Japan Navigator

Osaka often seems to be playing second fiddle to Big Brother Tokyo, but it actually is a city of many firsts. Calculators were invented here in 1964, the first automatic ticket gates appeared in Osaka in 1967, vacuum packed foods as curry were introduced in 1968, and the famous cup noodles made their first appearance in 1971. And of course we should not forget “conveyor belt sushi,” which greeted the rising sun in 1958. The first revolving sushi restaurant in the world, called Mawaru Genroku Sushi, opened its doors in April 1958 in what is now Higashi-Osaka.

[Kaiten Sushi (from Wikipedia)]

Have you visited Kaiten-sushi, as it is called in Japanese? The plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating belt that winds around the counter where the cooks work, and moves past every seat. Customers pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving by in front of their eyes. A great invention from the city of Kuidaore, “eating until you drop down,” and symbolic for the Osaka mentality of “value for money.”

As the Daily Yomiuri writes:

Operator Yoshiaki Shiraishi equipped a sushi restaurant counter with a revolving belt after seeing a conveyer belt at a beer factory and thinking that it could reduce the work of waitstaff. At the time, a bowl of ramen noodles cost about 40 yen, and one plate of four sushi pieces was priced at 50 yen.

Sushi-go-rounds, as they are sometimes called, became known across the nation after one opened near the 1970 Osaka Expo venue.

Mr Shiraishi did his invention due to staffing problems. And indeed, besides the sushi chef(s) behind the counter, there is often only one waitress who seats you and handles the cash register and besides that, at most takes care of special drink orders as beer. The rest is available at your table: from soy sauce to wasabi and chopsticks. Interestingly, there is even a hot water faucet, so that customers can make their own tea.

[The original Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Fuse, Osaka]

The belt moves at 8 cm per second, clockwise, and is constantly replenished. In some shops, it is also possible to ask the chef for special types of sushi that are on the menu on the wall, but not on the conveyor. The belt also carries things as deserts.

The bill is calculated based on the number and type of color-coded plates the customer has amassed and is never an unpleasant surprise. There are even sushi shops where every plate is priced at a fixed price of 100 yen. Kaiten Sushi made luxury food sushi available to ordinary people. The fish was often bought outside of Japan to make cheap sushi a possibility. Sushi shops became family restaurants.

There are about 3000 Kaiten Sushi shops in Japan (Wikipedia) and the industry is still going strong. Many belong to chains as Akindo Sushiro, Atom Boy, Genki Sushi, Kappa Sushi, etc. Of the original inventor chain, Mawaru Genroku Sushi, there are still 11 shops in the Kansai.

Kaiten Sushi shops are also popular with foreign tourists, as there is no need to study a Japanese menu – and above all, it is fun!

Do you like Kaiten Sushi?