The store’s return highlights Tacoma’s historic Japanese American community.
Uwajimaya will return to Tacoma in 2027, bringing the longtime Pacific Northwest Asian grocery chain back to the city where it was founded nearly a century ago. It will replace the former Hobby Lobby at Tacoma Central near Interstate 5 and South 38th Street.
The store was founded in 1928 by Fujimatsu and Sadako Moriguchi in Tacoma’s Japantown. The business originally sold fishcakes and other staple foods to Japanese immigrant workers, including loggers and fishermen. Operations ended in the 1940s after the Moriguchi family was forcibly incarcerated during World War II…