Yeah, this is silly. There have been similar pieces about how you're supposed to do things a certain way in Japanese culture, and Westerners eat it up. But it's bull. There are a lot of ways that different people in different locales do things in Japan, just like any other culture. Sub-cultures develop their own rituals.
The article doesn't suggest it's Japanese tradition, quite the opposite in fact. He runs his restaurant his own idiosyncratic way--that's the whole point of the article. It doesn't sound like you read it.
I lived and worked in Japan for 6 years, and according to my observations, you speak the truth.
This chef has his own particular style of running his sushi-ya, which I personally wouldn't enjoy participating in, as someone who doesn't like to be ordered around by anyone - especially someone I'm paying my money to in order to receive food (I eat to live, not live to eat) - and I'd have probably exited the establishment soon after being barked at :)
Not that I'm a particular fan of raw fish anyway - something that caused no end of comedy and drama during my 6 years in Japan, but that's a tale for some other date and place ;)
