While some restaurants want to help you take better photos of food, others are banning photography completely. Japanese sushi chain Sushiro has banned photography from all its restaurants, thanks to a single GoPro camera and YouTuber TkyoSam.
It started when TkyoSam placed a GoPro on a conveyor belt in one of Sushiro’s restaurants. He posted the video on his YouTube channel and it reportedly went viral. According to Resource Magazine, this angered Sushiro’s management, so they decided to ban photography from all their restaurants.
The video TkyoSam posted has been removed, but Resource Magazine describes it as a simple view of a camera from a conveyor belt, which “has been done many times before.” The people in the video reportedly had different opinions about being filmed. Some waved and smiled, others flipped a bird. Apparently, the employees hadn’t noticed the camera straight away. When they did, they placed it on the side and later returned it to the owner.
As Resource Magazine writes, at first no one seemed upset about the GoPro on the conveyor belt. But after the video received tons of views on YouTube, the restaurant management decided to ban photography. They say that this is “not permissible from the viewpoint of hygiene management,” but also point out that it hinders the privacy of the visitors.
TkyoSam is an American living in Japan. According to his About section on YouTube, he wants to help people move to Japan. So, he probably had a good intention when placing the camera on the conveyor belt, but I must agree it wasn’t the most sanitary thing to do. But banning photography completely from all restaurants seems a little over the top. What do you think?
[via Resource Magazine]
Good intentions to film people in a private establishment without anyone’s consent then profit from YouTube views?
your house is private, not restaurants. do take-out food if you can’t be seen.
Restaurants ARE a private establishment
if the public can walk in, it is public. if it is licensed to sell food, it is public. it may have a private owner, but that has nothing to do with this conversation.
Restaurants have the right to refuse service and they have the right to eject people. Thus, they can certainly ban photography and eject people who continue to do so in THEIR establishment.
Another example of “the 1st person who ran with scissors ruined it for the rest of us”
So, the guy placed a potentially (and likely) dirty camera on something upon-which food is served. That likely does legitimately have a food health issue. Though banning all photography everywhere in the establishment is kinda silly: Are they going to have every staff member check peoples’ phones to make sure they’re not taking and posting pictures from their tables? As with many things, the enforcement of the rule seems not well thought out.
Food is served on hopefully-clean plates, which are then placed on the conveyor. Any food that arrives at your table has passed by all the tables between the kitchen and you, and all the people at those tables (including grubby fingers of toddlers that the parents weren’t able to reign in quickly enough). A GoPro on the conveyor is a non-issue from a hygiene point of view.
This serves well to teach that American YouTuber that not anything that you guys can do in US can be applicable in the same value in Asia. Even if it’s unique and beautiful, not everything you have to capture on your camera.
I don’t think it’s over the top to ban photography in the chain. First, their property. Second, they made a logical point of view. Third, permission must be taken first. Not to mention as well the craze for taking food shots which is really growing into some kind of a personality disorder (proved by academic research in some universities in Europe).
Killing a spider with a flame thrower. Moron.
Another thing to keep in mind is many Asian countries have very strict laws about broadcasting the faces of people without permission, to the degree that many news reports that show footage of for example crowds will have the faces mosaiced out.
Always the traveling Americans who ruin everything.
Yeah, I had the same idea when visiting a sushi place in Los Angeles. Such a tempting shot, kept civilized, though ?
1. public establishment, don’t say privacy 2. food on plates, don’t say hygiene and 3. chill people, don’t say ban