The bread is sweet and the meat is crispy… Zetteria’s chance to win the “hamburger chain war” that has taken McDonald’s by storm.

The moment I took a bite, I was surprised. I was surprised.

The fluffy bun was sweet, the fried chicken was crispy, and the 440 yen price tag was a bargain for the luxurious taste.

This reporter tried a tartar chicken burger from the hamburger chain Zetteria. I ordered it with fries (Furupote) and a drink (M size Mellow Green Tea) on a large tablet (1,060 yen for the three items), and in about five minutes the waiter had it wrapped in a paper bag for me.

The war among hamburger chains that satisfy the stomachs of the common people is intensifying. The number of stores in Japan is now well over 6,000, and the market is expected to reach a record high of 1.03 trillion yen in fiscal year 2013. Economic journalist Takashi Matsuzaki explains.

McDonald’s is the world’s largest company, with more than 3,000 stores in Japan, and if you compare it to the second largest group, consisting of Mos Burger with about 1,300 stores, Burger King with about 300 stores, and Zetteria with about 270 stores, you can see how huge McDonald’s is.

However, McDonald’s monopoly is not a rock solid. The cost of raw materials and energy has skyrocketed, and McDonald’s is losing its advantage of being “cheap. In February this year, McDonald’s announced that it would raise the price of about 60% of its products by 10 to 50 yen, including the Double Cheeseburger from 450 yen to 480 yen and the Big Mac from 480 yen to 500 yen. McDonald’s can no longer claim to offer “great taste at a low price.

A sense of luxury at a low price

The threat to the “Gulliver” McDonald’s is Zetteria, mentioned at the beginning of this article. In April 2011, the restaurant chain Zensho Holdings acquired all shares of Lotteria from the major confectionery maker Lotte Holdings. The company plans to rebrand itself from Lotteria to Zetteria by the end of April of this year.

It seems that Zetteria has a chance to win. Mr. Matsuzaki continues.

Lotte, a confectionery manufacturer, does not have much know-how in the restaurant business, and Lotteria’s business condition was not good. On the other hand, Zensho, Japan’s largest restaurant chain, which operates the Sukiya beef bowl chain and the Nakau udon restaurant chain, has a great track record.

It has a supply chain (from material procurement to consumption) built up over many years of experience, and can obtain high quality meat and other ingredients at relatively low prices. We can offer high-end products at prices lower than McDonald’s.”

Matsuzaki also feels that the selection of products is also very important.

They seem to be focusing on Japanese-style menu items such as teriyaki burgers and Tatsuta-age-style chicken,” he said. No matter how much momentum they have, they cannot suddenly break the stronghold of the global giant McDonald’s. They may be trying to differentiate themselves from the U.S.-style McDonald’s with Japanese-style burgers and expand their share of the Japanese market.”

Zetteria, a new star reborn from Lotteria. President Takushi Inoue of Burger One, which operates Zetteria under the umbrella of Zensho, was sniffling at a press conference in February, saying, “I don’t know how many years it will take, but we want to be number one. With a name that combines the words “Zesshin Burger” and “cafeteria,” both of which are the company’s main products, Burger One is likely to become the eye of a typhoon in the increasingly fierce hamburger chain war.