This is about a sushi shop in Osaka (not Kumamoto) that put considerably more wasabi on the sushi they prepared for foreign guests than they normally would. People on a Korean website called this “wasabi terrorism” and took it as an act of hostility toward foreigners. The shop owners admitted that an employee had been serving wasabi-laden sushi to foreigners but said that this practice arose from repeated requests from foreign customers for more wasabi.
I tend to think that this was probably not a case of hostility toward foreigners but rather an example of stereotyping and bad assumptions. Don’t assume that every foreigner wants what a few, or even a majority, have requested. Ask! If you have difficulty communicating and are not sure what the customer wants, prepare the food normally!
– Kirk
P.S. Here’s the URL of a Japan Times article about the matter:
