Kaiten-zushi : Sushi Restaurant

Do you like sushi, or have you ever had sushi in Japan?

There are a lot of Kaiten-zushi restaurants everywhere in Japan, and we can eat sushi at affordable prices. Kaiten-zushi means a “conveyor belt” sushi bar in Japanese. Do you know who invented the conveyor belt sushi bar?

There was a man who wanted sushi to become a daily food for common people, because sushi is a pronoun for high-quality foods. In 1947, he opened a standing sushi bar for the general public. His name is Mr Yoshiaki Shiraishi, the founder of Genroku Sushi, one of the sushi restaurants in Japan. As his sushi bar was popular, he was looking for a way to serve as many customers as he could when working by himself. At the time, he came up with the idea after watching beer bottles on a conveyor belt at a beef factory. 

In 1958, finally he invented the first Kaiten-zushi bar in Osaka. He got the patent for conveyor belt sushi in 1962 and registered the trademark of the word: “kaiten” so that other companies couldn’t use the name “Kaiten”-zushi for their sushi-shops. After he opened the use of this patent for other companies, the name Kaiten-zushi became more commonly used in Japan and everyone can find Kaiten-zushi restaurants everywhere in Japan.

However, you might realize that few sushi are carried on a conveyor belt in Kaiten-zushi restaurants these days. Customers order some sushi from the sushi craftsman directly, which is a normal ordering style in a sushi restaurant. When the conveyor belt sushi bar was invented, people were very interested in this new technology, but now they seem to have lost interest in it and are looking for much fresher sushi. Even though people don't pick sushi up from the conveyor belt, the belt is still moving around with menu cards on it.

My favorite place to eat sushi is a sushi restaurant near Numazu port in Zushi area. After all, fresh fish is available at the areas located near the sea, even though Japan is surrounded by sea.