Bento box shops in a lot of ways are a lunchtime MVP in Japan, providing readily available and affordable delicious set meals for many people, including workers on their lunch break. Many, however, are family-run, and thus can have some unexpected closures due to personal reasons with a last minute notice posted outside their doors. It's even more common nowadays to find this due to the ongoing pandemic.

So while a posted letter of temporary closure wouldn't normally make one bat an eye, Japanese Twitter user Nishikihebiko (@henu_shinagawa) couldn't help but stop and notice when they saw a "state of emergency" closure notice at their local bento shop that made them and now 246,000 people on Twitter share a laugh:

The straightforwardness the closure notice received a lot of sympathetic laughs in the replies, particularly from parents of young children who procrastinate on their summer homework assignments (or who did the same themselves), agreeing that it is definitely a type of emergency. More than that though, many have expressed a desire to visit and support the bento shop, touched that a family would put aside their business during these times to help their son finish his homework!

Family clearly comes first for the staff at Lunch House Shinagawa Bento, which perhaps you may consider stopping by for a bento box the next time you're in the neighborhood.

If their son is really in a pinch, however, perhaps they may want to point him towards a clever solution shared by Nissin Cup Noodle recently.