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Why This US Sushi Restaurant Ad Makes Japanese People Scream
A sushi restaurant in the US wanted to promote a “date night” feel for their store — and ended up promoting a Japanese chopsticks faux pas.
As we’ve covered before, there are specific manners around using chopsticks in Japan. Outside of Japan, however, most people have no clue about these rules. It appears one sushi shop in the United States outed itself as having no Japanese staff with a recent ad that commits a massive faux pas.
X user @3_mitsna05 drew a visceral reaction from other Japanese social media users yesterday when they posted this photo from a sushi restaurant in America.
“Were there no Asian people that could check this?” they wrote.
Reaction from other Japanese users was swift and negative. “It’s as bad as sticking your chopsticks [upright] in rice,” one wrote. “My grandma would blow her top!” another wrote.
So…what’s the big deal?
This ad depicts two people doing what’s called hashi-watashi (箸渡し), or passing food between chopsticks. (This can also be referred to as hiroi-bashi, 拾い箸.) The practice is reserved solely for cremation…
