A sushi restaurant in Hokkaido in northern Japan has started an intensive eight-month sushi chef training program to tackle the lack of young successors.

Otaru Masazushi in the city of Otaru started the in-house training in May to teach such techniques as nigiri and makimono -- hand shaping sushi and making sushi rolls -- which usually take a few years to learn for young chefs with at least two years of experience.

At Otaru Masazushi's special kitchen, which was renovated from a storehouse for this training program, Tatsuya Sasayama, 25, and Keita Araki, 20, take a three-hour lesson five times a week from Nobuo Ito, a 58-year-old sushi master with 40 years of experience.

In the first three months, the two young chefs will learn how to prepare the ingredients as well as making nigiri and makimono. In the last five months, they will be trained how to grill and simmer dishes.

"Until now, I could only practice (these techniques) in my spare time during work. I'm grateful that we can take quality time for training," Sasayama said.

"Direct mentoring helps me realize the points I should improve and it motivates me," said Araki.

Vice President Keisuke Nakamura, 39, expects the training program to change the negative image of sushi master apprenticeships.

"I want to erase the fixed image of strict and long training, and broaden the base of potential sushi masters," Nakamura said.

The restaurant plans to provide the training program every year to a maximum of four new employees aged between 18 and 22.

The practice is "rare in the country," said an official of All Japan Sushi Association.

Amid the labor shortage in the entire restaurant industry, "young people will quit the sushi sector if they need to go through the customary training of 'three years for rice cooking, eight years for nigiri," the official said, referring to a common saying that describes the lengthy apprenticeship needed to become a sushi chef.

"We think there will be more sushi restaurants that will be giving similar training as Masazushi."

In Sapporo, only one out of 66 graduates in one of the cooking vocational schools sought a job as a sushi chef.

"More students are seeking stable jobs such as cooks for school kitchens," said a vocational school official, adding that graduates are apparently choosing the jobs based on the number of holidays and hours of overtime work.


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