Japanese shoppers are to be given a taste of Shetland seafood when Frankie’s opens a pop-up shop in the country’s most famous department store.

As winner of the title of the UK’s No.1 fish and chip shop, Frankie’s manager Carlyn Kearney has been invited to participate in the annual British Fair run by the Hankyu department store for three weeks in September and October.

She will fly more than 5,000 miles to Fukuoka in Kyushu, where she will fry fish and chips in the Hakata store before moving north to Osaka in Honshu and the Umeda store.

The invitation follows a recent visit to Frankie’s by two representatives of the Hankyu stores – the equivalent of Harrods or Harvey Nichols in this country.

Wataru Kuwahara and Keiji Hayashi flew to Shetland as part of a round of visits to a wide range of British companies they have invited to take part in the British Fair, which has been running for 40 years.

Mrs Kearney said: "This is a hugely exciting opportunity for us to show off our wares and our skills in Japan.

"We enjoyed having Mr Wataru and Mr Keiji at Frankie’s, they were so enthusiastic and full of fun and really keen to have us out in Japan.

"Logistically, it’s going to be tough to get everything in order and out to Japan for the pop-up shop, but we relish a challenge and look forward to making this happen!”

Mr Keiji, who lives in London, said: "We were delighted to come to Frankie’s and really enjoyed our fish and chips.

"Fish and chips have become a major part of the British Fair in recent years, and we always like to have the best of British there. We look forward to welcoming Carlyn and Frankie’s to Japan and to Hankyu.

"Carlyn will be busy as Japanese people are enthusiastic about this kind of food and in past years have bought a lot of fish and chips!”

Mrs Kearney will be travelling with Calum Richardson of The Bay in Stonehaven, which won the No.1 fish and chip shop title two years ago. Mr Richardson has been involved with pop-up shops in the past two Hankyu fairs.

All the fish and potatoes for the chips will be transported to Japan from this country in a freezer container.

Frankie’s are having special boxes to serve the fish and chips in Japan made for the trip, with some text in Japanese to inform customers about the shop and the qualities of Shetland seafood.