Next-generation Restaurant Model “Kura Sushi Osaka Kansai Expo Store” Completed To Open in “Future Life Zone” on April 13 (Sun.)!

OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 26, 2025--

Kura Sushi Inc. (Headquarters: Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture), one of the world’s most popular conveyor-belt sushi chains, announced that it will open its largest-ever Kura Sushi restaurant with a strong focus on sustainability at the Future Life Zone of the Osaka-Kansai Expo on Sunday, April 13, 2025.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250325146381/en/

The Kura Sushi Osaka Kansai Expo Store is the largest such store ever built, with 338 seats, the most in the history of Kura Sushi, and the longest revolving belt at about 135 meters. The exterior design is simple, with namako walls reminiscent of the company’s symbolic storehouse and a large image of tuna nigiri in the “Antibacterial Sushi Cover Mr. Freshness” that protects the sushi from airborne dust and viruses. The interior has a luxurious, modern Japanese design with wood-grained tables and backs and tatami-style seating surfaces, and a bold graphic depiction of a giant plate on the ceiling.

The exterior walls are made of “plaster without artificial substances,” which is made by reusing 336,000 shells that would otherwise be discarded and using glue and other ingredients made from seaweed. For the pictograms at the cash register counters and restrooms, a total of about 100 kg of discarded plastic bottle caps and milky-white polyethylene tanks were used, reducing CO 2 emissions to about one-third of what would be produced by incineration. In addition, a part of the seat numbers and the logo sign in the wind shelter are made of about 15 kg in total of recycled fishing equipment such as ropes, buoys, and baskets. The benches in the waiting area are made of cedar trees thinned in Japan. The “Bikkura Pon®” capsules and other items that visitors can take home with them are also recycled and take-out containers are made of environmentally friendly materials, with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In addition, the restaurant is equipped with a system that enhances customer convenience and comfort, with a system that improves hygiene and quality control by utilizing AI and ICT technologies developed over many years, and is the only major conveyor-belt sushi chain to have achieved this. It is a state-of-the-art restaurant that combines the latest technology with the pursuit of “serving by conveyor belt,” which can only be realized by a major conveyor belt sushi chain.

Along with the regular sushi menu, the restaurant will also offer a sustainable menu that utilizes low-use fish, such as nizadai, as part of its efforts to promote sustainable fishing, as well as a 70-course menu that recreates dishes representative of 70 countries and regions.

At the press conference, Hiroyuki Okamoto, Director and General Manager of Public Relations, Advertising and Investor Relations Division, said, “We are the only major conveyor-belt sushi chain to serve sushi from our conveyor belts at all of our restaurants. Our concept is to provide a place where visitors from all over the world can have an enjoyable dining experience filled with smiles. We will also introduce to the world a “next-generation restaurant model” that combines sustainable elements with cutting-edge technology, and bring the revolving sushi culture that originated in Japan to as many people as possible.”

As of the end of February, Kura Sushi Inc. operates 546 restaurants in Japan, 73 in the United States, 59 in Taiwan, and 3 in Shanghai.

[ Features of Kura Sushi Osaka Kansai Expo Store ]

[ Store Outline ]

HP: https://www.kurasushi.co.jp/2025expo/

Organic Hamachi: Sustainable menu offerings that can be realized through longstanding fishery creation efforts

Nizadai: Sustainable menu offerings that can be realized through longstanding fishery creation efforts

Takeouts: Introduction of environmentally friendly “Bikkura Pon!®” capsules and take-out containers introduced

Bikkura Pon!: Introduction of environmentally friendly “Bikkura Pon!®” capsules and take-out containers introduced

Register Counter: Initiatives aimed at reducing environmental impact through the use of discarded materials

Logo signs: Initiatives aimed at reducing environmental impact through the use of discarded materials

Interior: With the largest number of seats and the longest revolving belt in the history of Kura Sushi, offers an enjoyable dining experience with sushi that only Kura Sushi revolving sushi can provide.

Shells to be discarded used for exterior

Kura Sushi’s first special menu featuring dishes representing 70 countries and regions! ⓒ Expo_2025

Healthy Roll: Sustainable menu offerings that can be realized through longstanding fishery creation efforts

Appearance: Sustainable store that uses “plaster with no artificial materials” for exterior wall material that reuses “seashells” that would otherwise be discarded.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top vaccine official with the Food and Drug Administration has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations.

Dr. Peter Marks sent a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner on Friday saying that he would resign and retire by April 5 as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

In his letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Marks said he was “willing to work” to address the concerns expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the safety of vaccinations. But he concluded that wasn't possible.

“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he wrote.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Marks was offered the choice of resigning or being fired by Kennedy, according to a former FDA official familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t have permission to discuss the matter publicly.

Kennedy has a long history of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, although during his Senate confirmation hearings he seemed to say he would not undermine vaccines. He promised the chair of the Senate health committee that he would not change existing vaccine recommendations.

Since becoming secretary, Kennedy has vowed to scrutinize the safety of childhood vaccinations, despite decades of evidence they are safe and have saved millions of lives.

Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic.

Marks is credited with coining the name and concept for “Operation Warp Speed,” the effort under President Donald Trump to rapidly manufacture vaccines while they were still being tested for safety and efficacy. The initiative cut years off the normal development process.

Despite the project’s success, Trump repeatedly lashed out at the FDA for not approving the first COVID shots even sooner. Trump told confidants after his 2020 loss that he would have been reelected if the vaccine had been available before Election Day.

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized what he called the “firing” of Marks.

“RFK Jr.’s firing of Peter Marks because he wouldn’t bend a knee to his misinformation campaign now allows the fox to guard the hen house," Offit said. “It’s a sad day for America’s children.”

Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said the issues raised in Marks' resignation letter “should be frightening to anyone committed to the importance of evidence to guide policies and patient decisions.”

“I hope this will intensify the communication across academia, industry and government to bolster the importance of science and evidence,” he wrote.

The resignation follows news Friday that HHS plans to lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community health centers across the country.

In a post on social media Thursday, Kennedy criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy." He also faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.

The resignation is the latest blow to the beleaguered health agency, which has been rocked for weeks by layoffs, retirements and a chaotic return-to-office process that left many staffers without permanent offices, desks or other supplies. Last month, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, resigned, citing “the indiscriminate firing” of nearly 90 staffers in his division, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by the AP.

Marks, who could not be reached for comment, also raised concerns in his letter about “efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning” as well as the “unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation.”

He went on to detail the historic benefits of vaccinations dating back to George Washington and pointed to the ongoing measles outbreak as proof of what can happen when doubts about science take hold.

“The ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined,” he wrote.

The measles outbreak, which could go on for months, has now spread to Kansas and Ohio after sickening more than 370 in Texas and New Mexico.

If it hits other unvaccinated communities across the U.S., as may now be the case in Kansas, the outbreak could endure for a year and threaten the nation’s status as having eliminated the local spread of the vaccine-preventable disease, public health experts said.

Casey reported from Boston. Perrone reported from Washington, D.C.

FILE - Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing to examine an update from Federal officials on efforts to combat COVID-19, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP, File)