Restaurant Chain Closes Nearly 2,000 Outlets After Rat and Bug are Found in Food

A Japanese restaurant, known as the country’s leading Gyudon chain, has temporarily closed nearly 2000 of its stores after a rat and bug were found in its food.

On Saturday, March 29, Sukiya announced in a press release the temporary closure of its restaurants after a “pest” was found in a product at the Sukiya Akishima Ekiminami store in Japan the day before.

This came after a rat was found in the miso soup at the chain’s Sukiya Tottori Minamiyoshikata store back in January.

“We would like to offer our deepest apologies to the customer who contacted us for the great pain and inconvenience caused,” the translated release read. “We would also like to apologize again for the great inconvenience and concern caused to our customers and related parties who regularly use Sukiya.”

Speaking about the latter incident, they added, “The store manager apologized directly to the customer, refunded the product price, and collected the actual product.”

“In response to this situation, the store voluntarily suspended operations from around 5:00 p.m. on the same day,” the release continued. “A specialized pest control company is scheduled to carry out extermination work on Monday, March 31st.”

“We are currently conducting on-site investigations at the store and inspecting the foreign objects that were collected, and are working to quickly identify the cause of the contamination,” the statement read. “We take very seriously the fact that this incident has occurred, despite the fact that foreign object contamination also occurred at another store in January 2025.”

According to CNN, the latter was an “insect contamination incident” and the chain closed nearly all of its 2,000 stores.

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While some stores at shopping centers have been kept open, other Sukiya restaurants will be closed from 9:00 a.m. on Monday, March 31, to 9:00 a.m. on Friday, April 4.

This is “to take measures to prevent external intrusion and internal infestation of pests and vermin. We deeply apologize to our customers and related parties for the great inconvenience and concern caused.”

According to CNN, the franchise only confirmed the January rat incident in March despite an image of a rat in miso soup circulating the web weeks before.

“After investigating the cause of the contamination, it was determined that the foreign object had been found in one of the bowls when the ingredients for miso soup were being prepared in multiple bowls,” they wrote in a statement earlier this month. “The employee failed to visually inspect the product before serving it, and the product was served without noticing the foreign object.”

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On Sunday, March 30, Sukiya apologized again for the inconvenience.

“Once again, we would like to offer our deepest apologies for the contamination that occurred at our stores in Tottori and Tokyo. We take this situation seriously and sincerely,” they wrote on X. “All stores except for a few will be closed between 9:00am on Monday, March 31st and 9:00am on Friday, April 4th, and we will do our utmost to maintain a safe and clean environment.”

“We look forward to your continued patronage,” they added.

According to CNN, citing the chain’s latest annual report. as of early 2024, Sukiya operates 1,957 stores in Japan and has 675 foreign branches, including in China and Thailand.