Popular Japanese burger chain Mos Burger is in hot water this week after a blackboard was displayed outside one of their Tokyo branches.

The blackboard contained a story about “the daughter of a Chinese woman” [Chinese girl] who was always late, and who was told that if she was late again her “back fat” would be used to “make ramen”.

Although netizens speculated that this could be a true story about someone who worked at the store, most agreed that they didn’t really understand what the sign was about at all. The burger chain’s parent company Mos Food Services, have apologized profusely at the appearance of the blackboard, which some have slated as being “hate speech”.

From Yahoo! Japan:

Mos Burger Apology Over Inappropriate Storefront Sign, Online Row As Store Is Criticized On Twitter

There has been a row over content written on a blackboard displayed outside a branch of hamburger chain “Mos Burger”, with floods of criticism appearing on Twitter. Parent company Mos Food Services apologized for the incident on November 12, saying “We deeply regret the fact that the sign contained expressions that were slanderous to persons or nations”.

The store branch that caused the problem was the Mos Burger Iidabashi Higashi branch (Chiyoda ward, Tokyo). On a blackboard placed at the storefront, dated November 11, the following was written: “A Chinese girl who was always late was told:’If you’re late this time, we’ll make ramen from the fat on your back’. The girl was never late again”.

A picture showing the blackboard was uploaded to Twitter, and there were a series of critical comments such as “This is offensive”, and “Isn’t this hate speech?”.

Mos Food Services uploaded a statement to their website, apologizing: “It has been confirmed that a blackboard with extremely inappropriate content written on it. We deeply regret the fact that the sign contained expressions that were slanderous to persons or nations, and we take this very seriously as the responsibility of the management of our company, which is the headquarters of the entire Mos Burger chain”. They further stated that the branch in question had been sternly reprimanded, and that “We will check the store daily to ensure that this incident is not repeated”.

Comments from 2ch.net:

ジャンピングDDT(群馬県)＠＼(^o^)／:

What does that sign even mean?

ダイビングヘッドバット(禿)＠＼(^o^)／:

What are they trying to do by showing this to their customers?

キングコングニードロップ(大阪府)＠＼(^o^)／:

What’s the point of it?

ときめきメモリアル(禿)＠＼(^o^)／:

Doesn’t it sound strange in Japanese to say “the daughter of a Chinese woman”?

ミラノ作 どどんスズスロウン(庭)＠＼(^o^)／:

I just don’t get what’s funny about this.

I don’t know what they’re trying to convey.

逆落とし(福島県)＠＼(^o^)／:

This is just too mental.

キン肉バスター(庭)＠＼(^o^)／:

Mos Burger have really done it now.

ブラディサンデー(dion軍)＠＼(^o^)／:

Do Mos Burger sell ramen then?

サッカーボールキック(dion軍)＠＼(^o^)／:

Even though right now the girl isn’t late, she’s going to be pretty pissed that they wrote about it outside.

マシンガンチョップ(中部地方)＠＼(^o^)／:

I wonder if the person who wrote this was also Chinese? Seems to know a lot about that stuff.

河津掛け(新疆ウイグル自治区)＠＼(^o^)／:

I bet that between themselves the staff thought this was hilarious.

Twitter is the same as terrorism.

フェイスロック(宮崎県)＠＼(^o^)／:

It’s worse to have employed a Chinese person in the first place.

逆落とし(大阪府)＠＼(^o^)／:

I bet the girl was a fatty.

目潰し(愛知県)＠＼(^o^)／:

Nah, come on, the real problem is that she was late all the time w

Put your ass into it, Chinese girl w

ラダームーンサルト(青森県)＠＼(^o^)／:

Isn’t it one of those Chinese joke things?

張り手(WiMAX)＠＼(^o^)／:

Ah, this makes me feel sick.

Seems like they’re really looking down on others too.

If you’re a really strong person then you don’t pick holes and look down on others.

フェイスクラッシャー(鳥取県)＠＼(^o^)／:

I just don’t get why they would write this on a blackboard outside the store.

アキレス腱固め(西日本)＠＼(^o^)／:

Is “back fat ramen” a hate speech thing now? [“back fat” can also refer to pork fat, which is regularly used in ramen dishes].

So ramen shops can’t sell it?

アルゼンチンバックブリーカー(愛知県)＠＼(^o^)／: