Curry Collab Between MSDF, JCG Heats Up in Maizuru

By Yasuyuki Sasaki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

15:20 JST, May 11, 2025

A collaboration between the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Japan Coast Guard has been realized in the form of a gourmet dish combining curry recipes served by the two organizations.

This spring, restaurants in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture — famous for its Kaiji Curry, in which Kaiji means the MSDF — began serving Kaiho Curry devised by the Japan Coast Guard, which is called Kaiho. The dish, named aigake, allows customers to taste curries of both types at the same time and went on sale in April.

Maizuru is the only municipality in Japan where both the MSDF and the JCG have important facilities. The two organizations, which have worked together for a long time, are joining forces in the area of food to contribute to the community.

On April 16, a tasting event was held at the JCG’s boat base on the western side of Maizuru Port. A table set up on the wharf held an aigake dish combining the curry served on JCG patrol vessel Daisen and that from MSDF destroyer Yahagi. It was prepared by Hana, a cafe in the city.

Daisen’s beef curry has a buttery flavor and is topped with deep-fried vegetables. Yahagi’s chicken curry has a kombu seaweed and chicken broth base and also uses plenty of vegetables. In the center of the plate is rice shaped like the Maizuru Crane Bridge, a bridge that spans the port’s eastern area, where the MSDF has a base. The two different curries are placed on either side of the “bridge.”

Three other types of aigake dishes were also prepared, and were enjoyed by the staff of the 8th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters and members of the MSDF Maizuru District Headquarters.

The idea for Kaiho Curry was born last autumn at a meeting of three organizations, including the Maizuru Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The idea for Kaiji Curry began eight years ago, when the MSDF shared with local restaurants the recipes for its curries, originally served on Fridays at noon on its vessels and in its units. Now, 16 varieties are available.

Each of the JCG patrol boats also have their own curry recipe, and locals warmed to the idea of Kaiho Curry in the hope that it could become another Maizuru specialty, since this is where MSDF and JCG members meet to work.

The JCG provided four recipes, and four restaurants in the city began selling the curries in April after receiving instructions from the cooking staff of each patrol vessel and the Japan Coast Guard School.

“We hope that many people will enjoy the curries of the two organizations that serve to protect the sea and that will help revitalize the city,” said Yuji Kotani, 64, executive director of the Maizuru Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of the organizers of the curry project.

The cooperation between the MSDF and the JCG in Maizuru deepened after an incident in 1999 when a North Korean spy ship entered Japan’s territorial waters off the Noto Peninsula. They have conducted joint drills almost every year since then to deal with suspicious vessels. They have also deepened their cooperation in the area of disaster response.

In 2023, they concluded the nation’s first agreement in which the MSDF and the JCG worked together to restore KDDI’s telecommunications infrastructure. In March 2024, they conducted a joint drill in Wakasa Bay to prepare for a “gray zone situation,” one which cannot be immediately defined as an armed attack.

An MSDF official said that the two organizations have a visible relationship with each other, with their command centers located in the same city, and emphasized that this relationship is what made the aigake curry project possible.

“I hope that, while eating aigake curry, people will think about how the JCG as the marine police and the MSDF as a self-defense organization, are protecting the sea by making the best use of their respective strengths,” said a senior Coast Guard official.