A thread noting that Hello! Project idol Yonemura Kirara pours soy sauce into the lid of her packaged sushi container while eating drew attention and became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. It’s a common enough sight when there’s no small dish available while out and about, but the thread split between people calling it “bad manners” and those saying “using the lid as a soy sauce dish is totally normal,” spiraling into a full-blown debate over sushi-eating etiquette. The conversation even branched out into whether or not you should dissolve wasabi into your soy sauce, and, surprisingly, it really took off.
What people said
2AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:03
She dissolves the wasabi in it too lolololololololol
11AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:06
This is just common sense, isn't it? / You guys do this every day too
12AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:06
Some single middle-aged dude: / "Hey Kirapoyo~, this isn't a seafood bowl, don't go mixing wasabi into your soy sauce"
14AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:07
Lol, such an old-man move / "Don't you dare deny me" lol 😭
15AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:07
Sometimes you flip the lid over and it turns into a total disaster
16AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:07
This is exactly the kind of thing that shows your everyday habits, huh
19AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:08
I hate it when you use a big lid — the soy sauce just spreads out everywhere
20AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:08
Wait, so the people saying they don't do this just dump soy sauce straight onto the sushi? / Also… "good news"? really?
23AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:10
When it's a boxed lunch provided for work and no other plate is given, this is the only option / Don't lump me in with you guys whose moms will hand you a plate the moment you ask
25AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:10
Proper etiquette means always carrying your own soy sauce dish around, just in case someone hands you packaged sushi
26AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:10
The agency should provide her with a proper plate / Don't let your own talent show off such tacky habits
27AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:11
Most of the time I pour it straight on the sushi, but sometimes I use the lid as a soy sauce dish and dip it in / It's completely normal
28AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:11
At home you can grab a small dish, but out and about this is the only option
29AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:11
It's a nice surprise when the lid has a little soy-sauce groove built in, but you don't see that much these days
31AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:11
Kirara probably just mixes it all together in her mouth anyway, come on 😡
32AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:11
Especially when eating at home, I don't want more dishes to wash lol
33AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:12
You end up using too much or dropping the topping, so it's not really practical
37AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:12
Re: #33 / Isn't that just because you're bad at dipping?
36AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:12
I personally use a Hasami-yaki soy sauce dish (a traditional style of Japanese pottery)
75AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:21
Re: #36 Nice try, Marin fanboy
39AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:13
Apparently the "correct" etiquette for women is to soak a makeup-brush-like tool in soy sauce and dab it onto the sushi
42AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:14
Re: #39 / What kind of fancy sushi is that lol
41AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:14
If it's cheap packaged sushi, it's packed in tight so it probably won't fall apart anyway
47AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:15
Is that whole "don't dissolve the wasabi, dab it straight onto the fish" bit of trivia originally from the manga Oishinbo?
53AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:15
Re: #47 / Even back then I thought, just do whatever you want
48AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:15
I honestly wish they'd just design the lid with a built-in soy sauce well
49AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:15
You're out and about, so this is the only option / It's not the same as eating at home!
51AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:15
The self-proclaimed connoisseurs brush it on with the pickled ginger, right?
54AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:15
If you pour the soy sauce on first, the topping gets soggy, right? / Dipping it right as you eat really does taste better
59AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:17
Re: #54 / I eat fast so it doesn't bother me much, but it's no surprise slow eaters would feel that way / / Go ahead, just do the lid soy-sauce thing
56AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:16
People still pool soy sauce in a dish to eat, huh
57AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:16
Put a tissue underneath and tilt it a little — works great
62AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:18
That's how someone used to eating sushi in Ginza ("Zagin de Sushi," posh reversed slang for dining in Ginza) would do it
63AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:18
Anyone who dips the rice itself in soy sauce has no sense of taste
65AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:19
If it were a girl, I'd have wanted her to put a little wasabi on each piece and drizzle soy sauce onto each one individually
70AnonymousSep 12, 2026 16:20
Re: #65 / A girl like that would be way too much lol
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Whether to use the lid of packaged sushi as a stand-in soy sauce dish is a perennial debate that resurfaces on 5ch from time to time, and this round was sparked by a Hello! Project idol’s behavior. Behind it lies a practical reality — “at home you can bring out a small dish, but on the job or out and about, the lid is your only option” — and defenders of the practice were actually in the majority in the thread. What split opinion instead was the etiquette of eating sushi itself: whether to dissolve wasabi into the soy sauce or dab it straight onto the fish. The claim that “dissolving wasabi is bad form” is a popular notion that spread from the manga Oishinbo, not an officially established rule of etiquette. What readers can easily get wrong is that, while this kind of thread looks like it’s buzzing with criticism over “bad manners,” most of the replies are actually casual chatter and “oh, I do that too” anecdotes about eating habits rather than pointed accusations of an actual etiquette violation.
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