OSAKA, JAPAN -- Kura Sushi Inc. (Headquarters: Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture), one of the world’s most popular conveyor-belt sushi chains, announced on December 12 that it will offer 70 new menu items at its restaurant that will open at the “Osaka-Kansai Expo,” which will open on April 13 next year in Yumeshima, Osaka, featuring dishes representing 70 countries and regions scheduled to participate in the Expo.

The company is the only major revolving sushi chain in Japan to serve sushi on conveyor belts at all of its restaurants. Under the concept of “Revolving Belts Unite the World,” the company will open a restaurant at the Osaka-Kansai Expo with 338 seats, the most in the company’s history, and a revolving belt about 135 meters long, the longest in the company’s history.

With the intention to bring smiles to the faces of visitors from all over the world and provide them with an enjoyable dining experience, the “Hands·Hands Project,” a project that will offer a special 70 Expo menu representing each country and region scheduled to participate in the Expo, will be launched. The menu has been developed by the company’s product development team. The company’s product development team have been working on these menu items with a focus on reproducing the authentic flavors of the countries and regions. Twenty-four of the items have been recreated after being tasted and advised on by ambassadors and other people from these countries under the collaboration with each embassy.

In addition, the antibacterial sushi cover “Mr. Freshness,” which is being used for this special menu, has been specially designed with the connecting part appearing as red and blue hands shaking, the signature colors of the Expo. By serving the special menu side by side with the company’s popular sushi menu, sushi and dishes from different countries and regions flow hand in hand in front of the customers. Along with enjoying their meal, guests will be able to enjoy the experience as if they were visiting a pavilion that explores the culinary cultures of countries around the world.

To help building momentum for the Expo, special Expo menus will be offered ahead of time at about 550 restaurants nationwide, starting on February 7, 2025 (Friday). Each store will offer one item from a menu of 70 different items, as if each store were a “mini-pavilion” where visitors can enjoy the flavors of the respective country. As every neighborhood store will offer a different menu item from a different country or region, customers will be able to enjoy the menu at their local Kura Sushi restaurants, or they can enjoy all 70 items on the Expo special menu by visiting different Kura Sushi restaurants in Japan.

Kaitenzushi (Revolving Sushi Restaurant) is said to have spread throughout Japan after attracting attention at the Osaka Expo in 1970. Since then, Kaitenzushi has steadily expanded its market size while evolving in various ways over its 50-year history, and is now a leading business category in the evolution of the Japanese food service industry, with sales exceeding 800 billion yen. Going forward, the company will continue to leverage its strength, the revolving belt, to provide customers in Japan and overseas with the memorable enjoyment that only Kura Sushi can offer, thereby expanding the revolving sushi business model, a wonderful business model that originated in Japan, to the entire world.

Mr. Makoto Tanaka, Executive Vice President of Kura Sushi, held a press conference on the day of the event, and mentioned, “These days, the world is filled with a variety of social issues that are difficult to solve. Even under such circumstances, we hope that the conveyor-belt sushi restaurants, which are connected by a “conveyor belt that has no beginning and no end,” will unite people from all over the world who visit the Expo to have an enjoyable dining experience with a smile on their faces. We hope that visitors from all over the world, including Japanese customers, as well as tourists from all over the world, will enjoy the menu which we have created with the combined efforts of our Product Development Division to recreate the authentic flavors of the world.”

As of the end of November, Kura Sushi Inc. operates 547 restaurants in Japan, 70 in the United States, 59 in Taiwan, and 3 in Shanghai.