Source: Pexels
A kaiten sushi shop is a restaurant with a seat, a screen and a bill you build plate by plate. The belt is the small part of it in 2026. The branch you walked into decides the price.
- Cheapest plate
- 110 yen, tax included
- How you order
- Touch panel at the table
- How long
- As long as you keep ordering
1What the four chains are now
Kaiten sushi means the sushi goes past you on a belt and you take what you want. The four chains you will meet in any Japanese city are くら寿司 Kura Sushi, スシロー Sushiro, はま寿司 Hama-sushi and かっぱ寿司 Kappa Sushi. They run hundreds of branches each, they are open through the afternoon when independent sushi shops are shut, and they cost a fraction of a counter seat.
Two things have moved in 2026. Kura put its floor price down to 110 yen on 4 September and moved 33 items up to 120 yen at the same time, its aged tuna among them. Sushiro raised its flagship lean red tuna from 120 yen to 150 yen tax included on 22 July. Neither chain treats those as national numbers: both price by branch and say as much on their pages.
What has not changed is the shape of the meal. You sit down, a screen sits within reach of your elbow, and the food you order comes to you. That's worth knowing before you walk in, because watching the belt for something you recognise is the slow way to eat here.
Source: Pexels
2Taking a seat
The four chains take walk-ins, usually through a number the shop hands you or a queue you join on your phone. Sushiro sells a seat time in its app only and doesn't take bookings by phone, and every Sushiro branch is non-smoking, heated tobacco included. Kura Sushi runs its own phone reservation system, and Hama-sushi books a time slot through its app. The paid restaurant-booking services that cover independent restaurants, Tabelog among them, don't sell seats at these chains — if you want one of those instead, that's a different guide.
The seat itself comes in two shapes: a counter facing the belt, and a booth with a table. Both have the panel and the condiments within reach, and at Kura the counter also has the plate slot, a pocket cut into the rail that the chain designed so the stack of empty plates doesn't take up the table. Plates dropped in are carried away by water to the wash area, and the number of plates is shown digitally, which is what the bill is drawn from. Kura describes the arrangement as its own patented system. Every fifth plate into the slot starts a game on the screen, and a win drops a capsule of the chain’s character goods; the chain adds that it's a game, so a plate can go in without a prize.
Source: Pexels
3Ordering, and the lane above the belt
Food reaches you two ways, and knowing which is which saves a lot of staring at moving plates. The lower belt carries what the kitchen put out for the room; take a plate off it whenever you like. Above it, or beside it, runs a second lane that carries what somebody ordered. Kura calls its lane the オーダーレーン order lane and says ordered dishes come straight down it. Sushiro's own English guide for visitors puts it in one sentence: your order will be delivered to your personal lane or in a personal cup, with the lane built per table.
That's the useful part of the mechanism. A plate on the shared belt is nobody's in particular, but a plate on your table's lane is the one your table asked for. If a dish arrives on the lane that nobody ordered, or a plate turns up under a dome you did not order, hand it to the staff. Dropping a plate you did not want into the slot still adds it to the count, because the slot counts every plate that goes in.
Ordering happens on the panel, and the panel is also where the shop's language setting lives. Sushiro's English page tells visitors the touch panel carries English, simplified Chinese and Korean, and its printed how-to sheet shows the language row with 日本語 alongside those three. Every plate on the screen comes with a photograph, so a panel that stays in Japanese is still usable by pointing at the picture. Kappa's menu page tells customers the same thing from the other side: the shop's touch panel is the authority on what that branch actually sells.
Wasabi is worth one line here. Sushiro's guide says all its sushi comes without wasabi and that wrapped wasabi packs circulate on the lane for you to help yourself; Kappa's menu states that everything it serves is prepared without wasabi. Soy sauce goes on the topping rather than on the rice. One plate is usually two pieces, and the plate is what the bill counts. Chains also run single-piece items, and the menu marks them: Kura keeps a whole list under にぎり一貫, where the 一貫 after the name means one piece instead of two.
Source: Pexels
Source: Pexels
4What a plate costs in 2026
| Chain | From | What the chain itself publishes |
|---|---|---|
| Kura Sushi くら寿司 | 110 yen tax included | Its menu is grouped by branch price band: 一皿110円〜, 115, 125 and 145 yen, and the page states every price on it includes tax. The 110 yen floor took effect on 4 September 2026, when 33 items moved up to 120 yen; aged tuna stayed at 120 yen |
| Sushiro スシロー | 120 yen tax included | Its English page for visitors reads “From 120 yen (including tax) per plate” and adds that items and prices differ in some stores. Lean red tuna went from 120 to 150 yen tax included on 22 July 2026, while salmon, prawn, egg and squid stayed at 120 yen on its branch pages |
| Hama-sushi はま寿司 | 100 yen, 110 with tax | Three shelf prices run through the menu, printed both ways: 100 yen (110 with tax), 120 (132) and 160 (176). Rice bowls start at 380 yen tax included, a larger rice portion is 50 yen, and the menu says Hokkaido branches price differently |
| Kappa Sushi かっぱ寿司 | 95 yen tax included | Two menu types. At its メニュータイプB店舗 the whole list sits at 130 yen or under and covers more than 100 items, priced at 95, 110 and 130 yen tax included, and the chain publishes which shops those are |
Reading those numbers off the wall is the first thing to get right, because the chains print tax in two different ways. Hama-sushi prints the pre-tax figure first and the tax-included figure in brackets after it, so 160 yen on a menu board is 176 yen at the register. Kura states outright that every price on its menu page includes tax, and groups the shop into a band rather than a single figure. Kappa's menu warns that eating in and taking away carry different tax rates and different pre-tax prices.
Takeaway is the cheaper side of that. Hama-sushi states that its takeaway is charged at the reduced 8% rate, which is why a box of the same sushi costs less than the same plates in the shop, where the standard rate applies.
Source: Pexels
5The branch sets the price
This is the part that catches visitors, and the chains publish the evidence themselves. Here are two Sushiro branches, both on the chain's own site, with the tax-included price the branch lists.
| On the menu | Aomori Kanko-dori | Akishima, Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| Salmon, prawn, egg, squid | 120 yen | 120 yen |
| Onion salmon | 140 yen | 140 yen |
| Lean red tuna 厳選まぐろ赤身 | 150 yen | 150 yen |
| Fried potato | 200 yen | 180 yen |
| Onion rings | 270 yen | 250 yen |
| Steamed egg custard 茶碗蒸し | 280 yen | 260 yen |
| Clam miso soup | 260 yen | 240 yen |
| Classic pudding | 250 yen | 230 yen |
The sushi matches, plate for plate. The side dishes, the soup and the pudding don't, and the gap on every one of them is 20 yen in the same direction. Both pages carry the same sentence from Sushiro: what a branch offers, its prices and its portions can all differ by shop. Sushiro's news release for the July price change says it again and sends readers to their own branch's menu page.
The other three chains run variants of the same arrangement. Kura sorts every one of its branches into four price bands and lists dishes inside each band, so the branch you're in is printed on the menu page as a number. Kappa Sushi publishes which shops run each of its two menu types: the type that caps the whole list at 130 yen takes in Akihabara Manseibashi, Minami-Ikebukuro, Kichijoji, Atre Kameido, Mitaka and Itabashi in Tokyo among others, and the chain tells customers the panel in the shop is the last word on what a branch sells and what it charges. Hama-sushi's menu page carries a note that its Hokkaido branches price differently, and runs a separate city-format menu.
Source: Pexels
6The words on the menu
Nigiri names are mostly the fish. Once you know a dozen of them the panel is readable, and the pictures cover the rest. The romaji below is the reading you would say out loud.
Fish on rice
| The dish | On the menu | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Tuna | まぐろ | maguro |
| Medium-fat tuna | 中とろ | chutoro |
| Fatty tuna belly | 大とろ | otoro |
| Tuna marinated in soy sauce | 漬けまぐろ | zuke maguro |
| Salmon | サーモン | samon |
| Yellowtail | はまち / ぶり | hamachi / buri |
| Sea bream | 真だい | madai |
| Flounder | かれい | karei |
| Flounder fin | えんがわ | engawa |
| Mackerel | さば | saba |
| Cured mackerel | しめさば | shimesaba |
| Horse mackerel | あじ | aji |
| Pacific saury | さんま | sanma |
| Albacore belly, usually seared | ビントロ | bintoro |
Shellfish and the rest
| The dish | On the menu | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked prawn | えび | ebi |
| Raw prawn | 生えび | namaebi |
| Sweet shrimp | 甘えび | amaebi |
| Scallop | ほたて | hotate |
| Squid | いか | ika |
| Octopus | たこ | tako |
| Whelk | つぶ貝 | tsubugai |
| Surf clam | ホッキ貝 | hokkigai |
| Ark shell | 赤貝 | akagai |
| Crab stick | カニカマ | kanikama |
| Seared pork belly | 炙り豚とろ | aburi butatoro |
Source: Pexels
Gunkan, rolls and the seaweed side
| The dish | On the menu | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Sea urchin | うに | uni |
| Salmon roe | いくら | ikura |
| Minced tuna with spring onion | ねぎとろ | negitoro |
| Tuna mayonnaise | ツナサラダ | tsuna sarada |
| Corn | コーン | kon |
| Crab innards | かにみそ | kanimiso |
| Fermented soybeans | 納豆 | natto |
| Tuna roll | 鉄火巻 | tekkamaki |
| Cucumber roll | かっぱ巻き | kappamaki |
| Dried gourd roll | かんぴょう巻 | kanpyomaki |
| Natto roll | 納豆巻 | nattomaki |
| Salad roll | サラダ巻 | saradamaki |
| Prawn tempura roll | えび天巻 | ebitenmaki |
| Hand roll, one piece | 手巻 | temaki |
Source: Pexels
Source: Pexels
Cooked plates, sides and dessert
| The dish | On the menu | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Omelette on rice | たまご | tamago |
| Rolled omelette | だし巻き玉子 | dashimaki tamago |
| Seared salmon, raw inside | 炙りサーモン | aburi samon |
| Grilled eel with sauce | うなぎ | unagi |
| Simmered conger eel | 煮あなご | nianaago |
| Beef rib | 牛カルビ | gyukarubi |
| Pork rib | 豚カルビ | butakarubi |
| Hamburg steak | ハンバーグ | hanbagu |
| Prawn tempura on rice | えび天にぎり | ebiten nigiri |
| Steamed egg custard | 茶碗蒸し | chawanmushi |
| Miso soup | 味噌汁 | misoshiru |
| Udon noodles | うどん | udon |
| Ramen | らーめん | ramen |
| Fried chicken | から揚げ | karaage |
| Chips | フライドポテト | furaido poteto |
| Edamame | 枝豆 | edamame |
| Rice bowl, seafood or eel | 丼 | don, as in kaisendon |
| Warabi mochi | わらびもち | warabimochi |
| Candied sweet potato | 大学いも | daigakuimo |
| Pudding | プリン | purin |
| Cheesecake | チーズケーキ | chizukeki |
| Mille crepe | ミルクレープ | mirukurepu |
| Parfait | パフェ | pafe |
7Six words from the counter
These are the words a sushi shop uses about the meal rather than the fish. The chains keep them on the menu and the staff use them out loud.
| Word | Say it | What it means in the shop |
|---|---|---|
| あがり | agari | Hot green tea, the drink that comes with sushi. Chains price it like any other drink: Kura's list carries a green tea at 170 yen |
| ガリ | gari | Pickled ginger, eaten between pieces to clear the last one out of your mouth. It sits in a small dish or on the plate |
| むらさき | murasaki | Soy sauce, an old counter word for it. It's the bottle or the sachet on the table, and it goes on the topping rather than into the rice |
| おあいそ | oaiso | The bill, and settling it. At these chains you press the settle button on the panel rather than calling it across the room |
| つま | tsuma | The garnish beside the fish: shredded daikon, a shiso leaf, a slice of lemon. It belongs to the plate and you don't order it |
| 炙り | aburi | Seared with a flame before it reaches you. The surface takes colour and the middle usually stays as it was, so it isn't a cooked dish |
Source: Pexels
8If you don't eat raw fish
A kaiten chain is one of the easiest places in Japan to eat without raw fish, because the cooked list is long and every item is photographed on the panel. Omelette, seared salmon, grilled eel and simmered conger eel are sushi you can order without anything raw on them. Beyond that the chains lean hard on cooked food: beef and pork rib, hamburg steak, prawn and vegetable tempura, fried chicken, chips, steamed egg custard, miso soup, udon and ramen, and rice bowls topped with eel or cooked seafood.
Seared salmon is the one that catches people out, since 炙り means the surface has been passed under a flame and the inside has not; Sushiro's own branch pages list lean red tuna and the marinated version of the same tuna side by side. And wasabi comes as a separate packet at Sushiro and Kappa rather than inside the sushi, so nothing arrives already hot.
Source: Pexels
9Paying
Kura Sushi runs the simplest version of this. Each plate goes into the slot at the counter, the slot counts it automatically, the number is on the screen, and pressing the settle button finishes the meal without a member of staff coming over. That also means the count is the count: plates you did not eat still register if they went in. Kura adds a warning of its own on the payment side, that credit cards aren't accepted at some branches, where the bill is settled in cash.
Sushiro takes payment on the touchscreen at the table, so the same panel that ordered the food closes it. Its visitor page advertises cards and code payment; the FAQ underneath is more careful, saying credit cards are taken at every branch while code payment is missing at some, and the accepted list runs to cards, codes and debit. That's worth reading before you plan to pay with a phone wallet.
The tax line lands here too. Hama-sushi charges its takeaway at the reduced 8% rate while the same plates eaten in the shop are charged at the standard rate, and Kappa's menu warns that the two rates and the pre-tax prices differ. A takeaway box is therefore not the shop price in a bag, and the tax-included price printed on the menu is the one that applies to the seat.
10The questions a first visit asks
Do you need to book? No. These are walk-in shops that hand you a number, and a time slot in the app is how you cut the wait at Sushiro, Kura and Hama-sushi. Sushiro doesn't take seat bookings by phone at all.
Can you take children? The chains are built for it. Hama-sushi sells a children's set that comes with a coin for its capsule machine, and Kura's game runs off the plate slot, so a child can play it from the chair. Both are reasons these shops are loud.
How long does a meal take? As long as you keep ordering. There's no course, no last order called over your table, and no reason to leave once the plates in front of you run out.
Can you check calories and allergens? Yes, on the menu rather than in the shop. Kura prints a calorie figure against every item on its menu page including the sides, and Sushiro prints calories per plate. Kura prints the figure against every item on its menu page, sides included, and Hama-sushi shows calorie and allergen information from the same page it prices the menu on.
What if the panel is in Japanese? Order by picture. Sushiro's English page confirms the panel supports English, simplified Chinese and Korean, and the panel shows a photograph of every item, so pointing works where the language doesn't.
Source: Pexels
| Before you go |
|---|
| Before you go | Why it matters on this page | Check tickets |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo hotels | The chains run nationwide, and the branches nearest the big stations are the busiest at dinner | Trip.com Klook KKday |
| JR Pass | Eating at the chains in three cities is the kind of run the pass is priced against | Klook KKday |
| Japan eSIM | The queue ticket, the panel and the payment all run on the phone in your hand | Trip.com Airalo eSIMania |
11Questions and answers
The plate price, the queue, the panel and the bill, in the order a first visit asks them.
How much does a plate cost at a conveyor belt sushi chain in Japan in 2026?
It depends on which branch you walk into. Kura Sushi groups its whole menu into branch price bands, from 110 yen tax included, and the floor came down from 115 yen on 4 September 2026. Sushiro's own English page says plates start at 120 yen including tax, and its branch pages run to 150 yen for the flagship red tuna after a price change on 22 July 2026. Hama-sushi prints three prices, 100, 120 and 160 yen, with the tax figure beside each. Kappa Sushi runs two menu types and publishes which of its shops are the more expensive one.
Do I need a reservation at Sushiro or Kura Sushi?
Not for a seat on the day, but the queue is shorter with one. Sushiro takes seat reservations through its app only and not by phone, and every one of its shops is non-smoking, heated tobacco included. Kura Sushi and Hama-sushi both book a time slot through their own apps. The paid restaurant-booking sites that cover independent restaurants don't sell seats at these chains.
Can I eat at a kaiten sushi chain if I don't eat raw fish?
Yes. Every chain carries cooked plates: tamago, seared salmon, grilled eel, simmered conger eel, beef and pork rib, hamburg steak, prawn tempura, fried chicken, chips, steamed egg custard and rice bowls. All of them are on the panel with a picture, and the wasabi comes as a separate packet rather than in the sushi, so you can leave it out.
How do I know which plate on the belt is mine?
Ordered dishes don’t arrive on the shared belt. They come down a second lane that belongs to your table, which is why Sushiro's own English guide calls it your personal lane and Kura Sushi calls its lane the order lane. What is on the shared belt is the kitchen's own selection for the room. If you’re not sure about a plate, ask the staff rather than dropping it into the plate slot, because the slot counts every plate that goes in.
How do I pay at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant?
At Kura Sushi the plates are counted automatically as you drop them into the slot, and you press the settle button on the panel to finish without calling a member of staff; credit cards aren't accepted at some branches, where the payment is cash. At Sushiro you pay from the touchscreen at the table, credit cards work at every branch, QR code payment doesn’t, and electronic money isn’t accepted at all.
Is there an English menu at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant?
At Sushiro, yes on the panel: its own English guide shows the language row with Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. The panel carries a photograph of every plate, so the order can be placed by pointing even where the screen stays in Japanese. All four chains publish an English version of their menu on their own websites.
Keep reading
Sources
- くら寿司 (Kura Sushi) — the press release of 20 August 2026 for the menu change of 4 September 2026: the floor price moving from 115 to 110 yen, the 33 items going to 120 yen, and the aged tuna staying at 120 yen (kurasushi.co.jp)
- くら寿司 menu — the four branch price bands at 110, 115, 125 and 145 yen and up, the statement that every price shown is tax included, the calorie figure printed against each item, and the note that prices differ at some branches (kurasushi.co.jp/menu)
- くら寿司 快適・楽しさ — the plate pocket at the counter, the water recovery system, the digital plate count, the patent, and the game that starts every five plates (kurasushi.co.jp/quality/comfotable.php)
- くら寿司 お店のご案内 — the touch panel and phone ordering, the order lane, the settle button with plates counted automatically, the five-plate game, and the note that credit cards aren't accepted at some branches where payment is in cash (kurasushi.co.jp/fan/howto.php)
- スシロー (Sushiro) — the news release of 22 July 2026: lean red tuna moving from 120 to 150 yen tax included, the rice sourced domestically, and the direction that prices differ by branch and each branch's menu page is the check (akindo-sushiro.co.jp)
- スシロー visitor pages — the English menu page giving “from 120 yen (including tax) per plate”, the multilingual touch panel with English, simplified Chinese and Korean, credit cards and QR code accepted with electronic money not accepted, and the wording that prices and items differ in some stores (akindo-sushiro.co.jp/en)
- スシロー how-to sheet (PDF) — the language choice on the touchscreen, ordering from it, the order arriving on your personal lane or in a personal cup, sushi served without wasabi with wasabi packs on the lane, soy sauce on the topping, and payment from the touchscreen (akindo-sushiro.co.jp/en/pdf/how_to.pdf)
- スシロー branch menu pages for 青森観光通り店 and 昭島店 — the tax-included prices used in the comparison table, and the shared note that what a branch offers, its prices and its portions can differ (akindo-sushiro.co.jp/shop/menu)
- スシロー デジロー page — the large touch display that reproduces the belt in screen form, the sushi you tap to order, and the per-table lane the order arrives on (akindo-sushiro.co.jp/digiro)
- スシロー FAQ — seat reservations through the app only and not by phone, and all shops non-smoking including heated tobacco (akindo-sushiro.co.jp/faq)
- はま寿司 (Hama-sushi) menu — the 100, 120 and 160 yen shelf prices with 110, 132 and 176 yen printed as tax-included, the rice bowls from 380 yen, the larger rice portion at 50 yen, takeaway charged at the reduced 8% rate, and the statement that Hokkaido branches price differently (hama-sushi.co.jp/menu)
- はま寿司 こだわり — the five soy sauces brewed by a soy maker of over 120 years, the domestic rice with three vinegars, and the in-shop searing timed at 2 to 8 seconds a piece (hama-sushi.co.jp/concept)
- はま寿司 楽しみ方 — the ordering touch panel, the children's set with a capsule-machine coin, and booking a visit through the app (hama-sushi.co.jp/enjoy)
- かっぱ寿司 (Kappa Sushi) — the menu type B page: the whole list at 130 yen or under and over 100 items, the 95, 110 and 130 yen tax-included prices, the list of branches on that menu, and the direction that the shop's touch panel is the final word on what is sold (kappasushi.jp)
- かっぱ寿司 menu page — everything served without wasabi, and the warning that the tax rate and the pre-tax prices differ between eating in and taking away (kappasushi.jp/menu)
- Prices and rules are current as of 19 October 2026.