KISSIMMEE, FL. A state inspector walked into American Japa Sushi on Brooklyn Drive on May 20, 2026, and found that the restaurant was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, with no way to trace where that food came from if a customer got sick.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most serious an inspector can document at a sushi restaurant. Food from unapproved suppliers has not passed USDA or FDA safety inspections, which means there is no verified chain of custody for the fish and other ingredients being prepared and served raw or undercooked to customers.
Three separate violations related to handwashing were cited in the same inspection. Inspectors found that employees were not washing their hands adequately, that their technique was improper, and that the facility's handwashing infrastructure was itself inadequate. All three failures existed at the same time, in the same kitchen.
The inspector also documented that no employee health policy was in place, and that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. At a restaurant serving raw fish to the public, that combination means a sick employee had no formal requirement to disclose their condition before handling food.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces rounded out the high-severity list, along with the absence of a consumer advisory notifying customers that raw or undercooked items carry heightened health risks. The person in charge was either not present or not performing supervisory duties.
Three intermediate violations accompanied the nine high-severity findings: improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation matters in a specific, practical way. If a customer becomes ill after eating at American Japa Sushi, investigators cannot trace that food back through a verified supply chain. There is no paper trail. At a restaurant where much of the menu is served raw, that gap in traceability is not a technicality.
The cluster of illness-related violations, no written health policy, no symptom reporting, and no active managerial oversight, describes a kitchen where a worker sick with Norovirus or Salmonella could prepare food for an entire shift without any formal mechanism to stop it. Norovirus, which spreads readily through contaminated food, accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year.
The three handwashing violations together describe a cascading failure. Inadequate facilities make proper hygiene structurally difficult. No enforcement of technique means that even when employees attempt to wash their hands, the attempt may not be effective. Improper handwashing is, according to public health data, the single most significant factor in spreading foodborne illness from food workers to customers.
Improper sewage disposal adds a separate contamination risk. Raw sewage contains E. coli, Hepatitis A, and other pathogens. When waste water is not properly contained or removed, those pathogens can reach food preparation surfaces.
The Longer Record
The May 20 inspection was not an outlier. State records show 16 inspections on file for American Japa Sushi, with 209 total violations documented across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The inspection pattern over the past two years is consistent. In February 2025, inspectors cited 11 high-severity and 7 intermediate violations. The following month, in March 2025, the tally was 9 high-severity and 7 intermediate. September 2025 produced 8 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. The May 20, 2026, inspection brought 9 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations.
The day after the May 20 inspection, on May 21, inspectors returned and found 7 high-severity and 1 intermediate violation still present.
The categories recur. High-severity violations have appeared in nearly every inspection on record. The facility has accumulated serious citations across multiple inspection cycles without the pattern reversing. A single strong inspection, in June 2024, showed only 1 high-severity and no intermediate violations. Every inspection before and after that date shows a substantially worse picture.
Still Open
State inspectors documented nine high-severity violations at American Japa Sushi on May 20, 2026, including food from an unknown source, no mechanism for employees to report illness, and handwashing failures at every level from infrastructure to technique.
The restaurant remained open after that inspection.