Japanese conveyor belt restaurant goes high-tech to fight against "sushi terrorism" with AI cameras
The Kura Sushi chain aims to implement the food tampering prevention system by the beginning of March.
A video in Japan has caused sushi restaurants with conveyor belts to take action against food tampering. According to Nikkei Asia, one chain, Kura Sushi, plans to use artificial intelligence to detect any "suspicious opening and closing of sushi plate covers,".
Kura Sushi intends to begin upgrading its current cameras, which are utilized to monitor the dishes taken from the conveyor belts for billing purposes, by the beginning of March. If the AI system identifies any questionable behavior, it will notify staff.
"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,” a spokesman stated to CNN. “We are confident we will be able to upgrade the systems we already have in place to deal with these kind of behaviors.” he added.
"Sushi terrorism" outrages folks in Japan
In Japan, the trend known as "sushi terrorism" has caused widespread outrage. There have been videos of people performing unsanitary actions, such as licking the spoon in a container of green tea powder, and others of customers putting large amounts of wasabi on sushi as it moves along the conveyor belt.
【悲報】回転寿司炎上界隈に新たな挑戦者あらわる
— 滝沢ガレソ🪚 (@takigare3) January 29, 2023
今度はスシローで醤油さしや湯飲みをベロベロ舐めまくり＆回る寿司にも唾タッチ pic.twitter.com/RMUk3caZQE
The video above that has been viewed 98 million times on Twitter depicts a person licking the top of a bottle of soy sauce and the rim of a teacup before returning them to a Sushiro restaurant. The individual also licks their finger and touches a piece of sushi as it goes by.
This video and the reactions it elicited resulted in a nearly 5% drop in the stock of Sushiro's parent company.
