On a low plastic bench outside his restaurant in Kanagawa prefecture, Tomoyuki Ohashi is waiting for a lorry to arrive and take away the large commercial freezer at the back of the kitchen. It is, he says, a point of no return. After taking over the business from his father more than 35 years ago, Ohashi has served his last bowl of raw tuna on rice.
As he prepares to leave for the final time, he wonders whether he should bother his son, an office worker in nearby Yokohama with no apparent interest in the family business, and ask for help dismantling the large sign that advertises the restaurant along the main road. “It’s a difficult conversation,” he says. The past few years have been punctuated by rows between father, son and daughter-in-law.
