Fact Check

Did Tokyo Open the First Human Meat Restaurant?

Reports that a new restaurant recently opened in Japan is the first in the world to legally offer human meat to diners are fake news.

Published Dec. 2, 2017

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Claim:
A new restaurant recently opened in Japan is the first in the world to legally offer human meat to diners.

In November 2017, many Internet users began encountering multiple posted versions of an article reporting that the city of Tokyo had recently seen the opening of a restaurant (operating under a Japanese name meaning "Edible Brother") that serves human flesh to customers:

But as far as the ambition and the aberration of the Japanese have come, to go so far as to eat their neighbor. In the city of Tokyo (Japan) the first restaurant in the world that legally offers human meat was inaugurated.

A scary restaurant nicknamed "The Resoto ototo no shoku ryohin", which means in English "Edible Brother", opened its doors to the Japanese public and from all over the world, where it offers its customers a varied menu where prices vary from 100 up to 1000 euros, that is to say the dish with human flesh, more expensive would be 1193 US dollars.

International news sources have reported that a tourist from the country of Argentina, was the first man to eat human flesh in the "Edible Brother".

This diner I think the following: "It seems like eating pork, in this restaurant they cook the meat with spices, so the taste goes unnoticed."

In Japan since 2014 a law was approved that allows the consumption of human flesh, obviously conserving conditions such as the sanitary level of this and the origin. However, there is no doubt that at least 99% of the world population would not agree with these grotesque acts, so to speak.

And the question we all ask ourselves, how do they get the meat?

The people before dying decide to sell their bodies to the peculiar restaurant, approximately for about 30 thousand euros or 35,799 dollars, this is the balance that those interested can leave their families, logically they are the only ones who can claim the money.

Only people who die young can sign the contract, in which they are subject to a special diet, where the meat is suitable for consumption.

And would you be willing to sell your body to be consumed after your death?

The abrupt opening to the article and its use of stilted English should have been giveaways that it was likely a truncated copy of something originally published in a language other than English. Indeed, the source was a 12 July 2016 spoof published by La Voz Popular, a Spanish-language satirical publication.

The fake La Voz Popular article was combined with elements from a 2016 April Fool's joke (about the Japanese government's supposedly approving the first 'ethical; human flesh noodle shop) and photographs of props created to promote the zombie video game Resident Evil 6 (which were repurposed for an earlier similar hoax) in order to further the fabricated tale.

As the Mexican news site Verne noted of the November 2017 version of the hoax:

There is no restaurant on the outskirts of Tokyo that serves human flesh, nor is there legislation in Japan that allows cannibalistic practices. Several media have reproduced this false information in their web editions.

According to this false news, the restaurant is called Resu ototo no shokuryohin, which supposedly means "Edible Brother". It is also stated that in Japan it has been legal to eat human flesh since 2014 and that the families of people who decide to sell their body for that purpose can receive up to 30,000 euros.

The information does not have any reliable source, and it is reproduced again and again almost textually. The only source cited in most publications is an Argentine diner who went to the alleged restaurant and preferred not to reveal his identity. And it is not even new: in July 2016 it appeared in La voz popular, a website that in its legal notice claims to be "a satirical newspaper".

Verne consulted with a representative of the Embassy of Japan in Mexico, who was unaware that this information was circulating on the Internet and described it as "completely absurd." He also denied that Japanese legislation allows cannibalism.

Sources

Gado, Leandro.   "Abre el Primer Restaurante Canibal en Tokio."     La Voz Popular.   12 July 2016.

Coppel, Eugenia.   "Ningún Restaurante de Tokio Sirve Carne Humana ni el Canibalismo Es Legal en Japón."     Verne.   29 November 2017.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.