Cockroaches found in chicken bowl at Yoshinoya restaurant

There is a possibility that the customer brought the roaches and put them into the bowl.

For what purpose?

There's a lot of generalising going on here. This could, and does, happen in every country in the world. It's down to individual businesses to maintain their hygiene standards and clearly this venue didn't.

Doesn't mean it's endemic in Japan, for crying out loud.

Japanese restaurants in general are dirty! This doesn't surprise me at all. I've never seen so much food splatter, dust, and caked up gunk on floors in my life.

This is no surprise, as most Japanese still haven't discovered the tool we call "mop".

I was taught the Nepalese word for cockroach (cocaroca, obviously a foreign borrowing) by a waitress working in a Chinese restaurant in Shin-Osaka station last week.

Cockroach farming is booming in China---frying in a wok is recommended as the best way to cook them!

Common in Tokyo. In Kyobashi, which is a pretty nice office area, also had a ramen place where cockroaches running on the floor. Workers did not seem to "see" them at all. Outside Tokyo I have never seen problems with hygiene standards. Shibuya is the worst.

Well, that's one way into turning someone into a vegan.

"One roach bowl? Excellent choice! They are extra succulent this time of year. Would you like the legs extra crispy?"

When I stuck my head under the noren of a place in Kita-Senju years ago, the cook and staff of the up market Izakaya were chasing a rat through the place. It was funny as hell to see them pretend it didn't happen.

A non-news story. Have you seen the rat populations in the cities?

While regrettable I am sure this is an isolated incident. I will continue to eat beef bowls in Yoshinoya. 1 bowl... 1 coin .. oishii!!

Jeez, people. The Tsukiji Yoshinoya was a truely lovely and nostalgic place. Now, the Toyosu Yoshinoya is much modernized, does not have the old feeling, but is still a decent bowl of basic rice & meat. The rest of the huge franchaise is bound to have issues from time to time. I think this is a non-story.

Just like an izakaya below our house. Everything is a mess . There are different kinds of insects especially cockroaches that runs over the place especially in the kitchen. I wonder the customers couldn't notice it. And how does the health department allows it to operate.

I thought cockroaches and other insects were the protein of the future to replace wagyu beef! They are just ahead of the game!

If I found that in my meal, it would really bug me.

Glad my daughter talked me out of eating at this place so much, when I was still there. OMG.

tina: There is a possibility that the customer brought the roaches and put them into the bowl.

Sad but true.

Humph! If you're going to put the squeeze on a restaurant over supposed sanitation violations, don't waste your time at Yoshinoya --- smuggle them into a 3-star Michelin establishment.

tina: There is a possibility that the customer brought the roaches and put them into the bowl.

Sad but true.

The other day I found some chicken parts in my cockroach bowl. If anything, they enhanced the flavor.

In a country of over 100 million people, at a chain with hundreds of locations, once upon a time someone noticed an insect in his bowl. The shop closed, dumped anything that might be dirty, and worked with local health inspectors to improve their procedures.

This is not news.

This happens in all countries, it is normal that sometimes they can produce pressence of insects the question is to make an adequate maintenance and that the authorities do well their sanitary controls.

I have not had bad experiences in Japan with food every time I come for holidays and I always go to small places, I have eaten authentic wonders in your country.

There is a possibility that the customer brought the roaches and put them into the bowl.

Sukiya and Matsuya over Yoshinoya all day long! Way before this news ever hit.

That is NASTY - to find cockroaches in your meal is enough to turn your stomach. This should have been news the day the cockroaches were found not months later. Some may think "What cockroaches that's just added Protein" Well you enjoy eating them as for me I normally cook at home just to help avoid this type of nonsense.

'What else can be as cringy as people calling Yoshinoya "garbage"?'

Hmmm....let me think.

Oh, I know! Maybe learning they were (unwittingly) serving up roaches? That's pretty cringy ;)

What else can be as cringy as people calling Yoshinoya "garbage"?

This is not your everyday meal (it can be, it's your choice).

After a long day of work/negotiations/hangout or if you are driving over night, in the middle of nowhere, or stuck during a snowstorm at 2am guess where is the place that will welcome in with a fulfilling warm meal?

Eating out will never be as clean & safe as eating at home though, thank you for pointing the obvious....

Just think of it as crunchy cookie and cream, or use wasabi and soy sauce + a lot of alcohol, wont sense a thing

Japanese restaurants in general are dirty! This doesn't surprise me at all. I've never seen so much food splatter, dust, and caked up gunk on floors in my life. Before you down-vote me or try to deny it, you should take a closer look at the places where you eat.

Heck, in October cockroaches are everywhere, there's no way to kill or keep all of them out.

I recently had a mosquito on my gyoza

Heck, I recently had a fly in my soup!

Aw c'mon peeps, these were friendly little garden ones, none of those real biggies.

Yoshinoya is def the worst compared to sukiya and matsuya, food wise.

Little did the Customer know it was part of a new Campaign for cheaper nutrition bowls. You eat at Yoshinoya, you get what you ask for.

Why am I not surprised?!...

Yoshinoya was proud to announce it uses food from out of control nuclear disaster Fukushima prefecture and people still eat it, so what is a cockroach? Many Asian countries eat them.

I recently had a mosquito on my gyoza from Gyoza no Ohsho. Looked like a regular burn mark at first, but luckily I spotted it.

My friend found a maggot in his kimchi there about 10 years ago.

The last time I had Yosinoya; 1996 Ikebukuro. Rats in open rice bags in the stairwell.

PerformingMonkey, you mean cocroaches?

whats wrong with extra protein... , definitely healthier than extra rice

Haven't eaten that garbage in over 15 years.

More fat than meat.

I came to Japan nearly 18 years ago. I ate a Yoshinoya meal in the first few weeks I was here. I have never eaten Yoshinoya again since. It is not food! It is in the same category as McDonalds. IE: Garbage!

I avoid those places like the plague (that lives in their kitchens).

Matsuya, Nakau and Sukiya are all better anyway.

Why are we learning this 3 months afterward? And why is the company disclosing the information instead of the health authorities, one of whose job is to keep the public properly informed?

Im surprised it doesnt happen more often. If you see how dirty some of the kitchens are in some places. I once visited a ramen shop in my neighborhood that had great kimchi-ramen. Cockroaches were running rampant in that shop.

Costs extra?

Nothing like 特製肉!

Sounds like an old yak trick... see Juzo Itami’s brilliant ‘Mimbo no Onna’.

What’s a little extra protein anyway right?:-/

And that is the reason that I eat mostly at home!

Good thing I stick with the beef...

But it sounds like they handled it properly.

And why wait until the store is reopened to tell people about this incident?