Municipal council honors Kinpanchi Restaurant owner

Longtime businesswoman Misako Kamata was honored last Monday after the 12th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council presented the Kinpachi Restaurant owner with a commemorative resolution, recognizing her and the company’s more than three decades of serving the local community.

“Kamata is a long-serving businesswoman here on Saipan. Kinpachi Restaurant has been here 33 years and it has really contributed to the community, especially to the youth through her PDM Promotions, Inc. and the Saipan Awaodori Team,” said council chair Ramon B. Camacho in an interview with the Saipan Tribune.

Camacho said Kamata sets the standard for business involvement in the local community with her many projects.

“The council is very honored to present this resolution because this is what we really need here in the community. I believe businesses should link up with the community because without the community a business will not successful. So these two have to partner up,” said Camacho.

He said that Kamata is proof that not all businesses exist just to make profit. “It’s obvious that she’s done all these things for the sake of the community. It’s all for a good cause. This is a perfect model for business, helping the community and I’m looking forward to other businesses to doing the same because we all need to work together.”

Camacho was joined at the presentation at Kinpachi Restaurant by council vice chair Antonia M. Tudela, councilman Diego L. Kaipat, and two other council staff.

Kamata said she found out that the council will be honoring her and her business while on vacation in her native Japan.

“I’m very surprised and very happy but very humbled because this honor is very unexpected,” she said.

Kamata followed the pioneering footsteps of her father, the late Yoshio Kamata, who established the landmark Garapan restaurant on Sept. 15, 1980.

Misako Kamata eventually took over the business seven years later in 1987, transforming it into one of the longest-running Japanese restaurant on Saipan, serving authentic Japanese family cuisine and catering to tourists and local patrons alike.

Kamata also established PDM Promoters, Inc. in December 2005, a non-profit corporation, as a means of “giving back” to the Saipan community.

Since its inception, PDM Promoters has sponsored the annual Christmas Green Recycled Tree event at Paseo de Marianas as well as the “My Holiday Greetings to our Visitors.”

The latter is the precursor to the Japanese-styled welcoming of the New Year—Mochitsuki Festival—an event PDM has sponsored for the last four years.

PDM Promoters has also organized and sponsored the formation of Saipan Awaodori Team. Now in its sixth year of performing on Saipan, the group also had stints in Japan at the Koenji Awaodori Festival in tandem with the Tokyo Tensuiren group.

In addition, PDM Promoters has also spearheaded the past four years the Garapan Tourist District Cleanup on the first or second Saturday of the month.