Yoshinoya (吉野家) is a Japanese multinational fast food chain, and the second-largest chain of gyūdon (beef bowl) restaurants. The chain was established in Japan in 1899. Its motto is "Tasty, low-priced, and quick".[2]
Etymology and logo
The kanji 吉 (yoshi) means "luck" in Japanese, the kanji 野 (no) means "field", and the kanji 家 (ya) means "house".
The founder of the company, Eikichi Matsuda (松田栄吉), was from the former town of Yoshino (吉野町) in Osaka Prefecture, and a belief predominates that Yoshino is the origin of the name.[3]
In Japan, the nickname of the restaurant is, which is an abbreviation of Yoshinoya's gyūdon (吉野家の牛丼).
The logo of Yoshinoya depicts bull horns, and was created by Yoshinoya's founder Eikichi Matsuda. The stylized bull horns were derived from the shape of the initial letter in Yoshinoya's English name, "Y". The rope surrounding the horns references Japanese sumo-wrestling, where the word "Yokozuna" is equivalent to "winner," representing the quality of the food served in Yoshinoya. The surrounding rope is made up of 27 rice grains. The logo as a whole is meant to suggest that Yoshinoya sells the "best beef bowls".[4]
History
Yoshinoya first opened in 1899 at the Nihonbashi fish market in Tokyo.[5] When the market was devastated by the Great Kantō earthquake, Yoshinoya moved to the new Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo in 1926.[6]
The chain opened its first 24-hour store in 1952.
On December 27, 1958, the chain's business model was changed from self-employed restaurants to a stock company, as an attempt to gain more profit.
In 1965, the chain earned a million dollars in sales, which led to the idea of expanding the chain's operations in Japan.
The chain's first franchised store was opened in Shinsaibashi, in 1968.
In 1975, the first American store of the fast-food chain was opened in Colorado. In the early 2000s, Yoshinoya, along with other chains such as McDonald's, triggered a price war in Japan by introducing a regular beef bowl dish for ¥280, or around US$3.[7]
Locations
Yoshinoya has a chain of stores in Japan, the United States, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Its Malaysian branch closed down in 2021.[8]
Japan
In its restaurants in Japan, tables are often counters, and in that case, they take orders over those counters. Chopsticks are provided. The menu includes standard-serving (並盛), large-serving (大盛), or extra-large-serving (特盛)[9] beef bowls, pork bowls (豚丼),[10] raw eggs (to stir and pour on top, sometimes mixed with soy sauce), soft-boiled eggs (半熟玉子), miso soup and pickles (called oshinkō [お新香] in its menu; a kind of
Impact of BSE
In late 2001, a domestic bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) incident critically damaged beef bowl sales. In late 2003, Japan suspended imports of American beef due to a BSE incident in Washington, cutting off Yoshinoya's main source of short plate (fatty beef) that is the main component of its beef bowl. This forced Yoshinoya to terminate beef bowl sales in Japan for the first time in its history on February 11, 2004.
News of the removal of this item from Yoshinoya's menu caused its fans and non-fans alike to queue in massive lines at its restaurants all around Japan to taste what might be their last beef bowl for a long time. Yoshinoya then switched to serving pork bowl (butadon) instead of beef. However, its restaurants in the United States continued to serve the beef bowl using American short plate. From December 2, 2004, restaurants in Japan started serving "beef yakiniku bowls" (牛焼肉丼), which use Australian beef, a different sauce, and additional vegetables.[27] These bowls differed from original "beef bowls", which use American beef.
In December 2005, Japan agreed to remove the restriction on importing beef from the United States. A letter to customers was then put up in restaurants, promising that the beef bowl would return in a few months. In January 2006, imports stopped again because inspectors found banned cattle parts in a veal shipment from the United States. In June 2006, Japan lifted the ban on imports again, and on July 31, 2006, Yoshinoya reposted the letter promising to resume serving the beef bowl in about two months.
On September 18, 2006, Yoshinoya brought back their beef bowl for one day as "the beef bowl revival festival" (牛丼復活祭). This "revival", however, meant that its beef bowls would be available only the first five days of the month in October and November.
Controversies
In August 2008, three Yoshinoya employees in Hong Kong including the store's manager were arrested after gang-raping another employee. Footage of the incident was uploaded to the internet.[28]
In 2019, Yoshinoya outlets in Hong Kong were targeted to be boycotted and vandalized by anti-government protesters during 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. Hop Hing Group, based in Hong Kong, is the licensed franchise of Yoshinoya in the city and Mainland China (Beijing and the cities in Southeast China). Its CEO, Marvin Hung, was criticized by protesters for attending a rally for Hong Kong police organized by pro-Beijing camps.[29]
Another major reason that caused the boycott of Yoshinoya is an advertisement posted on Facebook in July 2019. The advertisement featured a traditional Japanese food, chikuwa; in Cantonese, the word sounds similar to "dog that tears paper". As this advert was published after police removed messages on a Lennon Wall in Tai Po, the advertisement was then regarded as poking fun at the police. The staff from Social Strategy Hong Kong who helped create the advertisement was sacked afterwards. Hence, protestors thought that Yoshinoya was politically biased and suppressed freedom of speech. Citizens in support of the protests then started boycotting Yoshinoya.[30]
Gallery
See also
- List of Japanese restaurants
- Donburi
- Yakiniku
- Matsuya
- Sukiya
External links
References
- Number of Stores of the Group Yoshinoya Holdings, retrieved 12 July 2023^
- 吉野家公式ウェブサイト 吉野家公式ウェブサイト^
- "吉野家の歴史に関するご質問". (Japanese) YOSHINOYA CO., LTD. Retrieved July 6, 2011.^