Saga: Underwater Restaurant Known for Local Squid to Get New Ship, To Continue Operations with Updated Boat

By Ken Nakao / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

11:02 JST, February 28, 2026

KARATSU, Saga — An underwater restaurant in the Yobuko district in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture — known for its Yobuko squid — will get a new vessel as early as this summer. The restaurant is popular because diners can enjoy eating seafood while looking through windows at fish swimming in the sea.

Opened in 1983, the restaurant Manbou, which is said to be Japan’s only underwater eatery, is known for its signature dish “ika shumai,” or steamed squid dumplings, which made Yobuko famous.

The white structure housing the restaurant is found on the calm, blue waters of Yobuko. When visitors cross the pier to enter the restaurant, there is a fish tank in the sea that they can look into from above.

The undersea floor of the restaurant is at a depth of about three meters. Diners can see fish such as horse mackerel and sea bream swimming in the tank up close through four large windows that are about 90 centimeters tall and 150 centimeters wide at the center.

When the restaurant opened, customers flocked to the establishment, savoring dishes such as steamed squid dumplings and squid sashimi.

The restaurant has been in business for over 40 years, but the current builing structure is scheduled to be taken out of service around May this year and replaced with a new one.

“We’ve been able to continue thanks to the love of so many customers,” said Junko Ota, 46, the restaurant’s president.

Fisheries tourism

The concept for the underwater restaurant emerged in 1980. Ota’s late father, Yoshihisa, who worked in aquaculture, came up with the idea as a form of fisheries tourism linking the fishing industry with tourism.

However, the path to the restaurant’s opening was difficult. There were no precedents for a facility that combined architecture and a ship, and the Fire Service Law had no stipulations to cover such facilities. Yoshihisa collaborated with representatives of a shipbuilding company to negotiate with the central and prefectural governments before finally opening the restaurant in 1983.

The steamed squid dumplings, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, catapulted the eatery to fame. The dish features minced squid and fish mashed into a paste and coated in finely chopped wonton wrappers. It became nationally recognized after being featured in a major beer company’s TV commercial.

Junko began working in the family business when she was around 27 years old and took over management of the restaurant from Yoshihisa, who later died in 2021 at age 77.

She streamlined unprofitable parts of the business, such as its land-based pufferfish farming and lodging operations, and steered the company into the black. To further expand its business, the company became affiliated with Kyushu Railway Co., or JR Kyushu, in 2019.

Business expansion

Manbou Corp., now a JR Kyushu subsidiary, expanded its business through sales in the JR group’s retail stores and other channels. The next major initiative is a project to replace the aging underwater structure with a new ship that will be used as the restaurant.

The restaurant ship is being built by a shipyard in Nagasaki. The vessel will be fixed to pillars. The total floor space is projected to be about 800 square meters, around the same as the current size. But to increase spacing between seats, the number of seats will be slightly reduced from the current number of about 190. To ensure comfort for elderly customers, the new restaurant will primarily offer seats at tables, except for some private rooms.

All the windows on the underwater floor will be larger than the current ones. Shutters will be installed as a safety measure to prevent water from coming in. In addition, a new 400-square-meter fish tank will be connected with the restaurant and the pier to offer a fishing experience to visitors.

The plan is to put the new ship at the same location as the current one as early as this summer and resume operations.

“In the new restaurant, we plan to have features that will please our customers even more than before,” Ota said. “This is a very important establishment I took over from my father, so I want to nurture it as a local symbol and make sure it continues to be loved for the next 40 or 50 years.”

Yobuko squid

The Yobuko squid refers to squids caught in the Genkai Sea, the sea off the northwest coast of Kyushu, and landed at fishing ports in the Yobuko district. Its translucent, thick flesh and freshness are popular, attracting tourists nationwide. The squid is said to have become popular about 50 years ago after a local fish wholesaler began offering sashimi prepared from live squid.

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