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The story
At an izakaya (Japanese pub), a customer reportedly used their plate as an ashtray after finishing their meal, and when the owner noticed, they exploded, telling the customer “never come back.” The incident, reported by Bengo4.com News, became a hot topic on 5channel’s News Speed+ board. Some pointed out that the shop allowed smoking but apparently hadn’t provided ashtrays, and others argued there’s no hygiene issue once the plate is washed — but plenty of posters strongly objected on principle regardless of washing, and the thread split over whether the customer bears any legal responsibility.
9/3 (Thu) 10:50 JST
Bengo4.com News
A plate used to serve food at a restaurant became an “ashtray” after the meal was over.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Should've made it non-smoking from the start!
Might as well stop serving booze too!
People get stupid once they're drunk ╮(╯_╰)╭
Re: #57
If you allow smoking at a place that also serves alcohol, this kind of thing happens — not great, but it's hardly rare
Sounds like some corporate dropout who's never even worked a shift before opening this place
If you're gonna get that mad about it, either go non-smoking or stop serving booze — but it's an izakaya, so really only the first option works
This is exactly the type of person who'd stub cigarettes out in the dishware
Even national chain family restaurants allow smoking in Osaka
Nah, unfortunately Tokyo's got smoking-allowed family restaurants too
Does cigarette residue actually stay on the plate even after it's washed?
Who knows
Genuinely curious about this
Spoons and stuff have people's saliva on them too, and most places run on the logic of "we washed it, so it's fine"
Given how aggressive anti-smoking zealots (kenen-chuu) can get, if it came out that a shop just washed the plate and reused it, wouldn't there be a massive backlash?
From a risk-management standpoint, just tossing it would be the safer move
It's an ick-factor thing
But there was actually a court case where a guy rubbed his dick on someone's water bottle and got convicted of property damage over it
Fukuoka seems to allow it too
Big cities are more lax about this stuff
My prefecture bans smoking outright in all restaurants
Basically anywhere minors might go is off-limits
Bet that's really how it went down (note: "ashtray" is haizara in Japanese, which literally contains "sara" = plate — so maybe they just caught the "plate" part)
Not cut out for customer service.
Though they're not wrong about the principle of it.
Seems like it'd normally just scare customers off
Does someone out there have superhuman senses that can detect "this plate used to be an ashtray"?
You could say the same thing about someone telling you a toilet bowl's clean enough to lick lol
Yeah, now that you mention it, fair point
The smoking population's halved too, so unless there was some precedent — like your old man doing this back in the day — you'd never even think to try it
You wash your underwear and then wear it clean, don't you?
Even washed, wearing some stranger old guy's underwear is a bit…
Would you actually wear someone else's underwear even if it's washed?
If you drink but don't smoke, you don't need an ashtray at all — so it's a smoking problem lol
Even if it were usable, you couldn't wash it alongside the regular dishes anymore — that's a massive hassle
Just because a place lets you eat ramen there, does that mean it's fine to puke your ramen back into the bowl?
You clearly didn't even read the article, why are you acting so high and mighty
That's exactly why they provide ashtrays
It's fine as long as kids ("gaki") are barred from entering
I see, thanks for clearing that up
Re: #195
It only applies if the place was operating before the law took effect and is under a certain floor size
Even then, it just means anyone under 20 can't come in
If it's been running since way back, this kind of thing isn't unusual — though is the owner losing it here maybe a second-generation owner, or someone who bought out the whole business?
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The story of “the plate used as an ashtray” ties directly into the legal requirements for the crime of property damage (kibutsu songai). Under Japanese law, this offense doesn’t require an object to be physically broken — it can also apply when an object’s intended use is ruined by inflicting lasting psychological revulsion that washing can’t undo. There’s precedent for this: a case where someone smeared bodily fluid on a water bottle resulted in a guilty verdict. That said, the claim that “it’s hygienically fine once washed” and the claim that “it’s psychologically unusable” carry different legal weight, and which one applies here depends on details the original article doesn’t fully spell out — which is why opinions in the thread stayed split. Also, as post #203 notes, restaurants that allow indoor smoking do so under transitional provisions of the revised Health Promotion Act: small establishments that were already operating before the law took effect can set up a designated smoking room if they meet certain requirements, but in exchange, anyone under 20 is barred from entering. It’s not clear from the article which category this particular restaurant falls under.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Speed+) thread “Izakaya owner furious, tells customer “never come back” — is there really no legal liability?.”
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