I have done extensive research and have found it should be very easy for me to get a chefs visa. With this, I should be able to work long enough to retain a permanent residency then open my own restaurant.
Does anyone have thoughts or suggestions on the potential successes of an American bbq spot in Osaka?
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**Planning to move to Osaka, buying a home and opening an American Southern BBQ restaurant after my Perm Residency. Thoughts?**
I have done extensive research and have found it should be very easy for me to get a chefs visa. With this, I should be able to work long enough to retain a permanent residency then open my own restaurant.
Does anyone have thoughts or suggestions on the potential successes of an American bbq spot in Osaka?
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Do it!
Where in Osaka? And what kind of “american” bbq you talking about…
I volunteer to test your BBQ to make sure it’s good enough. Just send some brisket, ribs, and chicken thighs to me
This is what I would be bringing to Osaka, this is me;
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/dining/cash-only-bbq-brooklyn.html
Just to let you know that there is an American BBQ place already in Osaka. It is called Chop Hits BBQ. They focus on Texas style BBQ. Good luck in your ventures.
Just do plenty of research on location, and marketing, because what Americans like from a BBQ Joint can be different from what Japanese people expect from a restaurant, even an American restaurant.
Though, I’ll always welcome there being more good American BBQ in Japan, there’s not as much of it as I’d expect
It is going to be extremely hard to find a landlord who will allow a foreigner to operate a BBQ in their rental property. You will be choosing a restaurant location based on where the landlords are desperate enough to lower their standards to allow you, not on where the customers are.
You would be better off buying a combined restaurant and residence with an investment loan.
I’m confused about your timetable here.
You’re planning on opening your business *after* getting permanent residence, so what are you planning on doing for the 10 years you’d need to be here before you’re eligible for that? Have you already got a job offer at a BBQ restaurant that you’d be working at first?
Since you seem to have experience already running your restaurant in NY wouldn’t it make more sense to go business manager route and start with your restaurant? Or at least with a food truck?
I’ve no idea what the food truck scene is like in Osaka, but Tokyo has a few communities set up… Check these guys out: https://www.w-tokyodo.com/neostall/
I’m toying with the same idea, have been for about 5 years now. My recommendation for you, consider looking around the Taisho area, rent may be more affordable there and you’re not too far outside of the busy areas that people wouldn’t make the trip for good Texas BBQ.
Taisho is an area that’s sort of undergoing a bit of gentrification recently, used to be more ghetto as much as such a concept exists in Japan, more associated with crime and lower incomes. There are foreign owned bars, and a unique relatively new yokocho called Taisho Tugboat that have been popping up there.
I’ve been to Osaka a couple dozen times, just for the joy of visiting with friends and exploring Kansai, and currently reside in Texas. Just looking for an excuse to contribute something to Japan for my part, I’m not basing my life around it. I think properly executed American style BBQ can find an audience in Japan, as it has in a lot of other Asian countries like Vietnam, Korea, etc.