Japanese restaurants have based in Hong Kong and entered the mainland | yue reading globally

Reading Global(2022.01.19)

Japanese restaurants have established themselves in Hong Kong and entered the mainland

Japan Economic News reported on the 19th that Japanese catering and retail companies have taken Hong Kong as a foothold to enter the Chinese mainland. After the rotary sushi "Sushi lang" and others, the onigami specialty store "Hua Yu Jie" also decided to start a business in the Chinese mainland with a new brand. Demand for "Japanese food" in Hong Kong, China and Chinese mainland is growing.

Nishida Munakata, chairman of Bainongshe International, who started his business in Hong Kong, China, said that he "hopes to promote the food culture of rice balls to the whole world."

Bainongsha has opened more than 100 stores in Hong Kong, China, and will "use Hong Kong, China as a platform to enter the Chinese mainland and Asian markets" in the future. Before entering the mainland, he created creative director Koshi Sato and created a new brand "OMUSUBI".

The Bainong Society first targeted Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, which are close to Hong Kong and have similar food cultures. It will be extended to other cities in Chinese mainland, and will also enter Singapore and Taiwan, and strive to reach 2,000 stores in 2025 and 10,000 in 2030. It is also planned to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange within a few years.

Not only Bainongshe, but also some other Japanese catering and retail companies are also entering the mainland through the Hong Kong area.

In 2017, Chateraise, a Japanese confectionery company that opened its No. 1 store in Hong Kong, has expanded its number of stores to about 60. The company opened a store in Shenzhen in August 2021 and plans to open a second store in March this year.

Sushi Lang, who opened 12 stores in hong Kong, also entered Guangzhou in September 2021. In the next three years or so, the number of stores in mainland China will increase to more than 40. Japan's Pan Pacific International Holdings (PPIH), which operates the discount store Don Quijote, not only opened the discount store "Don Don Donki" in Hong Kong, China, but also entered Macau in September 2021.

In the past year, Japanese retail and catering companies have become more and more active. Daiho Takashima, director of the Japan External Trade Organization, said these industries are "coming to Hong Kong, China more and more in order to accumulate experience in Chinese mainland." The reason is that "the trend of expanding business is accelerating in response to the needs of people who cannot go to Japan under the COVID-19 pandemic."

In addition, the Chinese government is promoting the concept of the "Greater Bay Area". Therefore, there is an environment that uses the Hong Kong region as a foothold for entering the mainland.

Sony shares plunged 9% Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard posed a huge challenge

Reuters reported that Japan's Sony shares plunged 9% on the 19th after game rival Microsoft said it would buy game developer Activision Blizzard for a record $68.7 billion.

Sony's PlayStation is widely seen as leading the generational battle with Microsoft's Xbox, but Microsoft is aggressively expanding its Game Pass subscription service, and the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the producer of the hit game Call of Duty.

In recent years, Sony has beefed up its internal network of game studios and launched a series of exclusive hits, including the "Spider-Man" series of movies, while Microsoft has been catching up.

"Sony will face a huge challenge to gain a foothold in this protracted battle," Amir Anvarzadeh, market strategist at Asymmetric Advisors, wrote in a client report and suggested shorting the stock.

Sony, a pioneer in virtual reality, also announced some details about its next-generation headset this month, but non-traditional players such as Facebook owner Meta Platforms are also investing in the "metacosm."

Many industry observers believe that as advances in cloud technology weaken the connection to bulky gaming hardware, cross-platform operability is critical to the success of the metaverse.

Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a customer report: "If Microsoft continues to offer these games to the PlaySation platform, this will indicate that it may have a long-term foothold in the metaverse." ”

Sales of coats and leather goods soared, and Burberry was bullish on profit prospects

Reuters reported on the 19th that British luxury brand Burberry is expected to make more profits than expected after accelerating full-price sales in the third quarter, thanks to the strong performance of coats and leather goods.

The group's shares have risen 1 percent over the past 12 months, significantly lower than their peers, and after Burberry's prospects were promising, the group's shares jumped 6.5 percent to 1,871 pence on the 19th.

Julie Brown, the group's finance director, said full-price sales were up 26 percent from pre-COVID-19 levels, with double-digit growth across all product categories, helped the flagship store attract a new generation of customers. The two core categories of coats and leather products performed very well, with regular sales of coats up 38% from the previous year and regular sales of leather products up 9% from the previous year. In addition, the regular sales performance of digital channels remained strong, with double-digit sales growth compared to the previous year.

The American market continues to perform well, with more and more young people coming to buy Burberry products such as sneakers.

Burberry said adjusted operating profit for the year ended April 3 would rise around 35 per cent at constant exchange rates, well above the widely expected £472 million.

Brown expects the result to be closer to the high of the range, at £497 million, plus a monetary gain of around £13 million.

Unlike most other luxury goods groups, Burberry's sales have not exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels, with comparable store sales down 3% from two years ago due to exiting price-cutting promotions.

Brown said revenue headwinds are almost over and the impact of the final quarter is expected to be "very small."

Millionaire calls on governments around the world to "tax us now"

The Guardian news, on the 19th, more than 100 global super-rich people released an open letter at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2022, calling on governments around the world to "tax us now" to help pay the cost of coping with the new crown pneumonia epidemic and solve the gap between rich and poor.

The 102 super-rich, who call themselves "patriotic millionaires," have called for "a permanent wealth tax on the wealthiest to help reduce extreme inequality and increase income for sustained, long-term growth in public services such as health care."

They said the current tax system is good for them, so it needs to be reformulated to make taxation fairer to hard-working people and restore trust in politics.

According to the letter, people with assets of more than $5 million should pay a 2 percent "wealth tax," while those with assets of more than $50 million should pay 3 percent and those with assets of more than $50 million should pay 5 percent.

According to analysis by the international NGO Fight Inequality Alliance, the US think tank Institute for Policy Studies, the international NGO Oxfam and The Patriotic Millionaires, a tax on Britain's richest 119,000 people at this rate would add £43.7 billion a year.

It has been calculated that if this "wealth tax" were to be imposed in the UK, it would be enough to pay the health and social care tax twice a year on the basis of "not raising national insurance for working people", pay the salaries of an additional 50,000 new nurses, and build 35,000 affordable housing units.

In addition, Nick Hanor, an American venture capitalist and one of the signatories of the open letter, said that if the above "wealth tax" was imposed on all people with wealth of more than $5 million per year, it could raise more than $2.52 trillion. That's enough money to "lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, produce enough vaccines for the world, and provide universal health care and social protection for all citizens in low- and middle-income countries (3.6 billion people)."

(This article is compiled from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Reuters, Guardian)

Economic Observation Network intern reporter Zhou Yuqing sorted out