WITH the upheaval faced by restaurants due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan's foodservice industry has come up with a new attraction to make up for lost revenue.
Restaurants are now looking at sumptuous breakfast menus to make up for revenue lost in curtailed evening trade, by offering popular lunch and dinner items in a new breakfast service.
According to a Kyodo News feature article, a restaurant located near Tokyo's bustling Shimbashi Station began serving a morning "yakiniku" grilled meat set for 500 yen (US$4.6) in August last year, after its operator's sales dropped 40 percent in May from a year earlier.
The president of Yakiniku Like Ltd Morihisa Arimura said the reactions of customers have so far been generally positive.
One of his customers, he says, told him that eating yakiniku for breakfast fits nicely into a modified lifestyle amid the pandemic of eating more in the mornings and less in the evenings.
Hiroaki Watanabe, a logistics analyst and television commentator, says that while Japan long differed from many other Asian countries in not having a culture of eating out in the morning, the new trend is likely to last even beyond the pandemic.
He said that along with yakiniku, sushi and even ramen noodles are being served for breakfast although they were more of evening meals.
Arimura said the morning menus have been contributing to the shop's earnings, although not as much as lunch and dinner revenue.
According to Watanabe, apart from improving restaurants' bottom lines, targeting the breakfast market has a social benefit, helping members of Japan's rapidly aging population and working women.
For example, he said many elderly people live by themselves and cooking for one can be an expensive way to eat.
Working women, meanwhile, often need more time in the morning than men as they tend to be the primary caregivers in their families, and eating out could be more practical, especially for working mothers.
Established in 2018, Yakiniku Like is known as a restaurant brand where customers, many of whom are female, can drop by alone and enjoy a quick and reasonably priced meal.
Arimura said he was planning to continue offering the yakiniku breakfast sets after the early closure request is lifted in Tokyo as he was convinced of its demand based on reactions of customers and sales.
"I'm glad that we were able to develop methods and strategies, such as morning yakiniku and takeout menus, as well as delivery and drive-through services," he said.
The eatery in the Shimbashi district, a commercial hub, is now open from 7 am to 9 pm, with the closing times extended by an hour after the coronavirus emergency was lifted in the capital.
The emergency was imposed in the Tokyo metropolitan area in early January and extended to other areas of Japan, with the government offering financial support to drinking and dining establishments that comply with requests to close early.