How long has it been since you entered those Japanese fast food restaurants on the street?
Yoshinoya, Ajisen ramen, Shokukiya, Marugame noodles, various rotary sushi restaurants... Once known as "entry-level Japanese food", these brands have become increasingly marginalized:
Japanese fast food retreat
As part of Chinese's "Japanese food enlightenment," Yoshinoya has been closing 150 stores around the world since 2020, including nearly 50 stores in southern China.
The Hop Hing Group, which has a franchise agreement with Yoshinoya and operates nearly 400 stores in northern China, also underperformed. In 2020 alone, Hop Hing Group, which relied on Yoshinoya to support 84% of its performance, lost more than 80 million yuan.
Another giant, Ajisen ramen, has a hard time. The revenue in the first half of 2022 was only 677 million, down more than 33% from the same period in 2021, with a loss of 107 million yuan. The market capitalization of what was once the "first ramen stock" fell by 96% compared to its peak.
Marugame noodles, which were once ubiquitous in first-tier cities, and Hanamaru udon, owned by Yoshinoya, have also announced the closure of stores in China.
The cost increase caused by the rise in prices, the increase in labor expenditure, the sharp decrease or even zero of customer flow in stores under the influence of the epidemic... In addition to irresistible environmental problems, awkward pricing, mediocre quality, and a development model that does not want to change have all brought Japanese fast food down the altar of Chinese mainland catering.
Just as when KFC first opened, some people chose to hold weddings in it, but today's seemingly ordinary Yoshinoya set meal and Ajisen pork bone soup ramen, were originally quite ceremonial dining options.
In the early 90s, when the average annual living cost of urban residents was less than 2,000 yuan, people would also queue in front of Yoshino's house to eat a beef rice set that was very expensive in terms of income.
Japanese fast food has made Japanese food, which was once "only known in name, not in reality", appear in front of more mainland diners for the first time. Many people even swore that boiled meat and vegetables were served on rice and served with dark yellow steamed eggs in a tea bowl was the face of Japanese cuisine.
The ingredients and cooking techniques similar in taste to local homemade foods make people quickly accept the taste of Japanese fast food. Combining novelty and familiarity, Yoshinoya's beef rice achieved daily sales of up to 2,000 bowls at its peak.
The Ajisen ramen's red-red interior, lanterns hanging high, matching dishes and chopsticks and spoons, and the promotional slogan, "Fifty Years of Bone Soup Soup," all cater to the public's fantasies about Japanese style and craftsmanship at the time.
And such days are gone.
Japanese fast food that is gradually not accurately located
In 1992, China's first Yoshinoya chose to open in Wangfujing, Beijing. A bowl of beef rice costs 6.5 yuan, and at that time, you could buy 3 pounds of pork or 16 pounds of rice. In 1997, Ajisen Ramen opened its first Chinese mainland store on Huaihai Middle Road in Shanghai, and the bowl of "Big Bone Soup" ramen noodles that cost 30 yuan created a generation's first impression of Japanese ramen.
In Japan, the hometown of Japanese fast food, such a large chain, so that the main products of the local and set meals are all aimed at ordinary office workers and migrant workers. The first people who came to eat were manual workers, and after swallowing a large bowl of rice, they didn't even have time to sit down, so they had to rush to work.
To this day, Yoshinoya walks through the streets of Tokyo, where he still has to navigate the cramped storefront, ordering from the staff who are obviously overworked, and quickly giving up their seats to waiting customers after eating. This obviously humble environment compared to Japanese fast food Chinese stores can ensure that the gross profit margin of Japanese stores was once as high as 60%.
The rapid rise of Japanese fast food, in addition to "foreign monks chanting", has actually ridden the east wind of cultural exchange.
In "Tokyo Love Story", Rika and Maruji eat a bowl of ramen; In "Norwegian Forest", Midoriko cooks tempura and green bean rice for Watanabe; Japanese animations are shown on TV, and children play Japanese games in arcade rooms... In the 90s, when Japanese pop culture was in full swing, you could eat a legendary Japanese meal, in addition to the novelty of the experience, but also the curiosity of "seeing the real face".
With the "retreat" of the Japanese and Korean trends, coupled with the large-scale rise of the local restaurant chain and Internet celebrity store economy in the past decade or so, Japanese food is no longer the only option that comes to mind when people "want to eat a good meal".
And when more refined and authentic Japanese restaurants bloom from first- and second-tier cities to third- and fourth-tier towns, the public may know more about Japanese ingredients, techniques, and elaborate flavors than some Japanese restaurant chefs. At this time, Yoshinoya, which has a 30 yuan set meal, and spinning sushi, which pays according to the color of the plate and has to pour water if you want to drink water, can no longer enter the "magic eye" of diners looking for food, but fall back to their original "working meal" positioning.
In Japan, fast food restaurants such as Yoshinoya also faced operational challenges, selling their subsidiaries, and the repercussions caused by new products were not as strong as expected, and they encountered various controversies and even scandals for several years.
Overseas, especially in Chinese mainland, Japanese fast food has also encountered competition from local Japanese restaurants in China, and the situation of Japanese fast food restaurants is even more miserable amid the wave of sushi opening and closing.
Some Japanese catering companies are looking elsewhere
A few years ago, some media reported that the soup base of Ajisen ramen was not freshly boiled, but blended with concentrated seasonings, and Ajisen Ramen later apologized publicly. There is also an online post about seeing the clerk preparing meals with pre-made dishes and seasonings at Yoshinoya, and the rice cooked in the rice cooker is not good in quality and taste.
Stripped of its glossy, mysterious propaganda cloak, people have finally discovered the fast-food nature of Japanese fast food. "It's all pre-made dishes anyway, so you don't have to eat Yoshinoya."
Ajisen ramen shop lined up in 2015
Just when Japanese fast food woke up a little and began to try to attract their own target customers at more affordable prices, the rise of the takeaway industry has made such "one-person food" more convenient and abundant choices.
Traditional fast food brands have been greatly affected, and they have chosen to enter the takeaway platform and establish their own takeaway system. But the rigid and slow management of Japanese fast food missed the best opportunity for development.
It wasn't until 2015 that Yoshinoya, aware of something wrong, began to slow down the opening of more physical stores and developed its own delivery platform. Another Japanese fast food giant, Shishichi, until a few years ago, delivery fees on takeaway platforms were still prohibitive.
And adhering to the "craftsman spirit", from another aspect, is actually unchanged or even stubborn. When Yoshinoya was in trouble several times, there was a voice that "just making beef rice is not the right strategy." However, Shuhito Abe, chairman of Yoshinoya's holding group, does not think so, and is even proud of the company's "single-product strategy." Today, when KFC began selling old Beijing chicken rolls and McDonald's breakfast fritters, many Japanese fast food still stuck to menus that had not changed much in decades.
However, Japanese fast food restaurants in China still have some special cases worth noting. In the past two years, there have been articles on the Internet "how can the Western restaurant Salia with an average consumption of 35 yuan not be popular", and many netizens called this Italian restaurant a "sand county snack in Western food" and "20 yuan to eat full, 30 yuan to eat well, 50 yuan to eat to the wall to go out" of the catering industry, which has been well received among young people.
Saria's menu
Some people may not know that Saria is a Japanese restaurant brand. Last year, Saria showed that no one in Japan was profitable, but in Asian markets, including China. Saria also increased her net profit in 2022 to 5 times that of the previous fiscal year to 8.6 billion yen, driven by her domestic business.
At the same time, local fast-food chains in China, with rice and noodles as the core, and dishes and seasonings that are more in line with Chinese habits, have also begun to expand nationwide. Add meat and vegetables to choose Hefu Lao noodles, financial constraints can eat Shaxian snacks, and at every price level, Chinese fast food is clearly arranged.
In the past, Japanese fast food that "eats an atmosphere" and "looks fresh" is ordinary and confident, but when the store no longer has a sense of atmosphere and the restaurant hovers in the price range, it is difficult for the self-styled Japanese fast food to become the "top stream".
Reference source
China Newsweek: Why isn't Japanese fast food popular?
Nikkei: Saria is caught in a situation of making money in Asia and losing money in Japan
Written by: Bonsai, Jonas
Edited by Sebastian
Some of the pictures in the article are from Visual China
The rest of the source network, the copyright belongs to the original author