Famous Ramen Stores that went Bankrupt in 2022

COVID-19 crisis, rising raw material costs, and succession problems…

Running a restaurant is a tough business. It is said that half of all restaurants close within two years of opening, only 30% last three years, and only 10% remain after 10 years. One of the reasons for the difficulty of running a restaurant business is that, unlike other businesses, the barriers to entry are low, but above all, because it is a thin profit margin business, external factors such as the economy have a large impact.

In addition, the last few years have been a difficult time for restaurants due to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, soaring prices of crude oil and food ingredients, and the record low yen. According to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research, the number of bankruptcies (with debts of 10 million yen or more) in the restaurant industry nationwide in 2020 rose 5.3% from the previous year to 842, the highest annual number since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 (800 cases).

The number of cases of stores closing due to the inability to carry on the business is also increasing rapidly due to the aging of managers. If a restaurant’s brand is well established and popular, it may be possible to survive by having a successor or transferring the business to another company, but in general, the business is one of high profit margins, so even if there are family members who can take over, they are not interested in taking over the business or having their family members take over.

Among restaurants, ramen stores continue to face particularly difficult business conditions. Some closed their doors due to the COVID-19 crisis, while others closed their doors out of sheer desperation due to difficulties in business succession or evictions, etc. Many ramen stores closed their doors in 2022, and we would like to take a look back at some of the “great stores” that regrettably came to an end.

“Tokyo Ramen” using Western techniques: “Tokyo Ramen Marion” (Higashi Jujo)

Tokyo Ram en Marion (Higashi Jujo) was established in 1984 and closed in 2022. The founder, Makoto Takoi, was a veteran chef who had worked at the prestigious French restaurant “Tokyo Kaikan. He decided to set up his own restaurant in order to create his own unique ramen using French techniques. At the time of opening, Sapporo ramen and Kyushu ramen were gaining popularity in Tokyo, and in order not to be outdone by them, he named his restaurant “Tokyo Ramen” and adopted the nickname “Marion” for the Yurakucho Center Building, which opened in the same year.

Marion’s ramen is a soy sauce ramen overflowing with complex flavor. The soup, which is made with a base of animal ingredients such as pork bones and pig’s feet, and plenty of dried sardines and grilled dried sardines, is carefully and slowly prepared, and has a depth not found at other ramen stores. The “chashu nigiri” made with tender chashu pork was also a specialty.

For many years, Marion was loved by the people of Higashi Jujo for its gentle ramen flavor and Makoto’s personality, but in 2017, Makoto passed away suddenly. His daughter, Reia, took over the restaurant to preserve the restaurant and its flavor. However, although she had experience working in restaurants, she was a complete amateur when it came to making ramen. With the help of regular customers who knew the taste better than she did, she has been able to bring it close to her father’s taste.

It has been 38 years since the restaurant was loved by the locals, and five years since Reia took over. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the restaurant was popular with many regular customers, but will regrettably close its doors in February 2022. The reason for the closure was not the COVID-19 crisis, but rather a road expansion due to urban planning. Reia hopes to reopen the restaurant in another location at some point in the future.

Nakamuraya” (Ebina): A solitary bowl of ramen that incorporates the concept of “dashi” (soup stock)

Nakamuraya ( Ebina), a popular ramen restaurant that has continued to draw long lines of customers since its establishment in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1999 and its relocation to Ebina City in 2007, will close its doors in February 2022 and remain closed indefinitely.

The owner, Eiri Nakamura, who was 22 years old at the time of opening, was self-taught and immediately became the talk of the town among ramen fans, attracting many customers from inside and outside of the prefecture, and the media jumped on the bandwagon. He was one of the first to introduce the concept of “dashi” (soup stock) into ramen soup and to offer “kakesoba” (buckwheat noodles with broth only). They also introduced a method of roasting chashu pork, which had previously been served cold, over a charcoal fire right in front of the customer.

His unique style of draining the broth, in which he raises his left hand high in the air and swings it down in one motion, is known as “tenkuodoshi,” and what was once a simple cooking process has been sublimated into a performance. Mr. Nakamura has been an innovator and artist who has continuously brushed up the ramen dish through his many innovative approaches and ingenuity.

Since 2016, Mr. Nakamura has had a restaurant in New York City. He left the Japanese store to his staff, but decided to leave once and close it indefinitely due to the aging of the facility it occupies. Although the reopening in Japan has not yet been decided, Nakamura-san’s relentless challenge for ramen continues in the U.S.

Japan’s Best Ramen with a sense of Showa Era: “Chinese Soba Fukuju” (Sasazuka)

Fukuju was founded in 1951, shortly after the end of World War II. Fukushu” ( Sasazuka), which has been operating in a nostalgic store that still retains the atmosphere of the Showa period, has quietly closed its doors. Katsuya Kobayashi, the second-generation owner, is 81 years old, but he has continued to operate the restaurant by himself, preparing food every day, but decided to close the business rather than relocate due to eviction from the area by the redevelopment project.

The previous founder opened a Japanese buckwheat noodle restaurant in Shinjuku before the war and gained popularity by proclaiming it “the best buckwheat noodle restaurant in Japan. When he moved to Sasazuka after the war, he changed the business to a ramen restaurant because there were already many soba restaurants in the shopping arcade and Chinese soba was popular at the time. The ramen bowl had the words “Japan’s No. 1” proudly painted on the bottom of it.

A bowl of ramen costs 500 yen. A bowl of “Gomoku Ramen” with egg, shiitake mushrooms, kamaboko, and other ingredients was also inexpensive at 630 yen. The soy sauce broth, which is rich in both color and flavor, and the thin, thin noodles boiled in a large pot make for a powerful bowl of ramen. The restaurant is sloped, so when the ramen is placed on the counter, the soup slants down, which is one of the flavors of the restaurant.

Mr. Kobayashi was friendly and joked around with his regular customers, but he was also more shy than most. He told only his regular customers that he was closing the restaurant, and quietly folded the curtain. After working for more than half a century, Mr. Kobayashi is spending the rest of his life leisurely, reminiscing about the ramen he made.

The world is an impermanent place, and where there is a beginning, there will eventually be an end. This is even more true for ramen stores, where it is difficult to continue for a long time. We are grateful to Yamaji Rikiya for continuing to make delicious ramen and hope that one day we will be able to enjoy that ramen again.

Rikiya Yamaji’s official website is here.