One owner of a noodle restaurant takes this tradition so seriously that he started keeping track of how long it took for customers to begin eating. He discovered that people who took the longest to tuck into their piping hot bowls of soup were frequently using their phones to view videos, which prompted him to act independently.

He made the controversial decision to forbid diners from using their cellphones during busy hours in March, which sparked a lot of discussion on Japanese social media.

“Once, when we were busy, we noticed a customer who didn’t start eating for four minutes,” says Kai, adding that the customer was watching videos on his phone as his food cooled off in front of him.

That wouldn’t seem significant in some areas. However, Kai offers Hakata ramen, a style of regional ramen from the western Japanese town of Hakata, which he describes as a dish “born for impatient people.” The proprietor of the eatery claims that because the thin noodles he serves are only one millimeter wide, they swell and spoil very quickly.

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By that reasoning, a bad meal might come from waiting four minutes. With 33 seats, Debu-chan is a sizable ramen restaurant relative to Tokyo standards. However, Kai claims that at busy times, a line of 10 people waiting for a seat is not uncommon.