1.0 80% Increase in Next 5 Years!? Tofu Market Expanding around the World
1. Expanding Global Tofu Market
Sushi, ramen, curry rice, tonkatsu, etc. With the Japanese food boom continuing across the globe, the dishes at the center of the trend are gradually changing. Among Japanese dishes, tofu is likely to be the next food whose popularity explodes in the near future.
According to Mordor Intelligence, a market research company in India, the global tofu market size was 930 million USD in 2017 and is estimated to reach 1.66 billion USD (approx. 250 billion JPY), increasing by 80%, in 2024. Furthermore, as more people turn to vegan diets and accelerate attempts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by meat production, the tofu market is supposed to expand to 2.94 billion USD (approx. 450 billion JPY) in 2029.
Over the upcoming five years between 2024 and 2029, the tofu market is estimated to expand by another 80%.
Then, why is tofu drawing so much attention now?
2. History of Tofu and Japanese Cuisine
Tofu originated in China during the Tang dynasty and came to Japan with Buddhism around 600 to 800 CE. At first, tofu was reserved for upper classes, such as monks and aristocrats. During the Muromachi period, about 1400 to 1500, tofu became part of shojin cuisine (Buddhist cuisine) and became a common ingredient for the public in the Edo period. Tofu Hyakuchin (“A Hundred Delicacies of Tofu”), published in Tenmei 2 (1782), includes a hundred tofu recipes.
To make tofu, you soak soybeans in water first. Once they soak up water, they are ground, boiled, and squeezed to produce soy milk. While the milk is hot, nigari (bittern) is added to solidify the liquid. Place it in the mold, drain off water, and tofu is ready. It is a common food not only in Japan but also in China, South Korea, North Korea, and Taiwan, but Japanese tofu is characterized with its smooth texture and rich flavor of soybeans. Since it goes well with any dish, chefs have been cherishing tofu and creating various recipes.
In Japan, there are also different kinds of tofu, such as soft tofu, firm tofu, yose dofu (unpressed tofu), sesame tofu, and yuba (bean curd skin), which have been served in Japanese households for a long time.
3. Why Is Tofu Popular Now?
As you already know, tofu is highly regarded as a healthy food; it is low-calorie, high in protein, and contains calcium. In 300g of firm tofu, water accounts for 85%, while it provides 20g of protein and 360mg of calcium with only 200 kcal.
Since The Book of Tofu was published in the U.S. in 1975 and sold 100,000 copies, tofu became widely known in Europe and America as well.
Signature tofu dishes at Japanese restaurants include tofu steak or agedashi dofu (deep-fried tofu served in broth), but tofu is also used as a substitute for cheese or meat on vegetarian and vegan menus.
Billie Eilish, a charismatic singer for Gen Z, is known to love tofu noodles. You can see tofu’s popularity spreads across generations.
4. About OOEDO TOFU
Most of the tofu on the global market is manufactured by machine throughout the whole process, but do you know that you can get tofu handcrafted by a Japanese artisan in Malaysia? It is sold as OOEDO TOFU, providing a wide variety, like silk tofu, firm tofu, pudding bean curd, deep-fried tofu, tofu flitter, bean curd skin, and black sesame tofu.
This tofu is made of selected ingredients, such as non-GMO soybeans from Japan and nigari from Okinawa.
Water is also important to make OOEDO TOFU, as it composes more than 80% of the product. If you use hard water that contains minerals and calcium, tofu becomes too firm as calcium in water combines with soybeans’ protein. Water used for OOEDO TOFU is purified and softened so that you can enjoy a silky and smooth texture.
You can see that the characteristic of OOEDO TOFU is that it is manufactured in the environment as close as possible to Japan.
OOEDO TOFU is highly reviewed in the Japanese food industry. The tofu is used at famous Japanese restaurants and loved by local Japanese people in Malaysia. If you are restaurateurs or suppliers interested in delicious, Japan-quality tofu, please contact Washoku Agent!
2.0 Not Only the Michelin Guide: World’s Restaurant Awards That Hiring Managers at Japanese Restaurants Should Know
The Michelin Guide is the world’s most well-known system that evaluates restaurants, but there are other awards and rankings that attract attention from gourmets around the globe. This article introduces several global restaurant awards, which hiring managers at Japanese restaurants should know about.
*If you are interested in Japanese restaurants and the Michelin Guide, please read the following articles at the Washoku Agent website.
Is it Possible to Hire Michelin Chefs in Japan?
Value of the Michelin Star for Japanese Restaurants
What Japanese Cuisine Categories Are There in the Michelin Guide as of September 2022?
1. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
First, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is one of the major awards in the industry, aside from the Michelin Guide. This award was founded in 2002 by Restaurant, a British magazine targeting restaurant professionals. More than 1,000 judges, selected from chefs, critics, and influencers, vote for 10 places among where they dined in the last 18 months.
Unlike the Michelin Guide, in which anonymous inspectors evaluate restaurants within certain areas, such as Tokyo, London, and Paris, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants targets restaurants around the world. Since each judge appraises the places they actually ate in, the award has shed light on restaurants in the countries and regions that had not been included in the Michelin. This is why the global restaurant industry pays close attention to this award.
In the latest ranking issued in June 2023, Den in Tokyo, known for its innovative kaiseki cuisine, is ranked 21st. The first place went to Central, a Peruvian cuisine restaurant in Lima.
2. La Liste
La Liste was started in 2015 by the employees of Atout France, a tourism development agency in France. This futuristic guide collects data from more than 1,000 restaurant guidebooks and publications, ratings, and reviews around the world and rates restaurants with its unique algorithm. It is said that the data collected include the Michelin Guide, Gault & Millau, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and Tabelog in Japan.
Each restaurant is assessed out of 100 points and the guide lists the top 1,000 places. The latest ranking includes Matsukawa, a kaiseki cuisine restaurant in Tokyo (5th rank with 97.50 points), Yanagiya, a local cuisine restaurant in Gifu (4th with 98.00 points), and Sushi Saito, a sushi restaurant in Tokyo (2nd with 99.00 points). Ranked first are Frantzén in Stockholm, Guy Savoy in Paris, and Le Bernardin in New York, scoring 99.50 points.
3. Gault & Millau
Gault & Millau is a restaurant guide established in 1972 in Paris by two food journalists, Henri Gault and Christian Millau. Currently, this guide rates restaurants in 15 countries with standardized scoring rubrics. They evaluate each restaurant “from a reservation phone call to departure” out of 20 points in increments of 0.5 points. The scores are then converted to the number of toque (“a chef’s hat” in French) (1 – 5 toques).
They are similar to the Michelin Guide in that anonymous investigators visit restaurants, but Gault & Millau tend to focus on chefs and service staff. Having drawn attention to young rising chefs, like Alain Senderens, Joël Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Marc Veyrat, Pierre Gagnaire, and Michel Rostang, this guide has been highly acclaimed by gourmets around the world.
In March 2023, the Gault & Millau Guide Japan was published. 5 toques were awarded to Ryugin, Matsukawa, and Kanda, all of which are Japanese restaurants located in Tokyo.
4. Other Restaurant Awards
We have introduced three globally acclaimed restaurant awards, but there are many other awards and guides in different countries and regions.
For example, the Black Pearl has been rising as a new guidepost for gourmets in China. This restaurant ranking guide has been issued since 2018 by Meituan Dianping that runs a restaurant review website. It is worth noting that only about 300 places are selected out of more than 7 million restaurants, mainly those in China that the company is associated with.
In addition, Australia has its own credible guide, Australian Good Food Guide, that has a history of more than four decades.
Then, how about the country where Japanese cuisine originates? In Japan, the Michelin Guide is most popular in general, but Tabelog is another rating website that developed in this nation. The website has more than 88 million monthly users and issues the Tabelog Award annually to recognize 30 Gold restaurants, 100 Silver restaurants, and 340 Bronze restaurants selected from 900,000 places.
Furthermore, Japan has awards that specialize in a specific dish. TRY (Tokyo Ramen of the Year) is one of such popular awards. With the concept that “We decide the best ramen restaurant in Tokyo,” it started in 2000 and is known for its tremendous influence on the restaurants’ publicity.
In other countries, there are more restaurant awards that we have not mentioned here. Award history of the restaurant can be one way to evaluate the chef’s skill, but there are many other elements to take into account in a hiring process. If you need help with hiring and evaluating a Japanese chef, contact Washoku Agent!
5. What If I Have a Problem in Hiring?
“I do not know what my restaurant should feature to attract Japanese chefs.”
“I have an idea of the chefs I am looking for, but I do not know how to find them.”
“We tried to recruit on our own before without success, so we want to find a truly skillful chef this time.”
“Since no staff member speak Japanese, we want to entrust the whole task of hiring Japanese chefs to someone else.”
If you have a problem in recruiting Japanese chefs, feel free to contact us Washoku Agent!
3.0 23,000 Japanese Restaurants in the United States?? Latest Information on the Japanese Food Industry in the U.S. in 2023
Visiting this website, you are probably interested in trends of the Japanese food industry around the world. Aside from Japan, the origin of the cuisine, it is the United States that leads major movements of the market.
Currently, 500,000 Japanese citizens live in the United States, whereas there are about 1.5 million Japanese Americans. Japanese communities are rooted in the nation and support the culture of Japanese cuisine.
JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) released a report “Survey of Japanese Restaurants in the United States” in March 2023 in Japanese. Based on the report, this article will provide the latest information about Japanese cuisine businesses in the United States.
1. About 23,000 Japanese Restaurants in the United States
First, let’s see the number of Japanese restaurants in the United States. According to the report, the number increased by almost 24%, from 186,000 in 2018 to 23,064 in 2022.
Below is the list of the top 20 states that have the most Japanese restaurants as of 2022.
| State | 2010 | 2018 | 2022 | |
| 1 | California | 3,963 | 4,468 | 4,995 |
| 2 | New York | 1,439 | 1,892 | 1,936 |
| 3 | Florida | 941 | 1,266 | 1,501 |
| 4 | Texas | 494 | 802 | 1,197 |
| 5 | Washington | 827 | 898 | 1,016 |
| 6 | New Jersey | 523 | 736 | 893 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 287 | 485 | 729 |
| 8 | North Carolina | 422 | 584 | 717 |
| 9 | Georgia | 431 | 594 | 667 |
| 10 | Illinois | 377 | 573 | 644 |
| 11 | Massachusetts | 276 | 428 | 627 |
| 12 | Virginia | 308 | 451 | 544 |
| 13 | Hawaii | 438 | 467 | 515 |
| 14 | Arizona | 311 | 404 | 491 |
| 15 | Oregon | 287 | 316 | 442 |
| 16 | Colorado | 257 | 336 | 409 |
| 17 | Maryland | 201 | 314 | 402 |
| 18 | Tennessee | 203 | 330 | 398 |
| 19 | Michigan | 151 | 209 | 378 |
| 20 | Ohio | 169 | 312 | 357 |
Japanese restaurants are concentrated in cities on the West and East Coasts in California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, and Florida, the areas where immigrants from Japan arrived in the first place or Japanese citizens tend to prefer. Since there are a lot of Asian immigrants as well, these areas were ready to accept Japanese food culture.
California, ranked first above, is known for the California roll that was invented by a Japanese chef in the 1960s. Also, the 2022 Michelin Guide California awarded starts to 25 restaurants in Los Angeles, 10 of which are Japanese restaurants. We can tell how popular Japanese cuisine is in this state.
Texas has seen a steady growth in the population and Japanese restaurants also increased by 49%, from 802 in 2018 to 1,197 in 2022. Thus, many involved in the Japanese food industry regard population growth as a good opportunity to expand their businesses.
Some estimate that the global pandemic led to the closure of 10% of the 1,900 Japanese restaurants in New York between 2018 and 2022. However, the 2022 data shows that there are more restaurants than the pre-COVID time and proves the market’s recovery.
2. Current Trends of Japanese Cuisine in the United States
Until the 1990s, Japanese restaurants in the United States mostly featured a comprehensive menu, including sushi, sashimi, teriyaki chicken, and tempura. Since customers have come to desire more authentic taste, Japanese restaurants started to focus on certain dishes around 2000. Places specializing in kaiseki, robatayaki grill, soba, yakitori, ramen, and udon opened one after another and gained popularity.
In particular, ramen gained remarkable traction around the 2010s. It is said that there are already more than 6,000 ramen shops in the United States. For example, in Los Angeles, three places opened in the last few years: AFURI, known for Yuzu Shio ramen (salt-based broth with yuzu citrus) opened in 2021; Ramen Nagi, the third branch in the States and known for niboshi (dried anchovies) broth, in 2022; and Ramen King Keisuke from Keisuke Group known for ramen flavored with dark miso , called “kuro miso,” in 2022.
Sushi has been spreading widely, ranging from affordable rolls at supermarkets to an omakase style that features seasonal ingredients directly imported from Japan and is served at the counter of high-end restaurants. The latter targets the affluent class and has firmly gained its ground in urban areas. As of 2023, MASA, a popular sushi place in New York, serves an omakase meal course for 950 USD. It is one of the examples of successful upscale Japanese restaurants that raise its value with ingredients and services.
Since macrobiotics is also drawing attention in the United States, this originally Japanese diet has led to new dishes in cities, such as sushi with brown rice. Japan does not have many places that serve brown rice sushi, so we can say it is a new style developed in the States for health-conscious people.
3. Japanese Restaurant Management in the United States
Until about 2000, 70% of the Japanese restaurants in the United States were run by Japanese people. Over the last two decades, this trend changed and it is estimated more than 80% of the owners are non-Japanese people today.
In the past, immigrants from Japan used to run Japanese restaurants, but after decades it seems that the owners’ age and the lack of successors caused many people to sell the places to Asian Americans.
However, even if some people take over the management, many owners still have difficulty in securing chefs who can cook Japanese cuisine. As mentioned above, Japanese restaurants increased by 24% between 2018 and 2022. The demand for chefs keeps rising, while the supplies are not catching up with the pace.
After the Trump administration’s inauguration in 2017, it became more challenging to obtain a work visa or green card. Even those who have some experience in cooking Japanese cuisine cannot get a visa and many restaurants are struggling to recruit chefs.
These are the latest updates on the Japanese food industry in the United States in 2023, informed by the JETRO report. If you want to know more about the situations in the States or to recruit Japanese chefs, please contact Washoku Agent!
4. What If I Have a Problem in Hiring?
“I do not know what my restaurant should feature to attract Japanese chefs.”
“I have an idea of the chefs I am looking for, but I do not know how to find them.”
“We tried to recruit on our own before without success, so we want to find a truly skilled chef this time.”
“Since no staff member speak Japanese, we want to entrust the whole task of hiring Japanese chefs to someone else.”
If you have a problem in recruiting Japanese chefs, feel free to contact us Washoku Agent!
4.0 What Is “Neo Izakaya,” Popular in Tokyo as an Instagrammable Spot?
Izakaya is a pub where anyone can casually enjoy beer or sake with snacks within the budget of 3,000 to 4,000 JPY (approx. 22 to 30 USD). Outside Japan, many izakaya used to be designed for local Japanese communities, but recently high-end and stylish places, such as ZUMA, saw a unique development overseas by adjusting the basic concept of izakaya to local non-Japanese people and began to gain popularity.
Meanwhile in Japan, a new style of izakaya called “Neo Izakaya” (also known as modern izakaya) has come to attract the attention of young generations in the last few years.
1. Izakaya Business Struggling amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Traditionally, izakaya evolved as a social gathering place where business people dropped by after work with colleagues and enjoyed drinks together. However, the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 made many Japanese people avoid having a large gathering. Due to the change in people’s lifestyle, large-scale izakaya with a number of seats closed one after another. It is said that the izakaya market shrank by about 40% in 2022, compared to the pre-pandemic days.
2. Changes in Japanese Izakaya Before COVID
There is no doubt that the pandemic seriously damaged the izakaya industry, but the market itself had seen its peak in the 1990s and had been already gradually shrinking in the last two decades, partly because young people are drinking less.
Under the circumstances, those who are involved in the izakaya business had been looking for ways to survive with a new business model even before the pandemic.
One of the famous business models that became popular in the 2000s is standing bars, called tachinomiya. With no tables, it can be opened in a narrower space and cut down fixed costs, such as rent and utility bills. Table turnover rate increases in this style of bar as well. The lower customer spend than usual izakaya (1,000 to 3,000 JPY, approx. 7 to 22 USD) appealed well to customers and standing bars caused a sensation. “Senbero” became a popular word: it is a shortened phrase meaning you only spend 1,000 JPY (“sen-yen”) to get drunk (“berobero”). Downtown Tokyo, such as Tateishi and Akabane, have a lot of casual standing bars frequented by local customers.
Similarly, table-sharing izakaya appeared after 2010. In the past, it did happen that customers got acquainted with others sitting near you at izakaya. Yet, this new business invites those who are looking for a romantic partner to share the table so that they drink together on their first “date” (free of charge for women, men are charged hourly). This new setting was welcomed by youth and became very popular.
3. Neo Izakaya Gaining Attention after the COVID
Now, the last few years have seen the rise of Neo Izakaya, a new model emerging in metropolitan areas, like Tokyo. Completely detached from the conventional images, such as red paper lanterns, draft beer, yakitori, and businesspeople with a tie, these new stores feature instagrammable glasses for drinks or stylish interior designs and give off a welcoming atmosphere for women and young people.
The interior designs and drinks were developed to appeal to the Instagram users, and when customers post them on social media, new customers visit the store. In this way, this model of izakaya is rapidly increasing, such as Neo Tokyo in Sangenjaya, Meiko Shibuya in Shibuya, and Pronto Kissakaba across several bustling areas in Tokyo.
These places focus on original cocktails that look appealing on Instagram. The menu includes cream soda cocktail, milk highball, and chili tomato highball, items that would potentially go viral on social media. Food menu ranges from typical dishes, such as fried chicken, niku dofu (tofu with beef), and menchi katsu (deep-fried ground meat), to original dishes influenced by Italian, French, and Chinese cuisines.
The average customer spend is 4,000 to 6,000 JPY (approx. 30 to 44 USD) in many Neo Izakaya and a little higher than traditional izakaya (3,000 to 4,000 JPY, approx. 22 to 30 USD). Nevertheless, they are supported by youth who are alert to trends in uptown areas like Shibuya, Ebisu, and Sangenjaya. This business seems to have room to grow much more.
Neo izakaya does not seem to exist outside Japan yet, but the strategies to create drink and food menus as well as the marketing tips on social media can be insightful for many Japanese restaurants abroad.
If you are considering opening a new style of izakaya, contact Washoku Agent, as we are also well versed with the latest food trend in Japan!
4. What If I Have a Problem in Hiring?
“I do not know what my restaurant should feature to attract Japanese chefs.”
“I have an idea of the chefs I am looking for, but I do not know how to find them.”
“We tried to recruit on our own before without success, so we want to find a truly skillful chef this time.”
“Since no staff member speak Japanese, we want to entrust the whole task of hiring Japanese chefs to someone else.”
If you have a problem in recruiting Japanese chefs, feel free to contact us Washoku Agent!
5.0 10 Years Since Jiro Dreams of Sushi. How has the Sushi Industry Changed in the Last Decade?
It is more than 10 years since the documentary film titled Jiro Dreams of Sushi was released and left a strong impression on global sushi fans in 2011. This article will consider the film’s influence and legacy in the sushi industry around the world and show how the industry changed in the following decade.
1. What Is Jiro Dreams of Sushi?
Sukiyabashi Jiro is a small sushi restaurant located in the basement of an office building in Ginza. It does not even have its own bathroom but has been highly acclaimed by world-renowned food aficionados. David Gelb, a young American film director, was fascinated with the craftsmanship and personality of the head chef, Jiro Ono. Gelb kept visiting the restaurant to film a documentary, and the chef was persuaded by the young director’s passion, despite their language barrier. Given permission to record the rare view of the backstage at the high-end, three-Michelin-star sushi restaurant, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a very valuable resource.
The film features beautiful images of sushi and highlights Jiro Ono’s philosophy as a sushi artisan, who was already over 80 years old then, along with his relationships with two sons that followed their father’s professional path and his apprentices’ efforts to surpass their master. After being released in the United States in 2011, the documentary rapidly drew attention and was later streamed on Netflix to reach a global audience.
Many people learned about “omakase” and “Edomae sushi” through this film. Even after more than a decade since its release, the film still boasts its popularity as a bible for sushi lovers.
2. How Has the Sushi Industry Changed in the Last Decade?
The film was released in 2011. After more than a decade, how did the sushi industry change from what was shown there?
First, because of the global Japanese food boom, the number of Japanese restaurants increased by five times: there were about 30,000 places in 2010, whereas there are 159,000 as of 2021.
After watching the documentary, food aficionados who wanted to try omakase or Edomae sushi came to Japan from around the world. As a result, it became more difficult to make a reservation at high-end sushi restaurants. Some people even attempted to secure a seat by staying at a prestigious hotel in Tokyo and asking for its concierge’s help. In 2016, an online booking site in Japan hosted an event that reserves all the seats at Sukiyabashi Jiro for one day. When the website opened the reservation page for only 8 seats , 1,300 applications flooded in from around the world.
In 2014, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited then US President Barack Obama for a dinner at Sukiyabashi Jiro. The restaurant appeared in a news story as Obama said he had the best sushi ever.
In the Michelin Guide Tokyo, Sukiyabashi Jiro had been awarded three stars every year, but it was dropped from the 2020 edition because of the difficulty for ordinary customers to make a reservation. Yet, the fact that it was not included in the Michelin Guide had a news value in itself. The story was reported by BBC or CNN and confirmed the restaurant’s fame throughout the world.
Then, how did the restaurant change from 2011?
Daisuke Nakazawa was featured in the documentary as an apprentice cooking 200 tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet) to be approved by Jiro. He opened Sushi Nakazawa in New York in 2013 and made it a very successful restaurant. Another apprentice in the documentary, Rei Masuda, opened Sushi Masuda in Aoyama in January 2014, which quickly earned two Michelin stars.
The documentary shows Jiro’s son, Yoshikazu Ono, going to the Tsukiji Market by bike, but it was closed in October 2018 due to the aging facilities. The market was moved to Toyosu, about 2 km away from Tsukiji.
One of the biggest concerns in the current sushi industry is the declining population of Pacific bluefin tuna, a central ingredient for omakase-style sushi. It is getting harder to obtain high-quality bluefin tuna for multiple reasons, such as overfishing due to the sushi boom and global warming.
In a 2018 interview by Japanese media, Jiro Ono said, “We used to find a lot of quality tuna at Tsukiji and all we needed to do was to pick what we liked, but it is not possible to shop like that anymore.” Yoshikazu agreed: “We have to select from what is available, so it is important to have techniques of enhancing the fish’s umami by letting it rest and age.”
We are entering the era when sushi chefs are more than ever expected to have the skill of maximizing the fish’s flavor as well as finding good-quality cuts.
After ten years from the documentary, people, the market, and ingredients all went through changes. Nevertheless, Jiro-san is still working as a chef and serving sushi for his customers. He turned 97 years old on October 27, 2022, and you can see him in a YouTube video. In the interview, he says his favorite sushi topping now is kohada (gizzard shad), a representative fish for Edomae sushi.
If you are interested in the sushi philosophy of Jiro Ono, the Sushi Legend who is still working at the age of 97, we highly recommend watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi!
3. What If I Have a Problem in Hiring?
“I do not know what my restaurant should feature to attract Japanese chefs.”
“I have an idea of the chefs I am looking for, but I do not know how to find them.”
“We tried to recruit on our own before without success, so we want to find a truly skilled chef this time.”
“Since no staff member speak Japanese, we want to entrust the whole task of hiring Japanese chefs to someone else.”
If you have a problem in recruiting Japanese chefs, feel free to contact us Washoku Agent!
6.0 Japanese Sushi Chefs in the Ghost Kitchen and Delivery Businesses
1. COVID-19 Impact on the Restaurant Industry
The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be finally settling down after the global outbreak since 2020. Yet, more than 500 million people have been infected with the virus around the world as of May 2022.
In the last two years, we were required to practice social distancing and restaurants lost customers. The food service industry was significantly damaged everywhere in the world. According to the National Restaurant Association, about 8 million people in the United States, two-thirds of the employees in the industry, were furloughed or required to stay home in 2020.
The Japanese cuisine market was also affected. Although the total number of Japanese restaurants in the world slightly increased from 156,000 in 2019 to 159,000 in 2021, the increase rate is slowing down because of the pandemic. In New York, about 100 Japanese restaurants out of 1,000, almost 10%, closed by 2021.
The food service industry within Japan saw the impact as well. The report issued by the Japan Food Service Association in January 2022 shows that the total sales of the izakaya (Japanese-style pub) business in 2020 reduced to a quarter of that in 2019. Furthermore, there was a news story that the pandemic decreased the number of wealthy foreign nationals in Ginza and a high-end omakase sushi restaurant laid off five of the seven staff members.
In the food service industry that was forced to make a change amid the pandemic, certain business models drew attention: food delivery and ghost kitchens.
2. Thriving Food Delivery and Ghost Kitchens
To keep a distance away from each other, demand for food delivery and a take-out service skyrocketed. Consequently, the global sales of Uber Eats doubled in 2020, compared to the previous year. In this situation, ghost kitchens, a business that specializes in delivery and has no storefront, is attracting attention.
The benefit of the ghost kitchen is that multiple restaurants share a kitchen to cut down fees, such as startup costs or rent. As of 2021, there are estimated to be 1,500 ghost kitchens in the United States, 7,500 in China, 3,500 in India, and 750 in the UK.
We cannot deny the possibility that another infectious disease like COVID-19 may spread around the world again in the near future. Many business owners continue joining the business of ghost kitchens and Michael Schaefer, a researcher of Euromonitor International, a market research company, speculates that it will grow to a trillion-dollar market by 2030.
3. Ghost Kitchens and Delivery for Sushi
Then, what are the situations surrounding sushi delivery and ghost kitchens?
Traditionally, Japanese sushi restaurants with mass appeal have been providing take-out and delivery services. Young employees used to deliver meals by bike or motorcycle, but staff shortage made it difficult to offer these services. More restaurants are beginning to outsource the delivery service to other companies.
High-end omakase sushi restaurants had been offering take-outs for regulars, but the pandemic led to more places that launched a delivery service.
As the country where sushi originated, Japan sees a deep-rooted popularity for sushi delivery. In a report about food delivery services in Japan, “Pizza and Pasta” are overwhelmingly popular (83.8%), but “Sushi” ranks second (38.5%).
Below are the numbers of the restaurants that deliver with Uber Eats and their food categories. The data were collected for Tokyo, New York, and London as of 6pm local time in June 2022. You can tell how popular sushi delivery is in Tokyo.
| Sushi | Pizza | Burger | Sandwich | |
| Tokyo | 290 | 190 | 200 | 220 |
| New York | 140 | 300 | 210 | 300 |
| London | 110 | 240 | 140 | 230 |
It seems that people tend to like ghost kitchens run by a sushi chef who used to work at a prestigious sushi restaurant or by a female sushi chef who serves a photogenic seafood rice bowl.
Meanwhile, NOBU TOKYO has been gaining regulars among high-class customers by delivering Lunch Box (sushi rolls, sashimi salad, 3 hot entrées) or Chef’s Box (sashimi salad with tuna tataki, chirashi, deep-fried shrimps, soft shell crab spring rolls, black cod with miso, roast beef) served in a classy black box.
4. How Do Japanese Sushi Chefs Work in the New Industry?
So far Japanese sushi chefs have been mainly working at the sushi bar counter. As the conclusion of this article, we will discuss how Japanese sushi chefs can use their skills in the expanding ghost kitchen business.
First, a sushi chef who has experience in a take-out or delivery service can work on developing new products or managing the staff. Those who have worked in a sushi ghost kitchen can also contribute to opening one abroad.
Since sushi restaurants have a lot of competition in Japan, they make every effort to increase the sales, including using take-out containers that give off a luxurious air and developing photogenic take-out meals so that they will be spread on social media. Japanese sushi chefs may be a great resource to learn such a know-how as well.
In addition, Japanese sushi chefs who have skills but are not adept at communicating with customers at the counter (due to the lack of language proficiency) can focus on working in a ghost kitchen or delivering the food.
This business model has a lot of room to grow, so one new idea can lead to a large increase in sales. If your restaurant considers opening a new business of ghost kitchen or delivery service, please contact Washoku Agent!
5. What If I Have a Problem in Hiring?
“I do not know what my restaurant should feature to attract Japanese chefs.”
“I have an idea of the chefs I am looking for, but I do not know how to find them.”
“We tried to recruit on our own before without success, so we want to find a truly skillful chef this time.”
“Since no staff member speak Japanese, we want to entrust the whole task of hiring Japanese chefs to someone else.”
If you have a problem in recruiting Japanese chefs, feel free to contact us Washoku Agent!
7.0 What Is High-End “Tachigui” Sushi Opened by Omakase Sushi Restaurants?
1. High-End Sushi Restaurants Joining the Standing Sushi Business
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to restrictions on visitors to Japan and since then foreign tourists could not enter the country for more than two years. During this time, a new sushi trend has been emerging among Japanese sushi connoisseurs. In Tokyo , well-known omakase sushi restaurants that cost 20,000 to 30,000 JPY (approx. 154 to 231 USD) per customer are opening new stores of high-end “tachigui sushi” (a standing sushi bar) and achieving great success.
The watershed moment came in February 2021, when an omakase sushi restaurant called Sushi Shōryu opened Tachigui Sushi Akira, a stand-up sushi restaurant, in Shimbashi. At Shōryu, customers pay 26,000 JPY (approx. 200USD) for the chef’s course meal, while they can enjoy the same sushi for 380 to 880 JPY (approx. 2.9 to 6.8 USD) per piece without reservations at Akira. The new sushi bar drew attention and quickly became one of the most popular restaurants. In December 2021, it was awarded a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2022 and sushi fans abroad are watching the new business closely as well.
Other omakase sushi restaurants followed suit by opening their tachigui sushi. Onodera that has branches in Shanghai, Hawaii, Los Angeles, and New York opened Tachiguisushi Ginza Onodera Honten in Omotesando in October 2021. Sushi Rinda that serves its omakase meal course for 22,000 JPY ( approx. 169 USD) opened Bullpen in October 2021, while Hatano Yoshiki that features its course meal for 27,500 JPY (aporox. 212 USD) opened Tachigui Sushi Tonari in January 2022. These bars have grown popular as well.
2. Tachigui Sushi from Fast Food to Luxury Restaurants
Sushi was born about 200 years ago as a street food that common people ate standing at the counter. Today, the style of the standing sushi bar is still loved by people. You can order a la carte sushi for 100 to 400 JPY (approx. 0.8 to 3.1 USD) per piece in a casual atmosphere.
The tachigui sushi business was targeting the masses with the average customer spending of 1,000 to 2,000 JPY (approx. 7.7 to 15.4 USD). The new genre of luxury tachigui sushi became a hot topic by targeting sushi aficionados, who pay 5,000 to 10,000 JPY ( approx. 38 to 77 USD).
In addition, some fancy tachigui restaurants serve not only a la carte dishes but also an omakase course meal. This style apparently captured the curiosity of those who love novelties.
*The numbers above are using the conversion rate as of June 2022 (1 USD = 130 JPY).
3. Reasons Why Prestigious Sushi Restaurants Are Opening Standing Sushi Bars
Then, why are these high-end restaurants joining the tachigui sushi business?
First, the omakase sushi restaurant boom in the last few years, known also as a “sushi bubble,” made it difficult to make reservations for popular restaurants. As it is common that the seats are all booked up to 2 or 3 months in advance , customers were not able to eat sushi when they wanted. This is why a tachigui sushi restaurant became popular, since it does not require a reservation.
Secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a drastic decrease in the number of foreign tourists and business dinners. To counteract the situation, the restaurants are trying a new business style to acquire a new customer group.
Thirdly, main sushi restaurants tend to have the head chef or sous chef serve at the counter and it is difficult for young chefs to gain the experience of making sushi in front of the customers. By letting such new chefs oversee the tachigui bars, the restaurants can give them opportunities to develop their skills.
4. Will Tachigui Sushi be Popular Overseas?
High-class tachigui sushi is being loved in Japan, but will it be accepted overseas too?
As mentioned above, sushi started as fast food in Japan and then gradually became luxurious meals. Because of the history, there are markets in Japan that can accept both a casual tachigui sushi bar where you can finish the meal in 15 minutes and an omakase sushi restaurant whose course meal can take 2 hours. On the other hand, sushi is mostly imagined as a fine dining food in other countries. It may be challenging to spread the culture of eating sushi standing up in such places.
In Japan, steakhouses also gained popularity with a stand-up style due to its high cost performance. Yet, when Ikinari Steak tried to spread the culture abroad and opened stores in New York in 2017, the style was not favored by locals. The restaurant added seats immediately, but they failed to gain ground and all the stores ended up closing.
Meanwhile, cities where many Japanese people live, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, already have tachigui sushi bars. In Japantown in Ho Chi Minh, a tachigui sushi bar opened in January 2022.
Ramen was once frowned upon by the Westerners, who did not like the sound of slurping. Yet, the habit became normalized, and ramen is now one of the most popular Japanese dishes around the world. It may be possible that luxury tachigui sushi bars will be also accepted abroad someday.
If you want to learn the latest information about the trend of Japanese cuisine or the hiring market, please contact Washoku Agent!
5. What If I Have a Problem in Hiring?
“I do not know what my restaurant should feature to attract Japanese chefs.”
“I have an idea of the chefs I am looking for, but I do not know how to find them.”
“We tried to recruit on our own before without success, so we want to find a truly skilled chef this time.”
“Since no staff members speak Japanese, we want to entrust the whole task of hiring Japanese chefs to someone else.”
If you have a problem in recruiting quality Japanese chefs, feel free to contact us Washoku Agent !