NAGOYA -- A yakiniku grilled meat restaurant in this central Japan city is offering a free meal for a single-parent family every Saturday night.
Katsumi Kito, the owner of Yakiniku Awaza in Nagoya's Higashi Ward, launched the initiative to help those who have been affected by the coronaviruses. The number of customers in the restaurant has not returned to the figure before the epidemic, but the 63-year-old says he is more than happy to see people in a state of joy and hopes people can enjoy meals at their leisure. In late February, a 35-year-old mother and her two children from the prefectural city of Ama were sitting at a table when plates of beef and vegetables arrived one after another. They carefully grilled the meat and relished the food, saying it's been a long time since we ate out. The 12 year-old boy gave a thumbs up and exclaimed: This is the best! His mother and his 13-year-old sister had smiles on their faces.
Kito opened the restaurant in 2010 after he left his job as a salaried worker. Yakiniku Awaza began gaining popularity by word of mouth and other means, only to be struck by the Pandemic and was located in an area where many yakiniku eateries stand side by side.
Kito learned of eateries supporting single-parent households, while managing to run the restaurant using government funds that were offered to those who complied with requests for shortened business hours. He was worried if he could do something to help, so he consulted Hiroe Yamamoto, secretary general of the prefectural federation of single parents and children's welfare.
To keep up the efforts for a long time without it being a burden, he decided to set up a table every Saturday from 5: 30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and offer the Awaza Set, which usually only costs about 2,500 yen per person, for free.
The coronaviruses continued to spread, forcing the restaurant to close temporarily, despite the fact that he did his best for about a year starting in the summer of 2020. The number of customers is down 20% compared to before the pandemic, and the restaurant is also affected by price hikes, but Kito says he feels encouraged when parents and children say, I've never had such tender meat, and it was delicious, thank you. Kito smiled and said, We also enjoy the experience and it gives us courage. We want to keep doing it as long as we have the restaurant. According to a survey conducted last September by the welfare federation on 547 single-parent households in Aichi Prefecture with children under the age of 20, 13% said they had lost their jobs due to the Pandemic, and 42% said their amount of work decreased. As for living conditions, 41% of the respondents said that their lives had become considerably more difficult, and 53% said their lives were gradually becoming more difficult. Secretary General Yamamoto told the Mainichi Shimbun: There are many people whose incomes have not returned to normal, and the high cost of living is dealing an additional blow. The burden is even heavier as single parents have to do everything on their own, but some are unable to speak up, and it is essential for the community to work together to support them.