Japan Restaurant Week 2015 Summer Premium, a gourmet week offering special menus from high-quality restaurants at reasonable prices, will be held from July 31st to August 16th at approximately 350 restaurants in 15 cities across nine areas across Japan.

Japan Restaurant Week is a food festival held twice a year, featuring carefully selected renowned and accomplished restaurants offering limited-time special menus at reasonable prices. Participating restaurants will offer special menus based on a theme each time, with a flat rate of 2,000 or 3,000 yen for lunch and 5,000 or 7,000 yen for dinner.

This year's theme is "Wa" (harmony). This theme does not simply refer to "Japanese cuisine," but also encompasses various meanings, such as "wamu" (harmony), which refers to the relaxed atmosphere of being in a restaurant, and "aware" (harmony), which refers to the creation of something new by combining different elements. Participating restaurants will each interpret the theme in their own way and offer special menus that express the theme in their own unique way.

In addition to the previous locations of Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba, Saitama, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka, Niigata will also be participating for the first time as a new area. Renowned and talented restaurants in the Niigata area will be serving a variety of dishes that make generous use of seafood from the Sea of Japan and mountain produce grown in the rich soil of the Echigo Mountains, allowing people to experience local ingredients and food culture up close. General reservations will open on Tuesday, July 21st.