End of the sushi line? In Japan, conveyor-belt restaurants face uncertain future amid hygiene, waste concerns
- A recent spate of viral videos showing pranksters tampering with passing dishes is killing consumer appetite for conveyor-belt sushi
- One ‘kaiten sushi’ giant is reportedly doing away with the conveyor-belt concept, reintroducing delivery-on-order for the ‘human touch’
The Asahi newspaper reported last week that one of the largest “kaiten sushi” chains in Tokyo, Sushi Choushimura, had not reinstalled a conveyor belt at a renovated restaurant in Nerima Ward that reopened in October, and the company would start to phase out the system as it upgraded other properties.
When you have an outward-facing brand like this, bad publicity will hit the bottom line fast
An official of the company said the intention was to add value to the brand by talking directly with customers and having a “human touch”.
Restaurants in Japan responded to the pranks by insisting on prosecutions, with several cases leading to significant fines for those found guilty of harming the businesses’ reputations – but the damage had already been done.
With customer numbers dwindling, another concern is the increased food waste. While traditional sushi restaurants prepare and serve dishes to order, chefs at a “kaiten sushi” restaurants prepare many plates at once and hope they are all selected before the rice begins to harden and the fish loses its lustre, at which point they have to be taken off the conveyor belt and thrown away.
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Marc Matsumoto, host of a cooking show aired by national broadcaster NHK and author of a number of books on Japanese cuisine, said that while waste was increasingly becoming an issue, hygiene was the biggest concern for consumers.
“There has been a spate of cases of people touching dishes as they pass on the conveyor belt and that has damaged trust in these restaurants,” he told This Week in Asia. “That sort of damage can be the end of an outlet.
“Add in the fact that many were still struggling to come back after the pandemic and that there were already a lot of concerns over hygiene, and it is clear why people were not going to conveyor-belt sushi places.”
That being said, Matsumoto said he had seen restaurants coming up with “innovative strategies”, such as the use of robot waiters, to provide customers with a similar experience “without the touchpoints that have been the problem in the past”.
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“When you have an outward-facing brand like this, bad publicity will hit the bottom line fast and hard and operators are aware of that, so they are acting,” he said.
Tadaki Odajima, the head chef at Masukomi Sushi Bar in Tokyo’s upmarket Marunouchi district, said he believed there would always be a place for conveyor-belt restaurants in Japan, despite the bad publicity.
“They are cheaper than a full-service restaurant like this,” he said. “They buy in bulk and use conveyor belts to cut down on staff, which means they can be more competitive on price.
“That is good for families, for example, so I really do not think this is the end of ‘kaiten sushi’ in Japan,” he added.
