Keita Omi has been living in Ahmedabad since 2019, teaching at a private university. Until about a year ago, he used to cook at home, typically making dishes such as chicken, fish or pork. Now, his meals are sorted, thanks to Noboru, a campus restaurant serving Japanese and Korean food, where he enjoys dishes such as ramen noodles and Buta Kakuni, a pork dish.Around the time Omi moved to Gujarat, in a gated neighbourhood on the Sarkhej-Sanand highway on Ahmedabad’s outskirts, around 50 kilometres from the Special Investment Region (SIR) where the Maruti-Suzuki and Honda plants are, the Yuhi Hospitality group opened Asagao — a restaurant serving Japanese food, in 2019. The automobile plants in the 102 square kilometre Mandal-Becharaji SIR (MBSIR), 90 kms from Ahmedabad, led to several Japanese moving in for work, mostly without families.The SIR, which has the Maruti Suzuki plant in Hansalpur and the Honda plant in Vithalapur, now has around 10 hotels and restaurants catering mainly to Japanese customers. These units provide dining and lodging facilities with authentic Japanese cuisines.Omi, an assistant professor at School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University, generally has lunch at the university, which is a mix of Indian and Chinese/Japanese cuisine buffet, and prefers Noboru for dinner.“I enjoy the food here (Noboru). Pretty much like eating at home…I generally order soup, rice and grilled fish. The quality of food is wonderful… It’s like how we had food in my family. It is also healthy,” says Omi, who lives in a village on the outer side of the Sardar Patel Ring Road, which is around 15 km from his workplace.“Lifestyle (here) is different (from Japan), especially the daily life cycle. People (here) start the day very late. They have dinner probably around 9 pm-10pm or 11pm. People in Japan wake up early in the morning, have breakfast at 7 am and go to work by 8.30-9 am. They have dinner around 6-7 pm. Latest could be 8-9 pm. Not after 9 pm; it is not recommended. People here stay up super late. In Japan, people go to the office two-three hours earlier (in comparison to India).” ONO Keiichi, Ambassador of Japan to India and Bhutan, inaugurates a Japanese restaurant at the Dholera Special Investment Region in July. (Express File)Omi says there are around 250-300 Japanese nationals currently living in Gujarat. He said things have started becoming better for Japanese expats with several places offering Japanese cuisine.Story continues below this adA senior executive, connected with the hospitality business, told The Indian Express, “We are mainly into providing accommodation services to our Japanese clients. They come either alone or with family and we take care of their food preferences, and so, we started a restaurant.”As recently as July 4, one more restaurant, Aju Nagomi Family Dining, was inaugurated at Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) by Japan’s Ambassador to India, Ono Keiichi. This is part of Aju Japanese Group of Hotels’ chain of restaurants in different parts of the country. Both the SIRs are located in the influence zone of the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Project, which is a joint initiative of the governments of India and Japan.Founder of the Aju Group, Gurugram-based Prakash Yadav, said that they offer Indian cuisine to local customers to sustain business and serve Japanese food on order whenever there is a Japanese delegation visiting the DSIR. Yadav was invited to Gujarat to help set up restaurants that would make the Japanese, who would move in to work in the SIRs, comfortable. Yadav’s group also runs Aju Imperial in Vithalapur. On August 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while inaugurating Maruti-Suzuki group’s roll-out of the first Battery-run electric vehicle, eVitara, spoke about how Japanese prioritised their cultural ecosystem.“They want Japanese food…and therefore, I made arrangements of Japanese cuisine here. I called a (Japanese) hotel chain,” the PM said while recalling his days as Gujarat CM.‘World of difference between Indian and Japanese cuisine’Story continues below this adYadav says, “There is a world of difference between Indian and Japanese cuisine. If we cook Aloo-Tamatar curry, we add spices to such an extent that we cannot feel the real taste of either the potato or the tomato. In Japanese cuisine, they add (almost) no masala. You will get the real taste of potato. We over cook them whereas Japanese sustain the real taste of potato. Japanese cuisine is slightly on the sweet and sour side in taste.”Yadav imports most of the grocery from Japan, some through traders who import from there. These include prawns, horse mackerel and salmon fish, Japanese rice, vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, bell peppers, leek, radish, various sauces, squid, pork, Sawara and Japanese pickles such as ginger, takuwan, cucumber, Shibazuke, wasabi paste etc.A restaurateur on the Sarkhej-Sanand highway says, “The footfall of Japanese people depends on how much we maintain the principles of Japanese cuisine as they work more on references and word of mouth from fellow Japanese visitors. They make intense inquiries within the local Japanese community before going to a restaurant serving Japanese cuisine.”Yadav said that they have a chef in Gurgaon who trains their chefs across the country and keeps periodic checks on the quality of food. The restaurants also have chefs from India and Nepal who are well trained in preparing Japanese food as Japanese chefs come for a hefty fee, so very few keep them.Story continues below this adFrom bento boxes (Japanese version of a fixed dish) to ala carte, the popular dishes at these restaurants are Ramen noodles, Tempura, Tori Karage, Ebi fry, Buta Shogayaki, Sushi etc.A senior officer of Gujarat government says, “Currently, there are at least 15 restaurants in Gujarat which exclusively serve authentic Japanese cuisine. Ten of them are in MBSIR, three in Ahmedabad and one each in Vadodara and Surat.”According to the officer, the MBSIR has two colonies of Japanese workers even as over 250 Japanese companies operate from Gujarat.Dr. Tomo Kawane, a Japanese scholar, who has made Ahmedabad her home for 30 years, used to offer advisory services to Maruti Suzuki India Limited to familiarise themselves in Gujarat and also helped them open their corporate office in Ahmedabad and their Hansalpur Plant in 2012-14. “If India wishes to bring more Japanese companies for business, good hospitals and schools need to be accessible for them,” she tells The Indian Express.Story continues below this adHotel and Restaurant Association of Gujarat Chairman Narendra Somani said, “Nowadays, the trend of having Japanese food is increasing. All the five-star hotels in Gujarat are offering it (apart from other individual restaurants). Gujarati tourists who go to Japan also develop a taste for it and after coming back they do visit the restaurants serving Japanese cuisine.”Amit Gupta and partner Supriya Pokharna founded the Japanese diner Bento B in Ahmedabad’s posh Billionaire’s Street over four years back and later opened a branch in Vadodara. Looking at the popularity of Japanese cuisine, earlier this year they opened Noboru on Ahmedabad University premises in Navrangpura offering Japanese and Korean cuisines.Explaining the sudden popularity of Japanese cuisine, Pokharna said, “People have started becoming health conscious …Asian food has less cheese, fat, oil etc. People have started travelling and know more about Asian food and have started accepting Japanese and Korean food.”Pokharna says at least 20-30% of their customers are Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, French, Spanish and Thai.Story continues below this ad“Most of our things we get from Japan, including avocados. The kind of ingredients we want are not available here and so we import the majority of things from Japan. Our chef has been trained in cooking Japanese food for the past 20 years,” says Pokharna.