Japan restaurant fines customers $25 for not finishing their meals

Hachikyo, a seafood restaurant in Sapporo, Japan, wants you to finish your plate, just like your mom did.

Gold Rush blogger Midori Yokoyama visited the restaurant to order the "tsukko meshi," a bowl of rice topped with as much salmon roe as you want. According to Hachikyo's rules, customers ordering the $20 dish must agree to clean their plates or face a $25 fine.

Explains Yokoyama [via RocketNews 24]:

According to the explanation in the menu, the working conditions for fishermen are harsh and so dangerous that it’s not unknown for lives to be lost. To show our gratitude and appreciation for the food they provide, it is forbidden to leave even one grain of rice in your bowl. Customers who do not finish their tsukko meshi must give a donation.

The donation scheme is probably more of a marketing tool than anything else. "Hardly anyone leaves their tsukko meshi unfinished," a waitress promised the blogger.

The masked Yokoyama made this accompanying video:

[Photos: Gold Rush]