From our other sites
The story
In Kura Sushi’s collaboration campaign with the character Chiikawa, non-for-sale merchandise that was supposed to be handed out only via lottery or exchange has reportedly leaked out of some stores before the campaign even officially began, sparking a stir on 5ch. Thread posters speculated that stores may have quietly given the leftover prizes away for free to customers to cover up a stock discrepancy, and voices in the thread worried about the items being resold at inflated prices on flea-market apps, and about Chiikawa’s side potentially pulling out of the collaboration altogether. Some pointed out that similar “leaks” had happened with past collaboration goods too, framing it as an industry-wide problem.
What people said
Store: "…I got it! Let's just hand out the leftover prizes to customers for free! Then we'll tell Kura Sushi HQ 'a part-timer made a mistake'!"
There are probably tons of stores doing exactly this.
And then buy back the missing stock on Mercari (Japan's biggest flea-market app).
No way it's going up.
This just means they won't be able to land collabs anymore, and they'll fall way behind everyone else.
It'll dip first, then rise.
Chiikawa doesn't even need a Kura Sushi tie-up.
It's Kura Sushi that's begging for this one.
Is that… okay?
Almost feel bad for Hamada Masatoshi now (the comedian who fronts Kura Sushi's ads).
Flea-market apps sure are contributing to that.
Now even idiots who couldn't think this up themselves can learn about Mercari's existence and the whole method online.
They just never think past that step.
This time they just overdid it and got caught.
If you could only spin it like 10 times max, you'd probably only hit the win 3 times even counting the pity system (guaranteed win after enough tries) — seems tough to actually score a win with that.
The banners from the Kantai Collection x Lawson collab are non-for-sale, but they mysteriously end up for sale every single time.
I honestly thought that was just normal by now.
Some places technically have a rule that used display materials have to be returned, but at most stores they just get thrown away.
Guessing they'll crack down on this going forward.
I'd just go to Sushiro like normal.
Funny how the only people actually benefiting from the 10% discount are regular customers with zero interest in Chiikawa.
If it weren't for the Chiikawa collab, I'd go to Hama Sushi too.
In that case they'd have to file a police report, piling another crime on top, and there's a decent chance the lie gets exposed anyway — game over.
Sometimes the part-timer actually got the manager's okay for stuff like this.
At a store where everyone's chummy, 'hey can I grab a few of these' probably just gets waved through.
They'll just go full-time into shady under-the-table gigs ("yami baito"), so it's fine, it's fine.
With this lineup, having zero acrylic stands is genuinely next-level.
Do that, and people will just think 'the goods get skimmed off anyway, I'll just buy it on Mercari' even when there IS a collab — and no IP holder will want to license to them anymore, period.
The moral standards of the Yutori (Japan's 'relaxed education' generation) and Gen Z are seriously scary.
Even without reselling it, pulling out the winning tickets from the lottery box for yourself was already common practice.
I wonder where they're even getting these from~
I mean, does anyone actually want this thing??
Stuff like this is exactly what's supposed to be under recall — can't believe they're pulling this off.
Pretty clearly, yeah.
The goal was probably to make the missing stock look accounted for by claiming it went to customers.
Or they're just idiots.
Background and Key Points of This Story
Non-for-sale merchandise from corporate collaborations like this is normally tracked by head office in advance, with inventory counts set per store for the campaign period — a mismatch in the numbers before the campaign even starts isn’t supposed to happen in the first place. Thread speculation suggests that stores may have balanced the books by claiming items were “given to customers,” covering for stock that part-timers or others had taken home personally or pulled aside to resell on flea-market sites — but the posts don’t reveal how much head office actually knew or what action, if any, was taken. Others pointed out that non-for-sale banners from the Kantai Collection x Lawson collaboration have repeatedly turned up for sale on the market as well, suggesting that lax management of non-for-sale novelties isn’t unique to this case. Meanwhile, some posts tied the incident to a broader decline in “the moral standards of Japanese people,” but that’s a sweeping generalization on a different level from individual acts of misconduct, and it’s worth noting there’s no actual evidence backing that claim.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Livegalileo/news-general board) thread “[Sad News] Kura Sushi Confirmed to Have Embezzled Chiikawa Merchandise.”
Leave a Reply