Matsuya Kitano Store's Two-Week August 26 Closure Confirmed as Renovation to Add a Co-located Matsunoya

Matsuya Kitano Store (0991, Hachioji City, Tokyo) is suspending operations from 3:00 p.m. on August 26 to 10:00 a.m. on September 9. As of August 26, Matsuya’s official website has added “(Matsunoya co-located)” to the store’s name notation. When the roughly two-week closure was first announced on August 12, only the dates had been disclosed; it has now become clear that the closure involves a renovation to add the tonkatsu specialty chain “Matsunoya” alongside the store. Following the renovation, Kitano Store is scheduled to reopen at 10:00 a.m. on September 9 as a Matsunoya co-located store.

Third Matsunoya Co-located Store in Hachioji City

With Kitano Store becoming a Matsunoya co-located store, three of the eight Matsuya stores operating in Hachioji City, Tokyo will now be Matsunoya co-located stores. The two that came first are Hachioji Yamada Store (2219) and Tama New Town Store (0082), with Kitano Store now marking the most recent addition to Matsunoya co-location within the city.

The nearest Matsunoya co-located store to Kitano Store is Hachioji Yamada Store, about 2.97km away, followed by Tama New Town Store at about 4.22km. Three of the eight stores in the city, or 37.5%, are Matsunoya co-located — a higher proportion than the roughly 39.4% of Matsunoya co-location seen among the 1,210 currently operating Matsuya stores nationwide, and far higher than the roughly 15.4% seen among the 338 currently operating stores within Tokyo. This suggests Matsunoya co-location is concentrated in Hachioji City. Among the city’s recorded conversions to Matsunoya co-location, Tama New Town Store switched over on June 8, putting Kitano Store’s conversion roughly two and a half months later.

Matsunoya Co-location Spreading Nationwide

Conversions to Matsunoya co-location are occurring one after another across the country. Most recently, on August 19 it was reported that Hongo 3-chome Store will become Matsunoya co-located when it reopens after renovation on September 4. Matsuya stores with co-located Matsunoya now number 477 nationwide (about 40% of the 1,210 currently operating stores), and 79 stores also have a co-located “My Curry Shokudo” curry specialty shop. Among the conversions to Matsunoya co-location, there are cases where a store that originally had a co-located My Curry Shokudo switched to a co-located Matsunoya instead.

Kitano Store’s closure period of about two weeks (14 days) falls within the standard range (roughly 11 to 16 days) seen at other stores that closed for renovations adding a co-located Matsunoya. September is also seeing a wave of temporary closures at stores nationwide, and Kitano Store’s transformation into a Matsunoya co-located store comes as part of that trend.