“Mugen,” located in Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture, is a Japanese pub (“izakaya”) operated by Loop Foods, a local seafood processing company. Opened in 2018 as the area was recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake, the pub is famous for serving fresh local fish called “Joban-mono.” What is the secret of tasty “Joban-mono” that is highly rated by the market and foodies in Tokyo alike? We interviewed Mori Takuya, the representative of Mugen and Loop Foods.
How was the Tokyo event for you? (Your impressions, the visitors, etc.)
I was so happy to hear customers say our food was delicious. People in Tokyo are very open-minded about fish from Fukushima. They want to try it, and when they do, they are direct in giving compliments, which is lovely.
What do you think are the differences between Fukushima and Tokyo?
I feel that seafood tastes better when it is caught and eaten locally. There is a lot of good seafood in Tokyo, but it’s obviously different to eating fish caught locally. In one respect, that’s something that only we producers understand.
What do you find appealing or difficult about Tokyo as someone running a restaurant in Fukushima?
The first thing would be the volume of people. Tokyo has the advantage of an abundance of potential consumers. As I watched the crowd surging towards Tokyo Big Sight early in the morning, I kept thinking “I hope they come and eat at our stall.” At the same time, I was conscious of the high standard of the other restaurants at the event, I realized the challenge in Tokyo is that simply offering good tasting seafood is not enough—you need something extra.
Did you do any networking at the event? (With customers, or other establishments)
A lot of people who ate our food said they want to come to Soma to try it. We were in an event in Soma just prior to this, which saw a lot of visitors from Kanto. I’d be grateful if the Tokyo event encouraged more people to come and enjoy the best that Soma has to offer. Murakami, the event’s producer, introduced me to a lot of other restaurant owners at the venue. Many of them said they would be interested to buy our seafood if we handled the preliminary processing*, so I realized there are opportunities for this in Tokyo.
*Preliminary processing: cleaning and removal of the guts and other unusable parts of the seafood.
What is the future outlook for your restaurant in Fukushima?
To start with, I hope to encourage more people from Kanto and across Japan to come to Soma. There are a lot of restaurants in our main street, so I’d love for people to come and experience the abundance of our delicious seafood.
Would you like to open a restaurant in Tokyo in the future?
As I mentioned earlier, in Tokyo, it’s not enough to just have delicious seafood. There are a lot of consumers, but you need an integrated set of elements to attract them. In that regard, we still need to do a lot more work in Soma. It was a valuable experience.