Hiroyuki Miyasako’s “taste of his parents’ home…Why are okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and yakisoba “flour-based food restaurants” going bankrupt one after another nowadays?

A string of “closures”…second-highest level on record

Okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and yakisoba restaurants are disappearing from street corners. Behind this is a situation that reflects the times. Lovers have the option of buying frozen foods and eating them at home, but the common people will miss these stores because they were the only places where they could casually drop by.

Hiroyuki Miyasako, formerly of “Ameagari Kesshitai,” reported on his YouTube page in April of this year that the takoyaki restaurant “Miyatako desu. near Gotanda Station, Tokyo, will close at the end of April.

Miyatako’s restaurant will be closing at the end of this month.

Miyatako further explained the reason for the closure as follows.

The Corona incident had a big impact on us, and the flow of customers did not return after the Corona closed.

The takoyaki restaurant in Gotanda is said to have opened in April 2003 as a branch of a takoyaki restaurant owned by Miyasako’s family in Osaka.

On this site of Miyasako’s, there are written comments from fans regretting the closure of the restaurant, such as “I’m sorry and sad.

Okonomiyaki and takoyaki, called “konamon,” are popular foods mainly in Osaka and other parts of the Kinki region, and many restaurants offer them.

Recently, “Hyotan,” a takoyaki restaurant located in Yodogawa-ku, Osaka City, near Juso Station on the Hankyu Line, closed its doors on November 28. At 400 yen for 10 pieces, the restaurant was popular among the locals for its common fare. When the decision to close was posted on the restaurant’s X (formerly Twitter) page, people who appeared to be customers wrote such comments as “I’m so sad.

Kiyomi, an okonomiyaki restaurant located in Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka City, a few minutes’ walk from Sumiyoshi Higashi Station on the Nankai Electric Railway Koya Line, closed its doors on September 30. It is said to have been visited not only by local customers but also by konamon lovers from all over Japan.

Stores serving konamon are built in a folksy style, allowing customers to casually enter and eat at the store, or take the freshly baked hot food home to eat. Although there are no detailed statistics on the trend of konamon stores, the disappearance of such familiar stores is a sad sight for konamon lovers.

Okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and yakisoba stores are not only closing voluntarily. Bankruptcies of companies operating small-scale restaurants surged in the first half of this fiscal year (April to September), reaching the second-highest level on record, according to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research, a private research firm. According to the report, the number of bankruptcies of okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and yakisoba restaurants in the first half of this fiscal year totaled 12, a six-fold increase over the same period last year. This is the second highest number of bankruptcies in the first half of the year since the first two years of 2010 and 2014, following 13 in 2003.