JunsKitchen is the YouTube channel run by Japanese home cook Junichi “Jun” Yoshizuki, whose meticulously edited Japanese cooking videos featuring his cats Haku, Nagi, Poki, and Pichi have made him one of the most-watched J-vloggers on the platform. Born in Nagoya in 1989 and based in Japan with his American wife Rachel, Yoshizuki posts cooking tutorials, cat-meal videos, and craft segments that combine traditional Japanese cuisine with the soothing video style that built a global audience.
TL;DR
- Real name Junichi Yoshizuki, Japanese-American YouTube cook born 1989 in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture, Japan
- Wife Rachel Yoshizuki (born 1988 in Cincinnati, Ohio) runs the linked Rachel and Jun channels
- Launched JunsKitchen on November 11, 2012, focused on Japanese cooking and his cats
- Most-viewed video: a 37 million-view tutorial on restoring a rusty Japanese knife
- Combined Yoshizuki family channels have over 9 million subscribers and 935 million views
Key facts about JunsKitchen
| Real name | Junichi Yoshizuki |
| Born | 1989, Nagoya, Aichi prefecture, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Wife | Rachel Yoshizuki (American, from Cincinnati, Ohio) |
| Cats featured on channel | Haku (Kohaku), Nagi, Poki, Pichi |
| YouTube channel launched | November 11, 2012 |
| Subtitles available in | 24 languages |
Early life and meeting Rachel
Junichi Yoshizuki was born in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture, Japan in 1989. He met his future wife Rachel, an American from Cincinnati, Ohio, while both were students at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. The couple started their first YouTube channel, Rachel and Jun, in 2012 as a hobby during a period of long-distance dating, posting videos about Japanese culture aimed at English-speaking audiences.
Cooking was not Yoshizukis profession. He has consistently described himself as a home cook who films videos on weekends as a hobby, with the level of polish coming from years of careful editing and a strong sense for cinematic composition rather than restaurant training. By his own account, the cooking style he uses on JunsKitchen draws from family meals and self-taught technique rather than a formal kitchen background.
JunsKitchen career timeline
- 2012 Launches the Rachel and Jun YouTube channel with his future wife as a long-distance dating project
- November 11, 2012 Creates the dedicated JunsKitchen channel, uploading “How to make Okonomiyaki” as the first video
- 2014 to 2016 JunsKitchen builds an international following through carefully edited cooking videos and the addition of Yoshizukis cats as recurring characters
- 2018 “Japanese meal for cats” video gains 1.2 million views in 24 hours and becomes a viral milestone
- 2018 JunsKitchen surpasses Rachel and Jun in subscribers, becoming the familys main channel
- 2019 Featured by The Washington Post, South China Morning Post, and Time as a defining example of food and cat content on YouTube
- 2020 to 2025 Yoshizuki maintains a slow upload pace (typically 5 to 10 videos a year), with each video routinely passing 1 million views
JunsKitchen signature style and editing approach
JunsKitchens visual signature is calm precision. Each video runs around 5 to 10 minutes, opens with a slow establishing shot, and proceeds through preparation with minimal narration. The soundtrack is acoustic and quiet, and subtitles appear on screen rather than voiceover narration carrying the explanation. The result is a video that reads more as a meditation than a recipe tutorial. Multiple Reddit users have publicly described the channel as a coping tool for anxiety and depression.
The cats are the second signature element. Kohaku (the white cat known as Haku), Nagi, Poki, and Pichi appear in nearly every video, sitting on the counter, sampling ingredients, or sitting still while Yoshizuki composes shots around them. He often hands a piece of fish to Haku for inspection during cooking, a beat that has become a recurring expectation for the channels viewers.
Notable work: the rusty knife video and the cat meals
The single most-viewed JunsKitchen video is the rusty knife restoration tutorial, in which Yoshizuki buys a banged-up traditional Japanese knife at a recycling shop and slowly polishes it back to a mirror finish over the course of the video. The footage has accumulated more than 37 million views and is frequently cited as the most popular example of Japanese knife content on YouTube.
The Japanese-meal-for-cats series is a parallel signature. Yoshizuki produces a feline-grade dinner with miso soup made from dried bonito flakes and sardines, rice molded from ground chicken and fish, and a presentation that mirrors a kaiseki spread. The most-watched of these earned 1.2 million views in its first 24 hours and routinely gets covered by mainstream outlets including Time and SBS Food.
Awards and recognition
- 2018 Most-viewed Japanese-meal-for-cats video crosses 1.2 million views in 24 hours
- 2019 Featured by The Washington Post, SCMP, and Time as a defining YouTube cooking channel
- 2020 to 2025 Combined Yoshizuki family channels pass 9 million subscribers and 935 million total views
- Most-viewed video Rusty knife restoration tutorial with 37 million+ views
Impact and cultural relevance
JunsKitchen has shaped the slow-cooking YouTube genre that other creators including Alvin Zhou later refined for Western audiences. The calm-editing, no-narration style that JunsKitchen used from 2012 onward presaged the broader ASMR-cooking wave that took over the platform during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Yoshizuki was doing the format years before it became widespread.
The channel also helped popularize Japanese home cooking for international audiences in ways that complemented later cookbook work by chefs like Rie McClenny. JunsKitchen reached non-Japanese viewers with omurice, tempura, and ramen videos with subtitles in 24 languages, building name recognition for these dishes among Western viewers who would later buy English-language Japanese cookbooks.
JunsKitchen FAQ
Who is JunsKitchen?
JunsKitchen is the YouTube channel of Junichi “Jun” Yoshizuki, a Japanese home cook born in 1989 in Nagoya, Japan. His videos focus on Japanese cooking, cat meals, and the daily life he shares with his American wife Rachel and their cats Haku, Nagi, Poki, and Pichi.
Is Jun from JunsKitchen a real chef?
Yoshizuki has consistently described himself as a passionate home cook rather than a professional chef. He says he cooks on weekends as a hobby and films videos around it, and the visible polish in the videos comes from his editing and composition skills more than restaurant training.
What are the names of the cats on JunsKitchen?
The most-featured cats on JunsKitchen are Kohaku (known as Haku), Nagi, Poki, and Pichi. Haku is the white cat most commonly seen on the counter while Yoshizuki cooks, often receiving small pieces of fish to inspect.
What is the most popular JunsKitchen video?
The single most-viewed JunsKitchen video is the rusty knife restoration tutorial, in which Yoshizuki buys an old Japanese knife and polishes it back to a mirror finish. The video has more than 37 million views and is widely cited as the most popular knife-restoration video on YouTube.
Where does JunsKitchen live?
Yoshizuki and his wife Rachel are based in Japan, with sources placing them across Nagoya and the Fukuoka prefecture over the years. The family also runs the Rachel and Jun channel, which documents their daily life in Japan for English-speaking viewers.
What is next for JunsKitchen
Yoshizuki continues to post on JunsKitchen at his characteristic slow pace, with cooking, craft, and cat content. Combined with the Rachel and Jun and Rachel & Juns Adventures channels, the familys output covers Japanese culture, food, and travel for a global audience. Follow updates on Instagram (@junskitchenyoshizuki).
