A fisheries research lab at Kinki University in Wakayama Prefecture is poised to make a smashing debut in the heart of Japan's gourmet capital: Ginza.
The private university will open a fish restaurant in the glitzy Tokyo district on Dec. 2, serving tuna, red sea bream and other kinds of fish, all cultivated at its fisheries lab in Wakayama.
The restaurant will be named Kindai Sotsu no Sakana to Kishu no Megumi — Kinki Daigaku Suisan Kenkyujo. This translates as Kinki University-bred Fish and Blessings of Kishu — Kinki University Fisheries Laboratory.
It will be the second restaurant opened by the university through A-Marine Kindai, a venture company it set up 2003. Another fish restaurant opened in April in Grand Front Osaka, a shopping and restaurant complex adjacent to JR Osaka Station. Customers form long lines daily at the popular Osaka eatery.
"We decided to open our second outlet in Ginza because it's the center of Tokyo," a university spokeswoman said. "We want to show ourselves to the world."
Kinki University, known as Kindai, scored a world's first in 2002 by cultivating Pacific bluefin tuna. It has a registered trademark for its tuna, called Kindai Maguro.
The Ginza establishment will also serve vegetables and other produce from Wakayama, the university said, noting that it hopes to use the restaurant for educational purposes as well, featuring tableware made by arts majors and menus developed by students studying nutrition.
