Fujiya’s story is deeply rooted in family and community — and it all began in the late 1960s in Vancouver.

 

Before opening Fujiya, founder Shigeru (Shig) Hirai and his wife Akemi owned Maneki Japanese Restaurant, located at 342 E. Hastings Street. Maneki was one of the city’s earliest pioneers of Japanese fine dining, complete with a sushi bar and tatami rooms. The restaurant introduced many locals to now-familiar favorites like sushi, sashimi, sukiyaki, tempura, and sake, often prepared by chefs brought over directly from Japan.

After a successful run with Maneki, Shig wanted a change of pace for himself and his family and decided to embark on a new business venture. In 1977, he opened the very first Fujiya store in Vancouver’s historic Japantown. Alongside Akemi, he sold raw fish, imported Japanese goods, and freshly prepared deli items. The store’s name, Fujiya, is a tribute to Shig’s mother, Fujiye.

That same year marked the launch of the Powell Street Festival, one of the largest and longest-running community arts festivals in Canada celebrating the Japanese Canadian community. Shig became highly involved by running a food booth and helping organize the festival’s amateur sumo tournament with the "Sumo Fun Club" group. Shig is a huge sumo fan and even helped coordinate the legendary Sumo Canada Basho event in 1998 at the PNE Coliseum. 

In 1981, Shig expanded the business by founding Ocean Delight Seafoods, a company specializing in satsumaage (fried fishcakes) and imitation crab — ingredients still used in Fujiya’s iconic California Rolls today. For a time, he also operated a booth at the PNE, selling dishes like yakisoba and satsumaage burgers.

With Fujiya’s popularity growing, new locations followed: Richmond in 1989, and Victoria in 1991. 

Fujiya Victoria’s co-owners are Koji and Masami Hayashi, who have been overseeing and operating the location since the beginning. When Koji and Masami came across an ad in the Vancouver Shinpo seeking someone to run a Fujiya location in Victoria, they saw an exciting opportunity. With that, they opened the store in the early 1990s and began offering takeout sushi to a growing customer base. As demand for fresh, ready-to-eat Japanese food increased, the store was later renovated to include a full kitchen. Today, the legacy continues with their son Toshi and his wife Chigusa proudly managing the shop, carrying forward the family’s commitment to quality and service.

In 1994, the Vancouver flagship moved to its current home at Clark Drive and Venables Street, and in 1998, the Downtown takeout shop opened.

Fujiya’s passion for serving the community also led to the creation of Hi Genki Japanese Restaurant in 2002, which provided homestyle Japanese meals to residents of Robert Nimi Nikkei Home and to the public. Hi Genki was a cherished part of the community until it closed in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout Shig and Akemi's long career, their focus has always been on supporting the Japanese Canadian community and delighting customers with authentic and delicious Japanese food. Today, the business continues to grow under the next generation of leadership — their son-in-law, Jeff Matsuda, and their grandchildren Megan and Ryan.

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To learn more about the Hirai family, check out the story series "Exile and Back: The Story of the Hirai Family" by Discover Nikkei here. 

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