Matsuya's Official X Store-Guessing Quiz: The Answer Is Shiga's "Koka Minakuchi Store"

Matsuya’s official X account (@matsuya_foods) revealed, on the night of August 24, the answer to the store-guessing quiz it had posted the day before. The answer was Koka Minakuchi Store in Shiga Prefecture, which the official account introduced as the first roadside “Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located store.”

The Quiz That Began with “Matsuya Now”

It started with a post at 4:25 PM on August 23. Attached to a single photo of a store, the post opened with “Matsuya Now (╹◡╹)” and simply asked “Where is this?” — a quiz-style post that withheld the answer.

About 28 hours later, at 8:41 PM on August 24, the official account revealed the answer.

The answer is… Shiga Prefecture’s “Koka Minakuchi Store”! 🎉

This is the first roadside “Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located store”!

It’s truly a “powerful store raised by Lake Biwa” (╹◡╹) (though it’s a bit far from the lake 🤫)

By the way, do you know where the No. 1 Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located store is??

This “Matsuya Now” format — showing a photo, letting readers guess the store name, then revealing the answer later — has continued as a relatively new quiz style on the official X account.

Koka Minakuchi Store and the “Matsunoya Co-located Store”

The correct answer, Koka Minakuchi Store, is located at 1-55 Nitten, Minakuchi-cho, Koka City, Shiga Prefecture. It is a Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located store, combined with the Tonkatsu chain Matsunoya, which the official account describes as “the first roadside Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located store.”

Following the phrase “a powerful store raised by Lake Biwa” — a nod to the co-located format — the official account added one more line: “(though it’s a bit far from the lake 🤫)”, complete with a lips-sealed emoji. This 🤫 is a rare touch for the official account’s posts, last appearing in an August 4 post introducing Hiyajiru, which read “It’s been just a little cooler here lately 🤫.” Both instances share the same tone of a secret let slip, as if to say “actually, just between us.”

Matsunoya Co-location Spreading Nationwide

Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located stores like Koka Minakuchi Store are increasing in number nationwide. Since May of this year alone, 27 stores have switched from standalone Matsuya stores to Matsunoya co-located stores, with 6 of those being format swaps from stores that had previously co-located with My Curry Shokudo. The conversions have continued at a pace of roughly one to two stores per week, and Hongo 3-chome Store is also scheduled to open as a co-located store on September 4.

Currently, about 40% of stores bearing the Matsuya name are co-located with Matsunoya or similar brands, with the number of co-located stores steadily growing relative to standalone Matsuya locations. Koka Minakuchi Store, having added a Matsunoya co-location earlier than this broader trend, is something of a forerunner in this shift.

Next Up: “The No. 1 Co-located Store”

At the end of the answer reveal, the official account posed a new question to readers: “By the way, do you know where the No. 1 Matsuya/Matsunoya co-located store is??” As with this round, the answer will likely be revealed again at a later date. With Matsunoya co-located stores spreading across the country, we look forward to the next announcement to find out where it all began.