A McDonald's restaurant in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, that had been closed since the Great East Japan Earthquake 10 years ago reopened at long last on Friday. The McDonald's Aeon Kesennuma shop was damaged by the tsunami that followed the devastating quake.
Kesennuma Mayor Shigeru Sugawara, who said he had often gone to the hamburger shop, and McDonald's Japan President Tamotsu Hiiro visited the reopened shop, which was in a mood of celebration.
The Aeon Kesennuma shopping mall, where the McDonald's is located, was hit by the tsunami and its first floor was flooded. McDonald's Japan judged it difficult to reopen the shop and closed it.
McDonald's Japan then received requests from local people who wanted the shop to reopen, and the company had considered whether it could reopen at that location again.
The reopened eatery is newly built inside a food court on the first floor of the building, and it restarted business with 28 employees.
About 10 customers formed a line in front of the restaurant before the reopening at 9 a.m. They ordered and received their favorite types of hamburgers fresh from the kitchen.
As the food court area is expected to be crowded, the number of seats will be increased by 50 to about 150 by the end of this month.
Seiichi Sugano, a 28-year-old company employee in the city, said with a smile: "I had visited the restaurant often when I was a child. Since the disaster, the closest McDonald's have been in Ishinomaki, or Ichinoseki in Iwate Prefecture, and so I had a meal in this eatery after a very long time. I want to come back again regularly."
Hiiro said he visited Kesennuma for the first rime since he coming to the city a month after the earthquake to work as a volunteer.
"I want this restaurant to be something that can be loved by people for a long time in this city, which has succeeded in its reconstruction," Hiiro said.
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