Kyodo News At a restaurant in Tokyo's fashionable Ebisu district, eatery manager Mitsuho Abe skillfully slices fresh pieces of raw flatfish with a kitchen knife and prepares potherb mustard salad.

But there is more to the 32-year-old than just cooking. Before and after hours he works as a food copywriter, writing copy for projects such as television advertisements.

Abe secretly opened the restaurant three years ago in a bid to develop his cooking skills while simultaneously working in a Tokyo advertising agency.