Sanpo-yoshi Communication

President's Column] Earning Foreign Currency

The major restaurant industry seems to be accelerating its overseas expansion.
It is said that the ratio of overseas outlets of major Japanese food service companies has already exceeded 40%.
The restaurant industry, which is representative of domestic demand-based industries, is likely to find growth opportunities overseas in order to survive in response to the historic depreciation of the yen and the long-term shrinkage of the market due to Japan's declining population.
The restaurant industry has a structure in which the cost of procuring imported food ingredients is easily driven up by the weak yen, putting pressure on profits.
While it is not easy to raise prices in Japan, where deflation has persisted for a long time, it is relatively easy to revise prices overseas.
Saizeriya, which has declared that it will not raise prices in Japan, is also not profitable domestically, according to its published financial statements, and most of its profits are earned overseas (mainly in Asia).

This is proof that if you stay only in the domestic market, you will have to raise prices or your business will be in jeopardy.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced last year that the number of Japanese restaurants overseas will be approximately 187,000 in 2023, up approximately 20% from 159,000 in 2021. This trend is expected to continue. However, for us small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it is not easy to expand overseas due to the large risks involved.
Still, it may be necessary to proceed now with some kind of challenge that is acceptable even if it fails.

In order of decreasing risk
Inbound support
Cross-border EC
Food Export
Overseas Expansion

These are the above possibilities. Our bank, the Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation, and JETRO are providing various types of support, and we are currently preparing to assist with cross-border EC and food exports. We also have Vietnamese and Taiwanese (English and Chinese are available) employees who have joined our company, so we can provide inbound menus, SNS, and other services.
If you are considering creating a website, please contact us.

In any case, I believe it is important to take small steps first.
We will do our best to help you in any way we can.