For Hisao Tanaka, ensuring that everyone can afford to eat a delicious meal is a cause dear to his heart.
Tanaka was born in 1953, in Otsuki, a small farming and fishing town in Shikoku's Kochi Prefecture. His family was impoverished, and his two brothers and younger sister often went to bed hungry. After leaving school at age 15, Tanaka moved to Osaka to work in a factory to help support his family. A year later, he found a new job working as an apprentice at a Chinese restaurant, where the owner taught him not to waste anything: Onion skins, carrot peelings and eggshells were cooked into a soup for flavor and removed before serving.
In 1984, after over a decade of working at three different Chinese restaurants, Tanaka opened Osaka Hanten near Kishinosato Station in Nishinari Ward. Having experienced hunger as a child, Tanaka wanted to provide people in his working-class neighborhood with cheap and hearty meals that anyone could afford — especially children, who were warmly welcomed into his new restaurant.