**Looking for anecdotal experiences**
For those who have lived in Japan for a while, when did these chains become popular in Japan? for example, Torikizoku, Saiezerya, HUB, etc.
Do you remember your first experiences going to these places?
edit: I’ll also include places like Donki hote, Sukiya, Sushiro, and basically any other chain in Japan.
14 comments
The reason any chain gets popular is that they have consistent quality between stores. You can go to Saize or Toriki in both Osaka and Tokyo and get basically the same experience.
This is no different from how chains get popular in the West and not unique to Japan.
You’re basically asking people to google research for you.
Just look at their Wikipedia entry for dates.
2 decades of BOJ’s quantitative easing allows these chains to borrow money cheaply to open branches everywhere. Coupled that with consumers that demand for cheap stuffs that only chains can supply because of their economic of scale.
The 1990s and 2000s
Just anecdotally (because that’s fun), here is what I think as a long-term resident.
The Hub I believe started down in Kobe. I think it was in Kansai for years. It was not a popular chain when I first arrived in Kanagawa and worked in Tokyo back in the late 90s. Basically, if you wanted a pub experience, you went to Dubliner’s in Shinjuku or The Hobgoblin, or Footnik or What the Dickens.
The thing is – all of those places were in very busy areas, aren’t necessarily where you live, are expensive, and reasonably authentic.
The Hub, is kind of localized. It’s actually a good idea. It’s in a lot of locations, it’s at a reasonable price, and gives the feel of pub but in a way that I believe also feels comfortable to Japanese. A bit less foreign. I want to say The Hub started expanding rapidly in the early to mid 00s.
Saiza is a value chain. Japanese love them some value. And every foreigner I know loves 500 yen caraffes of wine.
Don’t recall seeing any of those here in our corner of Kyushu.
Are you trying to create a list of all the chain restaurants/bars to avoid?
Torikizoku was new (I think? Or becoming popular at least) when I was in uni maybe 8 or 9 years ago.
It was popular amongst ourselves because the food and drinks were pretty good for the price.
I think they heavily relied on foreign staff which is probably where they cut costs.
I haven’t been around long enough to answer but I like your question and would also like to hear peoples antidotal experiences on how things have changed.
They don’t just “get popular” at a specific time, they gradually build their reputation and customer base as they expand. If you want more specific answer you need a more specific metric like number of stores or customers.
Not to mention the geographic aspect, there isn’t even a Don quijote in every prefecture for example.
Dunno but they all suck anyway
It’s not a Japan thing it’s a whole world thing. Capitalism is washing the character out of pretty much everywhere around the world. It almost doesn’t matter where you go, all shopping centres pretty much look the same around the world.
Things have changed. The cheap Izakaya chain back in the old days was Tengu – maybe was a bit like Toriki and another that now i forgot. Now those are mostly gone but I still see there is a Tengu in Shinjuku and a few other places.
All of those, except Torikizoku, were known and popular places back in the anicent times of 2006 when I was an exchange student in western Tokyo.