Photo/Illutration A Yoshinoya store in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

OSAKA—Two men who thought it would be hilarious to commit an unhygienic act at a beef-bowl restaurant and share video of the supposed knee-slapper on social media have been arrested, police said.

Osaka prefectural police on April 4 arrested Ryu Shimazu, 35, and Toshihide Oka, 34, on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business and property destruction.

According to police, the two men, who both live in Osaka’s Nishinari Ward, went to a Yoshinoya beef-bowl chain restaurant in the city’s Suminoe Ward on Sept. 29, 2022.

From around 3:15 a.m. to 3:30 a.m., Shimazu pushed his used chopsticks into a common-use container of pickled ginger on the table and shoveled the condiments directly into his mouth, according to police.

Oka recorded the act with his smartphone, and the video was uploaded on social media.

Yoshinoya Holdings Co., the company that operates the beef-bowl chain, said it confirmed the existence of the video on Feb. 5, and filed a damage report with police.

Police said the two suspects have admitted to the allegations.

“I wanted to make everybody laugh,” police quoted Shimazu as saying.

Oka reportedly said: “I asked (Shimazu) to do something funny. It was funny as heck, and I wanted everybody to see it, so I posted it on social media.”

Yoshinoya temporarily shut down the restaurant, changed the condiments, including pickled ginger, and sanitized all chopsticks and other items.

The company said in a statement that the suspects’ act “provoked anxiety and ill-feelings among other customers, and raised doubts about safety and security in the food-service industry.”

Other videos have been uploaded of customers performing disgusting acts at conveyor-belt sushi restaurants.

Such behavior became known as “sushi terrorism.”