The Pig & Whistle English Pub in Osaka Closes its Doors for the Last Time!

A Japanese National Treasure Vanishes Forever!

After almost 30 years in business the famed Pig and Whistle chain of English Pubs will close its doors for the last time on 18th July 2008.

Mori San, the owner of the Pig & Whistle group, embarked on this adventurous concept some 30 years ago when there were far less foreigners in Japan than there are today.

Almost every foreigner (known as gaijin by the Japanese - meaning “alien” no less!) who has lived in, or visited Japan would have sooner or later paid a visit to the Pig & Whistle in one of its former three branches - Umeda, Shinsaibashi and Kyoto.

It came as great sadness to the gaijin community five years ago when the Umeda Pig closed its doors.  Mori San is far too much a gentleman to discuss the reasons but convention wisdom has it that the landlords became too greedy and as anyone who has run a pub knows the margins are slim.  Is this the case with the tremendously popular Shinsaibashi Pig?

The gaijin community of Osaka received the news with shock and horror.  One such patron and long time resident of Osaka is exhorting fellow Whistlers to attend the last supper at the Shinsaibashi Pig on Mido Suji Dori on closing night.  Absent aficionados have asked to be remembered and pass on their best wishes to Mori San.

The Pig & Whistle group of English Pubs was not just a place to have a cold beer on a humid Osaka evening, it was one of the few places in Japan where Japanese students of the English language (Eigo Bandits) could practice their new found language; a place where East met West; a place where love was found and sometimes lost; and a place where important information was traded such as the next “trivia night” venue (usually the Pig or its close rival Murphy’s Irish Pub also in Shinsaibashi.

From all of us Mori San, thank you for the memories.  You will live forever in our hearts and mind.