I have been lucky as – at the beginning of my career 10 years ago when I was a 24 years old student – I had the opportunity to train in a classic restaurant in Ginza for about 6 years.
It was a traditional sushi restaurant. A high end establishment founded in the Edo period visited even by the Emperor. There, I was able to practically experience Edomae sushi making techniques and learn how to serve appropriately traditional customers who gather there.
That experience became very important when I started my own restaurant.

I work in Akihabara, cradle of the Japanese pop culture.
The staff at my restaurant are young and so is our clientele, much younger than the one in any restaurant in the city.
Our clientele and their habits are perhaps unknow to a wider public.

In the past young people in Japan had their seniors take them to a sushi restaurant on their way home from work and were taught how to eat it, how to behave at a sushi restaurant and how to order.
With the deterioration of the economy, these habits have gradually disappeared, so young people approach the ‘sushi experience’ in a completely different way, more spontaneously.

Starting from the order style.
Senior patrons tend to like Edomae sushi, which is often traditionally prepared.
Their drink of choice is also traditional a raw sake that is authentically brewed sake, often drunk with wooden cubic cup or sake bottles. They ask their favorite food – vinegared foods, nuta dressing and red meat tuna – as snacks, as a snack for the drinks in an à la carte style called “Okonomi”. Small fish – kohada – are eaten with vinegar – they prefer well marinated ones – and rolls – as kappa maki (cucumber roll) or kampyo maki (dried vegetable roll)- are often ordered at the end of the meal. Sushi and rolls are eaten with the hands.

The biggest difference is, perhaps, they enjoy talking with the Itamae chef.
At traditional sushi restaurants, regular customers are always seated at the counter, enjoying sushi while conversing with Itamae is the way to enjoy this kind of establishment.
In contrast, young people – probably because of the influence of conveyor belt sushi – tend to consider sushi just as food, even when visiting high-end restaurants. They are more focused on the sushi itself, rather than taking to the Itamae and their ‘experience’ at the restaurant which consist in trying food at restaurants that they learn about on social media, rather than becoming a regular at one single one.

They give importance to taking beautiful food photos that they will then post on social media.

Instead of okonomi (a la carte) they mostly opt for a course menu and eat obediently.
They like sea urchin and toro for sushi and are very pleased with the creative sushi.

For drinks, they would choose a wide variety of sake and enjoy the marriage of wine and sake.
They relish in a new and unmistakable taste of sake like Daiginjo sake (rice grains milled to ca 50%) served in Edo Kiriko (Japanese crystal cut glasses) wine glasses. They appreciate beautiful tableware, enjoy a full course meal eating it carefully with chopsticks.

For the senior generation, a dinner at a sushi restaurant was a common affair.
The spending power of young people today is lower; accordingly, young customers look for a better ‘value for money’ and they tend to visit sushi restaurants mainly for special occasions: a date, a celebration.
To mark the occasion, to feel-look good, they choose regarded restaurants.

The openness to try new things together with the ‘importance’ that young customers attribute to every single detail offer us tremendous opportunities to step up our work and make sushi while taking new challenges, balancing tradition and innovation.