When
I was young, I was a sushi chef. I started in the sushi business helping my
father with his franchised sushi bars. Before my father passed away, he loved
trying out new innovations in the sushi business. When he first franchised
his sushi bar, he adopted the idea of having the kitchen in the center of
the bar, which was rare at that time. Then, he said that he was going to have
a rotational sushi bar and he began making rotating tables on his own. I think
that he really enjoyed creating things that no one else was doing at the time.
Well, I also liked experimenting with new ideas and inventing things related
to the sushi industry, so eventually I came up with the idea of making the
sushi robots. This idea came from my belief that if we could design a good
sushi machine, we would be able to consistently provide quality, inexpensive
sushi in large quantities.
Although I talked about such an invention, I did not know how to design it
since I was just a sushi chef. And though I did not mind operating such a
machine, it doesn't mean that I had the technical knowledge to create one.
Therefore, every night after closing my sushi bar, we, the amateurs, got together
and discussed our plan. Later, we asked a knowledgeable mechanic to build
our machine. Next, after testing the machine, we would suggest some design
changes. After about three or so years of this process, we finally had our
first sushi machine in 1980. The first machine we sent to an exhibition quickly
became a popular item as many curious people gathered to get a look at this
new device.
Because of this, we decided to work more seriously on producing sushi machines
and set up a separate company apart from our sushi bars. Today, my business
concentrates on selling sushi machines. However, since I used to be a sushi
chef, I really care about the quality of the sushi, the amount of rice used
for each piece of sushi, the moderate firmness of the sushi, and the artistic
shape of the sushi, which is controlled by the machines. These machines are
not worth selling if the quality of the sushi they produce are worse than
that produced by humans. Actually, we use these machines to serve sushi to
our own customers at our sushi shops, so we construct the machines to please
our customers as well We now account for 50% of the sushi machine market even
though there are several other companies that make sushi robots.
Technically, our advantage over the other machines is the special rollers
which allows our machines to produce fluffy sushi. We have a patent on this
system. Compared to the belt system used by other companies, our rollers do
a better job. That's the big difference. Later on, we added more machines
to our product line, including the "maki-zushi machine", the "sushi wrapping
machine", and "the desk top sushi machine".
We have sales offices all over the Japan. We also export a large numbers of
machines to countries such as North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia.
In the future, I hope to continue making innovative sushi machines not only
for the sushi-loving Japanese but also for the rest of the world.
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The
inside story of making the sushi robot.
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