Tokyo fine-dining restaurant serves bleach-sodden water to South Koreans..."on purpose," they claim

  

(출처=jtbc 캡처)

An upscale restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, served water laced with bleach to a Korean customer, sending him to the hospital. The restaurant said it was an employee error, but the victim claimed he was discriminated against because he is Korean.

According to a JTBC report on March 18, Mo Kang, a South Korean who visited a high-end restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza district on March 31, felt a strange sensation when he drank the water. "I didn't notice it at first, but when I took a second gulp, I smelled a strange odor," Kang said, adding, "My throat was so sore that I couldn't speak well."

When Mr. Kang told the manager and the female employee that it was "weird," there was no response. In fact, the employee tried to throw away the water cup she had given him without saying a word, and Kang took it back.

Unable to control the pain in his throat, Kang tried to vomit, but another employee approached him and demanded that he go to the restroom, saying, "It's embarrassing to do it (vomit) here." Kang was then taken to a hospital in Tokyo, where he was diagnosed with "acute food poisoning" and hospitalized.

The restaurant is located inside a department store in Ginza, where the most expensive lunch course costs over 10,000 yen ($89,000). The restaurant has branches across Japan, including Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Fukuoka.

The restaurant said it was a mistake. However, when Kang's husband checked the restaurant's kitchen himself, he found that there were separate jugs for drinking water and dishwashing detergent, so it was not easy to mix them up. Later that day, Kang's husband confronted the kitchen staff, who admitted to putting bleach from a stainless steel water bottle next to the dishwasher into the water cups.

The restaurant also discriminated against the Kangs by not pulling out chairs for them because they were Korean. The Kangs claimed the restaurant intentionally gave them water mixed with detergent.

The restaurant was suspended for four days by the local health center and closed from August 8-12, but reopened on the 13th. The restaurant issued an apology, saying, "We apologize for the great pain and inconvenience caused to our customers and their families who contracted food poisoning," and that it would "review all work related to hygiene to prevent a recurrence."

Kang reported the restaurant for gross negligence injury, and local police are investigating whether the restaurant acted intentionally.

(출처=jtbc 캡처)

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