Founded as Yaohan in the 1970s and rebranded to Mitsuwa Marketplace in 1998, this Japanese supermarket chain now operates around a dozen stores across California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas. Many locations include a supermarket spanning imported seafood, packaged goods, and fresh produce, plus a food court and retail spaces ranging from travel agencies to Kinokuniya bookstores. Orange County’s largest Mitsuwa (Costa Mesa) hosts beef bowl, frozen beer, and Chinese-Japanese restaurants, noodle shops including Sanukiseimen Mugimaru, bakery Hamada-Ya, Ümacha for drinks, matcha/mochi dessert space Ren, and confectionary shop J. Sweets. Irvine’s considerably smaller Mitsuwa has perhaps half the supermarket inventory plus a mini-Hamada-Ya, donut shop Mochill, and a ramen restaurant; LA-area Mitsuwas typically have larger supermarkets, food courts, and retailers.
Until July 2025, Mitsuwa operated in Irvine without challengers, but the opening of a much larger Tokyo Central – owned by Japan’s popular discount retailer Don Quixote – changed the equation, offering comparatively wider selections of imported and ready-to-eat Japanese foods, though most of the latter are produced by the supermarket rather than independently made like Mitsuwa’s vendors. Parking can be a challenge at both OC Mitsuwa stores; seek the under-building lot at Costa Mesa, and the hidden rear lot in Irvine.
