is a Japanese supermarket chain in America, with locations in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

History

As a subsidiary of

Yaohan or ; ) was a Japanese retail group, founded in 1930 by and his wife . Initially a single shop, it was expanded by their son Kazuo Wada into a major supermarket chain with most retail outlets located in Shizuoka prefecture, south of Tokyo. It ...

, ''Yaohan USA'' opened its first supermarket in

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

in 1979. During its heyday, Yaohan operated eight stores all over the States, as well as four Daikichi sushi shops. Upon bankruptcy of Yaohan in 1997, Yaohan USA was subject to a management buyout by regional management, with rebranding as ''Mitsuwa Marketplace''. Mitsuwa continued to expand its stores, mainly inside California. In December 2012, , a Japanese trading company, acquired Mitsuwa's stock.

Store locations

California

20140401-0110 Mitsuwa Marketplace Irvine

Mitsuwa has seven stores in four metropolitan areas in

: ;

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

* San Jose ;

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

area * Torrance * San Gabriel *

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

;

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

area *

Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge of t ...

* Irvine ;

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

area *

The Los Angeles location of Mitsuwa Marketplace in the Little Tokyo neighborhood closed in 2009. In 2019, Torrance closed their previous location in the Old Town Torrance. The new Torrance location within the

Del Amo Fashion Center Del Amo Fashion Center is a three-level regional shopping mall in Torrance, California, United States. It is currently managed and co-owned by Simon Property Group. With a gross leasable area (GLA) of , it is the sixth largest shopping mall in ...

opened in February 2020.

Hawaii

;

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

area *

The second-floor Honolulu store is located in the

International Market Place International Market Place is an open-air shopping center located in Waikiki, Waikīkī on the island of Oahu, O‘ahu. It first opened in 1956 as a commercial, retail and entertainment center. After closing for complete renovation in 2013, the I ...

Waikiki Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six beaches in the district ...

Texas

; Dallas/Fort Worth area * Plano Mitsuwa entered the Dallas/Fort Worth area with a store in Plano, an upper-middle-class northern suburb of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. The store, which opened in the spring of 2017, is near North Central Expressway and Legacy Drive.

Chicago metropolitan area

Okonomiyaki sauce by Zesmerelda in Arlington Heights, IL

The

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

store is at 100 E. Algonquin Road in Arlington Heights,

— part of a number of Japanese businesses in Arlington Heights — and opened in 1991. The store is open 365 days a year from 9 am to 9 pm. Mitsuwa is the largest Japanese marketplace in the

Midwestern US The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

. The Chicago store is one of three that are east of the Rockies. This Mitsuwa location, like those in other states, was formerly known as

. The food court has many traditional foods, such as

sushi is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is " ...

tempura is a typical Japanese dish usually consisting of seafood, meat and vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. The dish was introduced by the Portuguese in Nagasaki through fritter-cooking techniques in the 16th century. The word ''tem ...

, noodles, etc. It is made of the Otafuku-tei (now replaced by Gabutto Burger), Kayaba, Santouka Ramen, Releaf Matcha, Jockey Express, Daikichi Sushi, Pastry House Hippo, and Mama House restaurants. Mitsuwa hosts the JTB

travel agency A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinati ...

. There are two entertainment shops in Mitsuwa Chicago, JBC Video, a Japanese video rental store, and

Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its name translates to "Bookstore of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo. One of the company's ...

, a Japanese book shop that sells stationery, novels,

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

, and other imported media. A

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

store, Galaxy Wireless, is at the Chicago Mitsuwa. Mitsuwa Chicago had a

china China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

store called 'Utsuwa no Yakata'. This store closed on April 1, 2006. Kinokuniya bookstore, which had expanded into the area previously owned by a China store, has been replaced by SanSeiDo. The location has two personal care shops, Shiseido, a Japanese cosmetics store, and Super Health, a vitamin and other health supplement store.

New Jersey

The Edgewater,

store is located on 595 River Road. It has a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

, a

bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

owned by

, a gift shop selling

Bape A Bathing Ape (or BAPE) is a Japanese fashion brand founded by Nigo (Tomoaki Nagao) in Ura-Harajuku in 1993.David FischerNIGO Announces His Definitive Departure from BAPE''highsnobiety'', May 25, 2013

clothing and

golf clubs A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety ...

, a

video store A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms a ...

that carries

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

s and

Laserdisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...

s of movies and a store selling

Japanese ceramics , is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and Japanese art, art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, Ceramic glaze, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and Blue and white porcel ...

and denki-gama, making Mitsuwa more of a mini-

mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India ...

than a traditional supermarket. It is a small taste of what current Japanese multi-story malls, or subway stations, are like. The supermarket section sells fresh produce and certified

Angus beef The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Angus in north-eastern Scotland. In 2018 the breed accounted for over ...

, as well as Japanese drinks and snacks such as

Yakult is a Japanese sweetened probiotic milk beverage fermented with the bacteria strain '' Lacticaseibacillus casei'' Shirota. It is sold by Yakult Honsha, based in Tokyo. It is distributed through convenience stores and supermarkets in single-servin ...

Calpis Calpis ((カルピス, Karupisu))/Milkis ((밀키스, Milkiseu)) is a Japanese uncarbonated soft drink, manufactured by , a subsidiary of Asahi Breweries headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. The beverage has a light, somewhat milky, and slightl ...

Ramune () is a Japanese carbonated soft drink. It was introduced in 1884 in Kobe by the British pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim. Like Banta, an Indian lemon drink, is available in a Codd-neck bottle, a heavy glass bottle whose mouth is sealed by ...

, Ikechi Shrimp Chips,

Pocari Sweat , Pokari Suetto is a Japanese sports drink, manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical. It was launched in 1980, and is mostly well known across Asia and the Middle East; it is also available in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Mexico. Poca ...

Pocky is a Japanese sweet snack food produced by the Ezaki Glico food company. Pocky was first sold in 1966, and was invented by Yoshiaki Koma. It consists of coated biscuit sticks. It was named after the Japanese onomatopoeic word , which is suppos ...

Pretz Pretz (プリッツ, ''Purittsu'') is a Japanese snack made by Ezaki Glico. Like Ezaki Glico's other popular snack, Pocky, Pretz is stick-shaped and comes with a texture similar to pretzels. Unlike Pocky, Pretz is dusted with seasonings instead of ...

, and Japanese liquor such as

Sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

and Shōchū. The

Books Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its name translates to "Bookstore of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo. One of the company's g ...

bookstore section sells Japanese music CDs, novels, job applications, children's books, manga, and imported magazines (including dozens of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

fashion magazine Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about fashion events, trends and have to cultivate and maintain a relationship with stylists and designers. A fashion journ ...

s) such as

Weekly Shonen Jump Weekly, The Weekly, or variations, may refer to: News media * ''Weekly'' (news magazine), an English-language national news magazine published in Mauritius *Weekly newspaper, any newspaper published on a weekly schedule *Alternative newspaper, als ...

and

Disney Fan The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

. There is also a kiosk that sells

Ito En () is a Japanese multinational drinks company specializing in tea production, distribution, and sales. Ito En is the largest green tea distributor in Japan. The Ito En Group includes subsidiaries based in Japan, Indonesia, the United States, Aus ...

tea and Minamoto Kitchoan that sells Japanese sweets such as manju,

mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan, it is traditionally ma ...

, and Inja. A

Daiso is a large franchise of 100-yen shops founded in Japan. The headquarters are in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture. Daiso has a range of over 100,000 products, of which over 40 percent are imported goods, many of them from China, South Ko ...

" 100-yen shop" location opened at the marketplace in August 2019. The New Jersey location used to run an exclusive

shuttle bus A shuttle bus is a bus that travels a shorter route in comparison to most bus routes. Typically, shuttle buses travel in both directions between two points. Shuttle buses are designed to transport large groups of people who are all travellin ...

between the store and the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving abo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The bus transported Mitsuwa customers for a nominal fee and it did not make any stops along its route. The service was terminated on December 31, 2014.

References

External links

Official Mitsuwa Marketplace Site(in Japanese Language)
(Archive) {{Supermarkets of the United States Supermarkets of the United States Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Restaurants in Illinois Japanese-American culture in California Japanese supermarkets Restaurants established in 1972 1972 establishments in California

History

Store locations

California

Hawaii

Texas

Chicago metropolitan area

New Jersey

See also

References

External links