The upcoming World Expo in Osaka, known as the kitchen of the country, is viewed as an opportunity to showcase Japan's food industry, including advanced services.
At the expo venue, major conveyor-belt sushi chain Kura Sushi will open a store with a roughly 135-meter-long circular conveyor belt, the company's longest, to serve sushi and dishes from about 70 participating countries and regions, including kokoda, a Fijian dish of fish and vegetables marinated in coconut cream.
Conveyor-belt sushi restaurants originated in Osaka and spread elsewhere after one opened at the 1970 World Expo held in the city.
At the upcoming expo, Kura Sushi hopes to "spread to the world a business model born in Japan that utilizes conveyor belts," a company official said.
At the expo's massive food court, which can accommodate roughly 10,000 people, robots will perform tasks such as clearing tableware and cleaning, showcasing a future vision for a dining industry that can cope with labor shortages.
Chinese restaurant chain Osaka-Ohsho will adopt a cooking robot for stir-fried dishes, while Takoya Dotonbori Kukuru will use a humanoid robot to help put toppings on takoyaki octopus dumplings.
While some are concerned that food and drinks at the expo venue will be expensive, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said that the event will also serve to showcase unfamiliar dishes.
Outside the expo venue, the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others launched a project for local restaurants to come up with novel dishes themed on the expo and post them on Instagram.
As of March 5, the project had collected a total of 91 dishes, such as hamburgers made with okonomiyaki savory pancakes and a Mexican-inspired dish featuring tortilla chips arranged to resemble the expo venue's ring-shaped roof.
"We hope that a new Osaka specialty dish will be born," a chamber official said.
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