A former sumo wrester built a successful business in Japan, only to see it dissipate during an economic bubble. He found hope in the Philippines, where his company is on a mission to bring authentic Japanese food.
Seto Masakazu, who was born in Nikko, a city in Tochigi Prefecture north of Tokyo, competed as a sekitori or sumo wrestler at age 15, became homeless after fleeing the sumo stable, worked as a newsboy, excelled in high school, established a travel agency while studying at Tohoku Fukushi University, put up a high-end club, then saw his businesses go bankrupt due to economic and personal circumstances.
He decided to move to Manila. Today, the venturesome Japanese entrepreneur is on a mission to build a restaurant chain in the Philippines that offers genuine Japanese food, with the help of two chefs from Japan.
Masakazu, 50, believes that only a Japanese chef using fresh ingredients from Japan can prepare an authentic Japanese cuisine. “There are lots of restaurants masquerading as real Japanese restaurants in the Philippines. They just use the Internet for their menu. If you do not consider the history and the source of the food, it cannot be real Japanese food. In the same way, Filipino food cannot be prepared by Japanese,” Masakazu says in Nihongo, in an interview at his new restaurant in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
Veraldyn Simbulan of HappyRoad JP Inc., which supplies printing materials for Sekitori, served as the translator during the interview with journalists and bloggers.
Masakazu teamed up with chef Keita Kamimoto and deputy chef Ume to establish Sekitori Authentic Japanese Restaurant at the ground floor of Hanston Square Building along San Miguel Ave. in Ortigas. Kamimoto is a master craftsman who spreads authentic Japanese cuisine to other parts of the globe. He has also experimented fusing traditional food with Japanese cuisine and now showcases his culinary skills in Sekitori Ortigas.
Sekitori Ortigas first opened in 2014 and reopened with an expanded floor area on Jan. 11, 2016. A giant statue of a sumo wrestler greets customers upon entering the restaurant.
It was a life of many challenges for Masakazu, who entered the world of Yokozuna, the highest rank in professional wresting in Japan, when he was 15. “I have always been big as a child, and at 15, I was already 184 cm in height [six feet] and over 100 kilograms in weight,” he says.
“Away from my parents for the first time, I found sumo to be a world that is severe beyond my imagination. Everyday, I was kicked and beaten, and since I lived within the stable, this continuously occurred, 24 hours around the clock,” he says.
Sick of the sumo world, he tried to run back home, only to be strongly rebuked by his mother, who was opposed to him joining the sumo world in the first place. His mother asked why he gave up so easily, a lesson that would define the rest of his life.
Thrown out of home, he worked at a newspaper shop and went back to high school. He studied hard and even did volunteer work to help the elderly and the disabled. He was at the top of his class, became president of the student council, competed as captain of the Judo Club and reconciled with his mother who gave him permission to study at a top university.
In his third year in the university, he established a travel agency and a popular bar and later became a teacher. He successfully built a chain of 15 shops and led a flashy lifestyle.
“Eventually, at the age of 30, the high-end club I had pushed for which the company had been against bled largely on deficit, and from there, overall performance started to fall. Then the bubble economy burst,” he says.
“I lost everything. Left with no house or a place to sleep the day after, I was reduced to a life of collecting coins just to buy bread. But then, the Yakuza gangster who had accepted the transfer of debt was caught and put under house arrest,” he says.
An acquaintance later introduced him to a friend who employed him as a salary man. Masakazu says he worked three times more than the average person did and caught the attention of a client—president of a condominium developer—who recruited him. In the fourth year of his employment, he was entrusted the management of the company. In two years, company sales increased five-fold. He also introduced a spa business, which became a fast growing segment in the company.
But there were pitfalls along the way, he says. A jealous colleague set a trap which he fell into and led to losing his job. “Overnight, I lost my job. Still, as my name was already known in the industry, there came a number of invitations and requests for work. In the end, I founded my original company and went into consulting and producing spa,” he says. “The Yakuza came and threatened my employees and warned me that if I value the safety of my family, I would quit with the spa business.”
He decided to close the Tokyo office of Benefit Corp. and moved to Manila, where he established a restaurant.
Masakazu, who stands six feet tall, first came to Makati 30 years ago, returned many times as a tourist and helped establish a care-giving business. “I was here only for fun 30 years ago. During that time, the surroundings of Makati Cinema Square were still empty lots,” he says.
His mother actually started the family’s restaurant business in the Philippines. The company he was working for wanted to get involved in a care giving business and later bought a small restaurant in Little Tokyo, Makati. Masakazu’s mother became the mama-san (woman in charge) in that restaurant which was appropriately called Kaa San and which served home-cooked food.
“When my mother left, I could not operate under the name Kaa San, which means mother. During that time, the one occupied by Sekitori right now was up for sale. What I did was to close down the Kaa San and opened Sekitori,” he says.
One of the employees of the Japanese care-giving business he was working for was a Filipino woman.
She introduced him to a younger sister, who worked at Kaa San as a manager and later became his wife. Sekitori at Little Tokyo, Makati has been in operation for 11 years now, attracting mostly Japanese customers, which speaks of the authentic taste of the food served in the restaurant.
Sumo Chaya Sekitori Corp., the company established by Masakazu as president and chief executive, launched the first Sekitori outlet at Little Tokyo near Makati Cinema Square in Makati City in 2005.
Masakazu says he has high hopes for Sekitori Ortigas, which offers menu that cannot be found in other Japanese restaurants. He goes to Japan on a regular basis to procure the food supplies and ingredients. He says the quality of fish or meat in Japan is different, mainly because of the temperature.
He also established J. Boy Corp., a Japanese fastfood shop in 2012.
“In the Philippines, the menu of Japanese restaurants are the same. What Sekitori offers is the menu in Japan and not in the Philippines,” Masakazu says.
Sekitori Ortigas serves large portions of authentic Japanese food. The price range of a meal starts from as low as P200, he says. Assorted premium sashimi on a wooden boat costs about P3,800. Its premium Japanese tuna is brought fresh from Japan.
The restaurant also serves salad, braised Lapu-Lapu, spicy salmon, Wagyu beef sukiyaki, Shinshu premium beef steak, home-made noodle called Zaru soba and udon, a hotpot called Kisetu no irodori dobinmushi, consisting of seafood and vegetables, Chawang mushi made of chicken egg, fish and vegetables and assorted Japanese sweets. Waitresses dressed in kimonos greet the customers.
Masakazu says he has not yet done any promotion for Sekitori Ortigas, but it has already attracted a horde of loyal Japanese and Filipino customers. “It is still not well known but the Sekitori name is already popular because the one in Little Tokyo has been operating for 11 years now. Japanese people already know the Sekitori name here,” he says.
About 95 percent of customers at Sekitori Little Tokyo in Makati are Japanese diners.
Masakazu says his goal is to introduce Japanese cooking that is not known to Filipinos. “Japanese cooking is not just Japanese food. Japanese food is not just ramen, not just tonkatsu. There are lots of Japanese food. I want to introduce them here,” he says.
“Looking back, I’ve come to realize how varied and experience I’ve had. However, it does not end here. I do not consider myself as a success, and from here on, I am still thinking of taking on the variety of challenges that would come my way,” he says.