SAN JOSE — A Japanese market setting up shop in downtown San Jose expects to have dozens of workers as it prepares to bring new grocery choices to the city’s urban core, documents show.
Sakura Marketplace, a “Japanese lifestyle supermarket curated by Osaka Marketplace,” is slated to open in the Paseo de San Antonio at the corner of South First Street at 184 South Market St.
San Jose State University students walk past Sakura Market location in The Paseo de San Antonio between South Market Street and South First Street in downtown San Jose, seen on April 13, 2026. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)
Osaka Marketplace has locations in Fremont and Foster City.
The new market is expected to employ 30 people during each shift, according to city planning files. It wasn’t immediately clear how many shifts there would be.
“The project will occupy an approximately 5,000-square-foot existing commercial tenant space along the Paseo de San Antonio pedestrian corridor,” planning documents show. “The concept represents a modern hybrid retail model that integrates a specialty grocery market with a bona fide restaurant component, providing a high-quality, culturally authentic shopping and dining experience.”
Sakura Marketplace expects to operate from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. It is seeking to hire cashiers, customer service workers, stockers, cleaning staff, bartenders and sushi preparers, along with other roles.
Wages are expected to range from $18.45 to $21 an hour, depending on experience. Employee roles will include part-time and full-time positions, a hiring post states.
The new grocery store and restaurant will be located next to the Spartan Village on the Paseo, a student housing tower owned and operated by San Jose State University. It’s also just down the block from the Signia by Hilton hotel.
“Sakura Marketplace will offer a range of goods and services, including packaged and fresh food items, imported Japanese products, a curated sushi and prepared food offering, an interactive instant ramen station, a dedicated matcha beverage service area, and a beer and sake bar,” planning files show.
Grocery market options have been scarce for downtown residents since Safeway closed a small-format store on South Second Street in 2019.
A Whole Foods Market and Grocery Outlet currently operate on the edges of downtown San Jose.
“The proposed use will serve a broad customer base, including local residents, students, employees, and visitors, and will help address the limited availability of neighborhood-serving grocery options in the downtown area,” the marketplace stated in its filing.
A new market could help draw customers and spur commercial activity in downtown San Jose, which is saddled with an office vacancy rate of roughly 30%, according to commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Hoping to spur economic activity in a downtown that’s haunted by vacant retail spaces, Sakura Marketplace will fill a spot that has been empty since Muji closed a retail store at the site in 2020.
“The project … will contribute to the activation and revitalization of a currently underutilized storefront that has remained vacant since the departure of a prior retail tenant,” the grocery operator stated in its filing.