Sam Takahashi
Susumu (Sam) Takahashi was born in Nara in 1941, grew up in Kyoto, and graduated from college there in 1964. He then worked for a trading company before moving to Seattle in 1970, where his family joined him in 1979. He opened Kamon of Kobe Japanese Restaurant and the popular Bento Box in Bellevue. In the 1990s, he worked as an advisor to Hiroyoshi Aoki, chairman of Westin Hotel International. He later worked at Schwartz Brothers Restaurants as an advisor, opening Chandler’s in Yokohama and Tokyo, until retiring from there in 2008. In 2015, he returned to the restaurant business as a partner of Chef Shiro Kashiba to open Sushi Kashiba in Pike Place Market. In 2020, he opened a Northwest seafood restaurant, “84 Yesler” in Pioneer Square.
Updated April 2022
Stories from This Author
Mokutaro Hori: Still Beloved in Whitefish, Montana
Feb. 10, 2025 • Sam Takahashi
It was in the fall of 1969 that I visited Seattle from Japan for the first time. I used to work for an international trading firm in Osaka. Since then going ’round the world to Paris, Tokyo, North Africa and other cities looking for the best place to live, work and raise the family, finally, I settled back in Seattle accompanying my wife and two small daughters in 1979. Since then, I was involved in restaurant business, international trading, consulting …
My Life within the Nikkei Community
April 24, 2022 • Sam Takahashi
My life is not finished yet. I turned eighty last year. I have been out of Japan for more than 50 years, mostly in Seattle. I am a so-called Shin Issei or New First-Generation Japanese. Issei is a Japanese person who came from Japan to the US before the war and I came after the war. The war in this case means the Pacific War or World War II. I truly respect all Issei people here in Seattle — past …
Nikkei Educational Tour Visits Roots of Issei Immigrant in Montana
Sept. 1, 2015 • Sam Takahashi
Sometimes I wonder what my standing is as a Nihonjin here in Seattle. I came from Japan in 1970 and was born in Japan before the war. We are called Shin Issei because we came here after the war. It is good to be distinguished from Issei who came here before the war to pay our respects. They had a hard life and built honorary and reputable positions in U.S. society as Nikkeijin. The train I am riding comfortably while …
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