampered with, Nikkei Asia reports(Opens in a new window).

The effort comes after a spate of videos on social media showing so-called ‘sushi terrorism’, with one clip(Opens in a new window) showing a customer licking his finger before touching sushi passing on the conveyer belt that was intended for other clientele.

Kara Sushi is reportedly planning to upgrade existing cameras with AI software by early March so that employees are alerted to any instance of ‘sushi terrorism.’ The cameras currently count plates taken by customers so that the bill can be adjusted as dishes are removed from the conveyer belt.

Speaking to CNN(Opens in a new window), a spokesperson for the sushi chain said: “We want to deploy our AI-operated cameras to monitor if customers put the sushi they picked up with their hands back on the plates. We are confident we will be able to upgrade the systems we already have in place to deal with these kind of behaviors.”

Those kinds of behaviors have included unruly customers putting wasabi(Opens in a new window) onto passing sushi, licking the spoon for a container of green tea powder, and licking the top of a soy sauce bottle as well as the rim of a teacup at Sushiro, another sushi restaurant chain in Japan. A video(Opens in a new window) of the soy sauce and teacup licking incident has got close to 100 million views on Twitter.

According to Engadget(Opens in a new window), the affected restaurant replaced all the soy sauce bottles and cleaned every cup. And in a bid to prevent customers from partaking in the distasteful acts, Food & Life, which operates Sushiro, has deployed transparent acrylic sheets which sit between the belt and seats and stop the plates from being touched. 

The sushi chain has additionally limited plates sent down to just those that customers have ordered.