The threat of "sushi terrorism" - carried out by pranksters who spit on other diners' food or otherwise tamper with food and dishes - is prompting big changes in Japan's kaitenzushi restaurants, where customers choose their food from dishes that travel to them on conveyor belts.
Choshimaru, a chain with dozens of locations in Tokyo and the surrounding area, this week said that it is switching over to a system in which customers order their sushi from an employee or a touch-screen monitor instead of the traditional style of picking it off a slow-moving conveyor. The change, which will take place by the end of next month, was prompted by a video in which a man put a cigarette butt in a dish of pickled ginger as it passed him by, according to news reports.