NAGOYA: Police in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, have arrested three people over an online video of a person licking a soy sauce bottle at a restaurant run by conveyor-belt sushi chain Kura Sushi Inc., it was learned Wednesday.

The three–Ryoga Yoshino, 21, a 19-year-old unemployed man and a woman who claims to be 15–are suspected of forcibly obstructing business.

The prefectural police have not revealed whether the suspects have admitted to the allegations.

According to the police, the three visited a Kura Sushi restaurant in Nagoya’s Naka Ward on Feb. 3, and the 19-year-old man filmed Yoshino licking a soy sauce bottle prepared on the table with a smartphone, and posted it on social media.

They are suspected of thus forcing the chain operator to deal with customer complaints about the incident and carry out additional cleaning work at the restaurant.

According to police and other sources, the three met on social media. The police received a damage report a day after the video was uploaded and arrested the 19-year-old man on Feb. 5.

Kura Sushi has found several other prank videos and is consulting with the police.

On Wednesday, the company released a statement saying that it sincerely hopes that such pranks, which could undermine the conveyor-belt system based on trust with customers, will be widely recognized as crimes, and that copycat offenders will no longer appear.

JIJI Press