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The story
Following a mass food-poisoning outbreak linked to chilled crab ramen sold by food YouTuber “Komeo” (370,000 subscribers) at the Azabu Juban Summer Festival, Tokyo’s Minato Ward confirmed on September 3 that Salmonella was the cause and issued a seven-day business suspension order against Komeo’s restaurant, “Kappo Komeo” (*kappo* = a style of traditional Japanese cuisine restaurant). The restaurant’s planned booth at the Tokyo Curry Expo that same day was also cancelled. On 5ch (a major Japanese anonymous message board), users traded theories about the infection route and drew comparisons to past food-poisoning cases, while opinions split over whether the restaurant can survive once it reopens.
On September 3, Komeo (370,000 subscribers) once again apologized on X over the food-poisoning incident caused by the chilled crab ramen he sold at the Azabu Juban Summer Festival. That same day, Minato Ward announced it had confirmed the case as Salmonella-caused food poisoning and had issued a seven-day business suspension order against Komeo’s restaurant, Kappo Komeo.
Minato Ward confirms Salmonella as the cause
On September 3, Minato Ward published the findings of an investigation by the Minato Public Health Center on its official website. According to the report, the ward concluded that Salmonella food poisoning stemmed from chilled crab ramen that Kappo Komeo prepared in-house on August 22 and 23 and brought to sell at the Azabu Juban Summer Festival venue.
Source: yutura.net / original article here
What people said
That wording makes it sound like they're closing voluntarily.
Wonder which it was here.
Did someone not wash their hands after using the toilet?
Was it the crab?
The soup stock?
Probably the sink.
What about this cheap-looking poster makes you want to go eat that ramen?
Apparently they serve some seriously amazing ramen.
Brace yourselves!
If I'd had euthanasia drugs on hand, I'd have downed them without a second thought.
I wonder which one hits harder, this or norovirus.
I've had it too, it was seriously brutal.
I was throwing up and having diarrhea at the same time on the toilet.
Norovirus was rough,
but what really got me was watery diarrhea aggravating my hemorrhoids — the pain was unreal.
I was crying and groaning.
Right up there with a hernia or kidney stones. 😢
Seven days must mean they judged this one especially malicious.
Well, sickening around 100 people is a pretty big scale.
Guess chef training really is necessary after all.
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2093223687088668673/vid/avc1/1920×1066/LOHF2AQo4ZnQEbLV.mp4
The gangster cosplay lmao
"There's kaeshi in it, right?" (kaeshi = the seasoned soy-sauce base ramen/soba broth is built on)
"I think it's probably mixed in, maybe."
What's with this vague, noncommittal vibe?
Apparently they serve some seriously amazing ramen.
This incident just knocked out most of the fans who were supposed to be doing the carrying.
"Regarding the food-poisoning incident at the Azabu Juban Festival —
following the announcement from the relevant authorities,
we have decided to cancel the planned
'Kaniwo' booth
at the Tokyo Curry Expo." (Kaniwo is a crab-themed pun on Komeo's restaurant name; kani = crab)
https://x.com/tokyocurryexpo/status/2095457166215757913?s=46&t=3d7up-ia2-p7ndGGcAHB5g
Wasn't that one bacteria-free?
People just got "poisoned" by social media and ended up hospitalized, wasn't it.
I haven't checked every case so I could be wrong,
but from what I looked up, it's actually pretty hard to get arrested or sued over food poisoning alone.
The cases where you actually see an arrest tend to be when someone keeps operating illegally after already being hit with a suspension order.
This was a case from last year —
a traditional restaurant got a suspension order for food poisoning,
then sold boxed catering meals during the suspension period,
caused another outbreak,
and got arrested.
And then he'll start serving it basically raw.
Wonder if he can keep it running on true believers alone.
Actually, if he cuts the seating and leans into the fanbase, with Komeo himself doing the serving, it might actually draw a crowd.
No idea how many years it'd last, though —
restaurants struggling to survive even three years is normal to begin with.
No way. Same reason retired pro baseball players' restaurants never do well.
Maybe there's a chance if they make it a rule that losers of breaking [breakdance] battles have to force-finish a bowl of Komeo ramen as a punishment game.
That one troublemaker: "The soup slowly turned red."
So it was detected in them too…
Background and points of debate
A business suspension for food poisoning is an administrative penalty under Japan’s Food Sanitation Act, and its length varies depending on how the investigation goes and the scale of harm. Thread posters noted that suspensions are “usually around three days,” and speculated that the seven-day length here implies a certain scale of damage — but beyond Minato Ward’s official announcement, the exact victim count and the detailed basis for the penalty aren’t publicly known, so any numbers floating around the thread remain pure speculation on posters’ part. It was also pointed out that food-poisoning cases rarely lead to prosecution or arrest in practice; the examples shared were ones where additional bad conduct — such as continuing to operate in defiance of a suspension order — stacked on top before it became a criminal matter. As for the restaurant’s future, opinions split between those who think it can survive by catering mainly to regulars and die-hard fans, and those who think it’s doomed once ordinary customers stay away — no consensus was reached.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyō G board) thread “[Sad News] Komeo’s Restaurant Facing Business Suspension wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” (the string of “w”s is Japanese internet shorthand for laughter, roughly equivalent to “lol”).
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