Japanese grocery store opening 1st Arizona location. What to know

A specialty Japanese grocery store will open its first location outside of California in north Phoenix.

In November 2026, Osaka Marketplace will move into the shopping plaza at the intersection of Union Hills Drive and Seventh Street and begin construction, said Julia Li, the plaza’s property manager.

Founded in the Bay Area in 2021, Osaka Marketplace specializes in Japanese ingredients and prepared food. The 35,000-square-foot space will feature a fresh produce section, a sushi counter and a food court. The grocery store is expected to open in the second half of 2027.

“We’re really excited,” Li said. “They’re great.”

What is Osaka Marketplace?

Osaka Marketplace has two locations in the Bay Area, with plans to open a third in fall 2026. Founder Kazuhiro Takeda, a former grocery executive in Japan, has said that he wants the store to feel like “a small trip to Japan.”

Osaka Marketplace is especially known for its sushi. It imports fish from Japan and offers a wide variety of sashimi, including salmon, scallops and squid. In addition to a food court with several restaurants, the Phoenix store will also sell bento boxes, Japanese sandwiches and onigiri.

The Bay Area locations host community events, such as a pop-up ramen festival, which was a major draw for bringing Osaka Marketplace to Arizona, Li said.

“It makes it feel like a part of the community and not just somewhere that you go to get groceries,” Li said.

There are several other Japanese-focused grocers in the Valley, like New Tokyo Food Market in Phoenix and Fujiya Market in Tempe, but none are nearly as large as Osaka Marketplace will be.

More Asian businesses are opening to serve TSMC workers

Fueled by the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company facilities, the boom of Asian-focused development in north Phoenix has been quietly gaining steam over the past few years.

Small mom-and-pop restaurants have been followed by larger regional and national chains, like Paris Baguette and 85°C Bakery Cafe. One of the largest planned projects will partially remake Arrowhead Towne Center, with the opening of a Taiwanese grocery store, 99 Ranch, in a former Sears building.

Since 2023, Li has been working with her parents, who are developers, to fill the shopping plaza on Union Hills Drive with businesses that cater to Asian customers. The plaza already has a smattering of Asian restaurants and businesses, including a Taiwanese restaurant and a Chinese-English after-school academy, but the main storefront has remained a Goodwill.

It took them longer than expected to find a business to replace the Goodwill, Li said. Despite the growth of Asian development, many out-of-state companies don’t see Phoenix as a promising market, Li said.

“Convincing businesses from outside of Phoenix has been really, really difficult,” Li said.

The family was connected to Osaka Marketplace through word of mouth and found out that the grocery store was already interested in moving to Phoenix. Takeda has said he hopes to open a dozen Osaka Marketplaces in the next 10 years. 

Cultivating a north Phoenix hub for Asian food and culture

Now that the plaza has an anchor tenant, it’s on its way to becoming the type of “cultural meeting center” that Li’s family hopes to create.

“You can just go spend an entire afternoon and not actually go with a plan,” Li said. “That’s the vision that we have for the plaza.”

Details: 710 E Union Hills Drive, Phoenix. osakamarketplace.com.

More on the north Phoenix food scene: Arizona’s next Asian food boom is on the horizon. Why restaurants are moving west

Reach the reporter at reia.li@gannett.com. Follow @reia_reports on Instagram.