ĭuring the COVID-19 pandemic, Maneki saw a 70 to 80 percent reduction in business and stopped serving raw fish. Officially, the restaurant is now owned by InterIm CDA, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Seattle's International District. Jean Nakayama began eating at the restaurant with her family when she was eight years old. In 1998, owner Kozo Nakayama died and left the restaurant to his wife, Jean Nakayama. In 1978, the Nakayama family purchased the restaurant. Over the years, Yokohama became known as 'Mom' by employees and regular customers. In 1960, Fusae Yokohama began working at the restaurant as a bartender.

In the early 1960s, Sato handed ownership over to his daughter, 'Shi-chan' Virginia Ichikawa, and her husband Joe. After returning from the internment camps, the Sato family reopened the restaurant in its current location, which was the storage unit for the original restaurant during the war. The original, castle-like building was looted and vandalized during the war. Since each family was only allowed to take one suitcase of belongings, much of the restaurant was moved to storage during this time. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans. After the Attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, President Franklin D. Tokuji Sato purchased the restaurant in 1923. The space could seat up to five hundred customers. When the restaurant first opened in 1904, it was shaped like a Japanese castle and employees wore kimono. The restaurant is named after the Maneki-neko. Some claim it is the oldest Asian restaurant on the West Coast of the United States, and it is recognized as one of the oldest sushi restaurants in the United States.

Maneki is a Japanese restaurant in the Japantown area of the International District in Seattle, Washington that opened in 1904 as the first sushi bar in the city.

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