Pharmacy Daily | Dispensary Corner 06 Apr 23

THE health benefits of ginger have long been touted, particularly by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

However, a crackdown on a recent wave of so-called "sushi terrorism" in Japan has meant increased risks in consuming the remedy - at least for two men who were arrested in Osaka last week after using their chopsticks to eat pickled ginger directly from a communal container at a beef bowl restaurant called Yoshinoya.

The pair have been accused of destroying property and obstructing business after posting a clip of their prank on social media.

"I wanted to make people laugh," one of the alleged offenders told police, according to the Kyodo news agency.

It was the latest incident in a wave of similar gross social media posts, one of which showed a teenager licking the open lid of a communal soy sauce bottle, and another in which a mischief maker licked his finger and then touched items on a sushi conveyer belt which were on their way to other customers.

Yoshinoya, which operates about 1,000 eateries across the country, confirmed that after becoming aware of the ginger incident it was forced to temporarily close the Osaka outlet for disinfection and also replace the pickled ginger.

The wave of misconduct has also led share prices of publicly listed restaurant chains in Japan to decline by about 5%.