Japanese "sushi terrorist" can get half a million dollars

One stupid act of a Japanese "sushi terrorist" who licked a shared bottle of soy sauce could cost him 67 million yen ($480,000).

In January of this year, the guy went with his friend to the kaiten-zushi Sushiro restaurant, where customers take food from a shared conveyor belt. For fun, he filmed himself licking a bottle of soy sauce and touching passing sushi with a slobbered finger.

The video gained millions of views and gave rise to the term "sushi terrorist": soon several more similar videos appeared on the Internet. Sushiro says that as a result, they experienced a sharp drop in the number of visitors and in just one day from January 30 to 31, the company's market capitalization decreased by 16 billion yen (nearly $115 million). Through the court, the company requires to reimburse her 67 million yen. The defendant's defense insists that the video was intended only for friends, and there is no direct connection with the drop in the flow of customers, since the market is already fiercely competitive.