Kura Sushi cancels Chiikawa collaboration over prize embezzlement

Kura Sushi has canceled its collaboration campaign with the popular manga and anime franchise “Chiikawa” after discovering that an employee had embezzled prizes.

The restaurant chain ended all collaboration-related promotions from the start of business Sunday.

As an apology for the early end of the campaign, the company announced a blanket 10% discount at restaurant cash registers for two days through Monday.

According to Kura Sushi, a large number of Chiikawa items from the chain’s “Bikkura Pon“ game were found listed for sale online.

An investigation confirmed that an employee had fraudulently taken the prizes. The company said it was consulting with police regarding further action.

The canceled promotion included the distribution of exclusive figurines, button badges and giveaways of original merchandise such as teacups, as well as collaboration menus.

The campaign was scheduled to run from Aug. 21 to Sept. 30.

“We deeply apologize to our customers who have been looking forward to the campaign, as well as to everyone involved,” Kura Sushi said in a statement released on Saturday.