＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Added 5/7/2023> Kozozushi is now out of debt and has also resolved its share notes.
We improved our management by rebranding Kozozushi and Chagetsu to have multiple brand stores and converting existing stores into delivery stores, and we were able to eliminate our debt on a consolidated basis in the fiscal year ending December 2019.
Deliz, the acquiring company that caused the management crisis, signed an area franchise agreement for 100 stores with JFLA Holdings, which operates Toritetsu and other restaurants, in August 2020, providing a stable source of income from franchise fees.
The delivery system, which provides services such as Demae-can and Uber Eats, met demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company emerged from insolvency on February 19, 2021, and the stock notes were resolved.
When I was a child, the most common way to eat sushi was to order delivery from a sushi restaurant on special occasions or when guests came over. Although households sometimes made their own rolled sushi or chirashi sushi, it still couldn’t compare to the sushi made by a professional.
However, starting around 1980, a number of “take-out sushi chains” and “conveyor belt sushi chains” were born. It has been reported that one of these, Kozozushi, is now facing a crisis of excessive debt.(*)
(*) In the fiscal year ended December 2018, the company became insolvent on a consolidated basis, a note was issued regarding its going concern status, and on March 27, 2019, the Tokyo Stock Exchange designated the company for a grace period before delisting, and the company abolished shareholder benefits.
This time, I would like to introduce the rise and fall of these “sushi chain restaurants.”
１．”Takeout sushi chain”
The first company to launch a take-out sushi chain was Kyotaru Co., Ltd., which operates Sushi Misakimaru. Originally founded as a traditional Japanese restaurant in Kyoto, the company opened take-out stores focusing on Kamigata sushi in 1952, and gradually expanded its chain of directly managed stores. However, Kyotaru was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1997 due to intensifying competition. It has now been restructured as a subsidiary of Yoshinoya Holdings, and continues to operate.
After that, many takeaway sushi chains were established, such as “Kozeni Sushi” and “Kozo Sushi” started by entertainer Hiroyuki Ota. “Kozeni Sushi” went bankrupt before anyone knew it.
Meanwhile, Kozo Sushi achieved annual sales of 53.1 billion yen in 1979, making it the No. 1 restaurant chain in Japan. In the 1980s, the number of directly managed and franchised stores grew to 2,000, and in 1991 the chain’s total sales exceeded 100 billion yen.
However, after that, with the rise of conveyor belt sushi chains and the fact that home delivery specialists, department stores, and supermarkets also began to focus on selling sushi, competition intensified, and it seems that the company has been in the red since the 2000s.
２．”Conveyor belt sushi chain”
Genroku Sushi was the first to start a conveyor belt sushi chain, completing a rotating conveyor dining table inspired by factory conveyor belts in 1957 and opening the first Genroku Sushi store in Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture in 1958. As we all know, other conveyor belt sushi chains such as Kappa Sushi, Kura Sushi, and Sushiro were born one after another after that.
３．The rise and fall of sushi chains
It’s thanks to “take-out sushi chains” and “conveyor belt sushi chains” that we can now eat sushi cheaply and easily, but as competition to open new stores intensified, the market became saturated with competing chains, and it became difficult to manage.
This is natural selection caused by competition. I don’t think the current situation will change unless we downsize to an optimal scale.