Today Japanese police raided a low-price Korean-style barbecue restaurant chain to investigate the deaths of four people from food poisoning after they ate raw beef at its outlets. Police officers searched the head office of the chain’s operator Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu barbecue chain and its supplier, Food Forus Co in Kanazawa in central Japan.

Ninety diners had fallen sick after eating raw beef at eateries in near Tokyo and on Honshu Island since April 19, the health ministry said, of whom 23 were seriously ill.

E. coli bacteria of the O111 strain were detected in the four fatal cases, the ministry said.

And, by the way, when was the last time that you saw a food executive in the United States get on his or her hands and knees and beg for forgiveness?