The media linked the rat in the soup to the fall in shares of the Japanese restaurant holding

In Japan, shares of Zensho Holdings, which runs the Sukiya restaurant chain, fell by 7.1% after a customer discovered a rat in his soup. This was reported by Bloomberg on March 24.

The incident occurred on January 21 in the city of Tottori, in western Japan. According to the agency, the staff of the restaurant did not notice anything strange when serving the dish. The restaurant apologized for not reporting the incident sooner. As a result, many customers felt anxious and anxious, the company said in a statement.

Zensho Holdings has more than 15 restaurant brands in its portfolio. At the low, Zensho Holdings securities fell to 7918 yen (about $52.8). Before the incident with the rodent trapped in the dish, Zensho shares showed strong growth amid investors' expectations that the network's profits would increase due to higher prices for dishes, Bloomberg writes.

According to Seichi Arisawa, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities, the long-term impact of the rat incident on Zensho Holdings shares will depend on whether this leads to a significant reduction in the number of customers.

"I don't think the incident reflects a structural problem in the business. But Sukiya can't just dismiss this as an isolated incident," the agency quoted Arisawa as saying.

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Earlier, on March 6, the state of the entrepreneur and the head of the Department of State Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk's US dollar has decreased by $110.8 billion since December last year amid a decline in shares of Tesla, an electric car manufacturer. In addition, after the increase in duties on Chinese goods, Tesla shares fell by 15%.

Bloomberg reported on February 25 that sales of Tesla electric vehicles in January 2025 decreased by 45% across all European countries, while the number of registrations of new electric vehicles from competitors increased sharply.

Prior to that, on February 6, the Financial Times newspaper described the sharp decline in sales of Tesla electric cars in Europe as a manifestation of the negative reaction of society to Musk's interference in European politics.