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

Local “familiar tastes” difficult to pass on…unable to withstand rising costs, succession problems, and labor shortages

All of these bankruptcies are small in size, with less than 10 million yen in capital and less than five employees, and they all bring to light the reality that “flour-based” stores are struggling, according to the report.

An official from the Commerce and Industry Research and Information Department says , “More and more of them are going bankrupt because they have been struggling with sales and have been losing money, and it has become difficult for them to control rising costs. He further explains.

The number of konamon stores in the Kinki area is high and the number of bankruptcies is also high, but the number of bankruptcies in the Kanto area increased in the first half of this fiscal year.

The number of restaurant bankruptcies is increasing considerably, as ramen stores, which also use wheat as an ingredient, are also affected by increased costs. In addition to rising costs for food ingredients and utilities, there is a shortage of labor from the COVID-19 crisis, and even if customers recover, it may not be possible to attract staff. Shortages and rising labor costs have also had a considerable impact.”

Commerce and Industry Research cites rising prices of foodstuffs such as wheat and eggs, rising utility and other costs, and a shortage of part-time and other staff, in addition to rising labor costs, as the causes of bankruptcies. Meanwhile, as for the characteristics of bankruptcies in the first half of this fiscal year, seven of the 12 cases, or nearly 60%, were in the Kanto region. Commerce and Industry Research analyzes, “Perhaps the COVID-19 crisis has changed the situation, with the Kanto region surpassing the Kinki region for the first time in five years.

When a flour store goes bankrupt, “it is often the case that only one store closes, and there are few cases where another company buys the shop or otherwise transfers it to another company,” said a Shoko Research representative. The closure of a restaurant means that the taste of flour dumplings familiar to the locals is no longer passed on to the next generation.

The restaurant industry is facing a difficult business environment now that the Corona support is over. Bankruptcies are on the rise in all sectors of the food and beverage industry, including take-out and home delivery, and a shakeout is underway.” The Shoko Research staff believes that “people are becoming more thrifty, buying food and ingredients at supermarkets,” and that “even in the frozen food industry, there are differences in the way people eat flour-based foods.

Even frozen food is no different from powdered food, but the taste and mood are completely different from eating hot food at a street corner store. The street-corner koumon stores were among the most popular of all eating-out establishments, and their low prices made them easy to use, so the times have become lonely for lovers of this type of food.