Kampachi Restaurants and Equatorial Group are bringing all 47 of Japan’s prefectures to Malaysia over the next 27 months. The odyssey will show us the hidden side of Japan, its heritage, culture, and cuisine unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

Japan is one of the most visited destinations for Malaysian travellers. It is no secret that we are enamoured with their ways of life, the quality of their products, the cuisine, and the hospitality. You almost certainly have someone in your life who is obsessed with returning to the land of the rising sun. And when they go, they gravitate to the same places like the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, or the northern reaches of Hokkaido.

This island nation with a storied identity is comprised of 47 prefectures in eight regions, most of them unknown to international visitors. What you may not realise is that most of us have already been tasting Japanese prefectures without knowing it. Every time you ordered wagyu at a KL restaurant and read the words Miyazaki, Saga, Aomori or Kagoshima on the menu, you were actually reading a map of Japan. Those names are places in Japan with unique climates, terroirs and traditions that produce ingredients with a character no other region replicates.

Malaysia’s oldest Japanese restaurant, Kampachi, is about to change what we know about the lesser known parts of Japan. Kampachi Restaurants launched an ambitious campaign titled 47in27 at EQ Kuala Lumpur last week. Spearheading the initiative is Executive Chef Koji Tamaru, carrying a mandate of provenance: sourcing each prefecture’s finest seasonal produce, understanding what defines its character, and translating that across the Equatorial Group’s menus for the next two and a half years.

Introducing 47in27

The first of its kind, 47in27 is an odyssey across all 47 prefectures of Japan in 27 months. 47in27 unfolds across eight seasonal chapters, each spotlighting a different region of Japan for approximately three months before transitioning to the next. Exclusive prefecture menus and happenings will rotate across the participating venues: Kampachi EQ, Kampachi Pavilion KL, Kampachi Plaza33, IPPUDO | MAiSEN at Bangsar Shopping Centre and The Gardens Mall, as well as Sky51, Sabayon, and Étoile at EQ. At Sabayon, seasonal ingredients are reimagined through refined rooftop dining; Sky51 complements the journey with crafted cocktails and KL’s skyline as backdrop; Étoile brings Japanese-inspired pastries and artisanal creations to the afternoon.

Guests who spend a minimum of RM100 on participating prefecture menu items receive a Prefecture Pin and are designated Boijā, meaning “voyager”. Collect four pins within a regional season and redeem a limited-edition Milestone Plushie; eight plushies in total will be released across the 27 months, each capturing the spirit of a different chapter. For those who collect all eight, a RM200 dining voucher awaits. The top collector overall—the Ultimate Voyager, who accumulates all eight plushies and the highest number of pins across the full journey—will be rewarded with an airline ticket, exclusive room and dining experiences, and further rewards to be unveiled along the way.

“For more than five decades, we have always believed in building bridges across cultures. 47in27 represents a landmark collaboration that brings together all our hospitality businesses, focusing on those that are deeply connected to Japan,” said Donald Lim, Managing Director, Kampachi Restaurants Sdn. Bhd.

Tasting the Prefectures

At the launch, dishes from across the prefectural map filled EQ’s Conservatory — introduction cards available for those who reached for them.

The most captivating thing on the table was the Shizuoka musk melon from the Chubu region: hand-pollinated, grown one fruit per vine so the entire plant’s energy concentrates into a single melon. The result is a fruit of almost architectural sweetness, fragrant before you cut it. From the same Mount Fuji region came Fuji salmon, raised in mineral-rich spring water flowing down from the mountain through Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, served wrapped around cream cheese—cold, clean, and surprisingly refreshing.

Hokkaido arrived in several forms: hotate and kani, matsumae zuke—the vinegared seaweed-and-seafood preserve born of northern winters and the necessity of extending a season’s catch—and the marusei butter sando, a biscuit filled with butter cream and rum raisins made the same way since 1897. From Kyushu: Saga wagyu, quietly serious in its marbling; Fukuoka’s mizutaki, a clear chicken hotpot whose quality lives entirely in the bone stock; Nagasaki castella, a Portuguese honey sponge so thoroughly absorbed into Japanese culture over four centuries that it is now part of Japan’s culinary heritage; and ginger cookies from Oita, warm with spice.

Beyond (and Behind) The Table

47in27 is more than a dining campaign. JETRO, Japan Airlines, Isetan, and several specialist trade partners are on board with the programme; the Embassy of Japan actively assisted in engaging with the featured prefectures directly, suggesting coordination at the source rather than simply an endorsement at the destination. Equatorial Penang will reopen in 2027 and 47in27 will extend into it, carrying the programme into a second city. Next year also marks 70 years of diplomatic friendship between Japan and Malaysia—a milestone that gives the campaign a resonance beyond the table, and will attract more Japanese visitors to our equatorial home.

“This is a great chance to showcase and introduce beyond typical Japanese cuisine, offering new discoveries through food, stories, traditions, and ways of life,” said HE Noriyuki Shikata, Ambassador of Japan to Malaysia.

A representative from Fan Japan offered a detail at the launch worth a mention: Mochi is a sacred food in Japan—the rice gods are believed to reside within the rice, its elasticity a symbol of longevity. It is the kind of knowledge that sits invisibly behind a single rice cake on a plate, unremarkable to anyone who does not hold it. At its best, 47in27 will trade in exactly this: not just the food, but the meaning inside it.

Find out more about 47in27 at equatorial.com

Images courtesy of Equatorial Group

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