SUSHIZANMAI-S is a new type of shop. The chefs prepare the sushi, but to avoid contact, we adopted an ordering system via touch panels instead of face-to-face orders over the counter. We have added clinical thermometers and partitions as well. As much as I wish the customers to enjoy talking with chefs, I took the decision to adopt this style in order to prioritize safety and sanitation when enjoying our sushi.

When the Preventive Measures against COVID-19 were in full-swing, and everyone from the government to local administration requested time-restrictions and limitation to gathering, the food and the service industry were hit especially hard. Not only do we lose domestic customers, but entry restrictions mean overseas tourists are not coming likewise. We lose revenue, but even worse is the mental state of my employees. With no customers, all the work we did was in vain. That is why I decided to have them come to work for at least 1 to 2 hours to keep the line of dialog going. Some sushi restaurants that were granted compensation for closing shop, ended up closing for good after their owners and chefs stopped showing up altogether. This was a wake up call helping me realize that an open line of dialog between the workplace, the customers, and the employees was an important aspect of my business.

<<Our family of four shared two slices of sushi that our mother had brought home in a package. The memory of poverty in childhood. My mother told us: “Everyone gets a piece, so we will be four times as happy.” Close to 50 years, I have been practically running around the fishing industry to share this joy that my mother had taught me. She has always been the one to teach us about the importance of working>>

My mother passed away in February 2005 at the age of 94. Still, she had been helping with the agricultural work until the very end. Once her back bent, she didn’t go to the field anymore, she grew roses, something that she could do standing. There was actually a period when she didn’t work. When my mother was 87, she was told by everyone around her to stay inside and not to work in the fields. Until then, she farmed vegetables and took them to the farmer’s market to make about 40000 to 50000 yen a month. But after people saw her with the bad back, evil rumors emerged that she was being forced to work despite her handicap.
Even others in the household apparently told my mother not to go to the fields any longer and to just stick to laundry and cooking inside the house. I was 3 years old when we lost my father in a traffic accident. My mother was constantly working to pay off the debt, and this resounded as a plea to her to have more rest. However, my mother who had no instances of illness until that point and was the perfect model of health, broke her leg just after she had stopped tending to the fields. After recovering from the broken bone, she was found with pancreatic cancer. My mother had lost her health after she had lost her place to work. That was when we realized that taking away her work was a mistake.

Ever since me and my two older sisters were small, my mother had worked with her bare hands from morning to sunset for her children. She received fresh energy each time we thanked her. In her later years, she told me that the hardest thing to hear was that she no longer had to do anything. Luckily, her pancreatic cancer healed and she began helping to cultivate and to pick roses in the rose garden. The work was undertaken inside the greenhouse, where she could peacefully proceed in her own tempo, without outside interference. Until her final days, my mother was always minutely considerate.

Before she passed away, I took tuna to her when she was hospitalized. When I visited the following time, the patients from the same room and the nurses all thanked me for the delicious tuna. She always wanted to share happiness with everyone. She lived that way until the very end. I have already announced that I plan to work until I’m 90. Work hard, be useful to others. That is how life is to be lived. Although we are amidst the difficult period of COVID-19 pandemic, I promise to continue running around on a quest to bring happiness to my customers.