Japan’s grilled-meat restaurant boom: the secret to survival amid coronavirus pandemic

Good ventilation is turning into a secret weapon for Japan’s yakiniku eateries, where customers cook raw cuts of meat themselves

Although the restaurant business in the country has been hard hit during the pandemic, yakinikus saw a historically low number of insolvencies last year

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Grilled beef offerings at a yakiniku restaurant. Photo: SCMP

Published: 5:50pm, 6 Feb 2021Updated: 5:49pm, 6 Feb 2021

Indoor grilling isn’t a new concept, but in the coronavirus pandemic era, it can make the difference between a restaurant surviving or closing its doors.

Good ventilation is turning into a secret weapon for Japan’s yakiniku, or “grilled-meat” restaurants, where customers cook raw ingredients such as cuts of beef shoulder, pork belly and vegetables at the table.

While many eateries around the globe remain closed or offer takeaway only, such establishments in Japan have remained open because the government does not have the legal means to force closures. Before the government implemented a state of emergency last month, it was even encouraging people to eat out. Even so, the island nation saw a record number of restaurant bankruptcies in 2020, according to Teikoku Databank.

Restaurants have been one of the hardest hit industries in the pandemic globally: one in six eateries in the US closed last year. To combat the risks of dining out, restaurants everywhere have been forced to adapt to survive: in the US, many are providing outdoors-only service while some chains in China have converted to fresh-food delivery.

Japan’s yakiniku eateries, however, saw a historically low number of insolvencies last year, according to Tokyo Shoko Research. Sales actually grew in some months compared with 2019, according to the Japan Food Service Association. What makes meat-grilling restaurants resilient is the dining concept itself: aggressive ventilation sucks away smoke – and airborne pathogens – quickly. The air inside a yakiniku restaurant likely changes over six times more than in standard eateries, according to Shinpo Co., a maker of restaurant-use yakiniku grills and ventilators. It’s also a dining experience that’s harder to replicate at home.

“The outlook for yakiniku is good even after coronavirus,” said Seiichiro Samejima, an analyst at Ichiyoshi Research Institute Inc. “Globally, when lockdowns were lifted, more people were eating meat.”