World's First Human Meat Restaurant Opens in Japan: Fact Check

Story:

World’s First Human Meat Restaurant Opens up in Japan

Other Versions

1. Tokyo opens the first restaurant on the world which serves human meat

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

3. (Hindi)
जापान में खुला दुनिया का पहला रेस्टोरेंट जहां बिक रहा इंसानी मांस

Fact Check:

Various stories doing rounds online since few years present a bizarre claim saying World’s First Human Meat Restaurant has Opened up in Japan. Allegedly, the new restaurant in Tokyo offers it legally to diners. No, the claims are not true.

Origin of Claims about First Human Meat Restaurant

As we checked back online, we found a Spanish article on La Voz Popular website lavozpopular.com published in July 2016. The article said Tokyo opens first cannibal restaurant, adding Japanese legislative changes made it possible under certain careful conditions back in 2014 itself. Calling the first cannibal restaurant in the world as ‘Edible Brother,’ the article also said the first Westerner to visit it is an Argentinean citizen. Further, it states the human meat is costly and comes from people selling their bodies before dying. The fact of the matter is – La Voz Popular is a Spanish satirical publication. So, the claims in the article are not true.

Similar account of human flesh sale appeared earlier on website benjaminfulford.typepad.com on 1st April 2016. The article title said ‘Japanese government approves first “ethical” human flesh noodle shop‘. However, as the date of publication suggests, the article is just an April fool’s day prank. Consequently, many online outlets fabricated similar stories and others from these unreal stories. In December 2017, alternative news website WorldTruth.Tv published an article titled ‘First Restaurant To Sell Human Meat For Consumption Opens In Japan‘. The article is a mix up of the satire and April fool’s prank publications from 2016.

Following such repeated online stories, Japanese Embassy in U.S. responded and clarified the messages about a Tokyo restaurant serving human meat are just rumors. So, the ‘breaking’ stories about Tokyo opening first human meat restaurant legally are hoaxes. Cannibalism is a crime in most countries around world and the people doing it are usually charged with murder.