A Lifelong Love Affair with Fishing and the Sea

That overwhelming sense of wonder—”I can actually catch such large fish with a reel”—combined with the joy of gutting and eating them myself, remains unforgettable to this day.

Later, I began working at JPMorgan’s Tokyo office. Despite the demanding and competitive nature of the work, I found solace in weekend boat fishing for tachiuo (cutlassfish) in Tokyo Bay. Whenever I managed to take longer breaks, I would venture to Okinawa, the Goto Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, and Iki Island to pursue serious jigging and experience the full satisfaction of catching and eating substantial fish. This became my life’s calling.

Eventually, I married, and my wife has embraced the same joy of eating fish we’ve caught together. What began as a childhood hobby evolved into something far more profound—a ritual of catching, filleting, and savoring fish that deepened our family’s bond in unexpected ways.

The Challenge: Between the Catch and the Plate

Of course, the ideal scenario is to clean and prepare the fish yourself. But when traveling, kitchens are often unavailable, time is limited, and logistics become complicated. I’ve personally experienced these frustrations during fishing expeditions across Japan.

Yet there remains something undeniably special about having a professional chef in the local area fillet and prepare the fish you’ve caught with your own hands. That experience is incomparable. This is what inspired me to create Catch to Table Japan—to share this profound sense of accomplishment and joy with others.

Why Osaka Bay? A Hidden Gem of Japanese Fishing

I consider Osaka Bay to be one of Japan’s greatest treasures for fishing. Few places in the world offer such a unique convergence of factors:

Geographic Advantage: Located remarkably close to urban centers, Osaka Bay sits at the confluence of two major ocean currents—the Seto Inland Sea current flowing between Shikoku and Honshu, and the Kuroshio Current from the Pacific side. This convergence creates an exceptional ecosystem that supports extraordinary fish diversity. A place where you can catch premium-quality fish within minutes of a major metropolitan area is genuinely rare on a global scale.

Year-Round Fishing: Because of these currents, Osaka Bay offers fishing opportunities throughout every season. There is always something to catch, making it a truly exceptional destination. You’ll never visit Osaka Bay and find nothing biting.

The Challenge of Restaurant Partnerships

To deliver this vision seamlessly, we were extremely deliberate in selecting our restaurant partners. Creating a truly special, uninterrupted experience required extraordinary measures.

Partnering with traditional kaiseki restaurants and fine dining establishments proved extraordinarily difficult. We needed them to accept whole, ungutted fish brought directly from our boat, clean and process them from the earliest stages, and transform them into refined dishes—all while maintaining their regular service operations. This fundamentally disrupts standard restaurant workflows and was initially rejected by nearly every establishment we approached.

However, driven by our commitment to delivering something truly precious to our guests, we persisted. Finally, we found partners who understood and embraced the vision completely—establishments willing to bend their processes because they too believe in honoring both the catch and the diner.

Our Commitment to You

I’ll be candid: this service is only just beginning. There is so much we will learn from our guests, and we are dedicated to continuously refining and improving every detail.

Our promise is simple: we will do everything within our power to exceed your expectations and ensure that the time you spend with us becomes a genuinely precious memory—one you’ll reflect on for years to come, free from regret and full of gratitude.

We are committed to ensuring that your experience of fishing in Japan’s urban waterways—and then savoring your catch prepared at the peak of its freshness by masters of their craft—becomes an unforgettable chapter in your travel story.