Japan Food Service Journal articles from January 2002

Japan Food Service Journal archives from January 2002

Pork Finding a Place on the Menu.
January 25, 2002... Beef markets were in disarray and restaurants and supermarkets felt the effects as consumers continued to shun beef this autumn. While importers continued to receive orders placed well ahead of time, the businesses they sell to have been...

Coffee Shops Campaign on Christmas Theme.
January 25, 2002... Japan's coffee shops have offered a number of food and non-food products for the Christmas/year-end season. Excelsior Cafe, operated by Doutor Coffee, sells gift sets that the customer fills with items of his or her own choice. Dozens of...

Restaurants Appeal with Interactive Screens.
January 25, 2002... Several restaurant chains are trying to boost business by offering customers the use of entertaining and informative interactive displays. A small number of McDonald's shops in the Tokyo area have placed touch panels in their restaurants....

Bento Takeout Shops Investing in New Services.
January 25, 2002... Honke Kamadoya and Hurxley, two major operators of takeout bento (boxed meal) products, are investing in new ways to get their products to customers. Hurxley, which oversees approximately 820 Hokka Hokka Tei outlets nationwide, has started...

China Emerges as Major Supplier for Food Service Industry.
January 25, 2002... China has become the leading offshore source of rice for Japan's food industry, accounting for 54% of total rice imports (exclusive of broken polished rice) in fiscal 2000. That is double China's share of just three years earlier. The...

Pork Cutlet Chain Jumps to South Korea.
January 25, 2002... Green House Foods hopes to ride the growing popularity of Japanese food in South Korea. The company recently joined forces with Our Home, a Korean food service firm, to open the first Shinjuku Saboten pork cutlet restaurant in the nation....

Tulley's Japan Begins Roasting Own Beans.
January 25, 2002... Tulley's Coffee Corporation has granted Tulley's Japan permission to roast its own beans to maximize freshness and quality in the store. Tulley's Japan will hereafter import unroasted beans and do its own roasting in Japan. The...

Tulley's Signs Rei Fields to Run Franchise Shops.
January 25, 2002... Reins International says that one of its group companies, Rei Fields, will operate franchise shops of Tulley's Coffee. The subsidiary recently signed a pact with Tulley's Coffee Japan to open 30 shops in the Tokyo area. Tulley's Coffee...

Shop Features Innovative Japanese Menu with Relaxed Atmosphere.
January 25, 2002... Elegant Western restaurants that until now were the sole food service tenants of a building in trendy Omotesando, Tokyo have a new neighbor: Reto, a shop serving Japanese food in a highly relaxed atmosphere. Food selections include such...

Convenience Store Breaks Ground with Broadband Information Access.
January 25, 2002... An am/pm convenience store outlet in Shibuya, Tokyo has been wired to connect it with a fiber-optic network and bring customers a wealth of information. The shop opened in early December under the name TEPCO de am/pm. TEPCO is a common name...

High-Quality Coffee Beans Selling High to Japan.
January 25, 2002... With strong demand for high-quality coffee in Japan, imports of unroasted beans from Central America have been on the rise. Benchmark Guatemalan HB recently rose in price 6.7% over a two-month period. While some coffee plantations have...

MOS Tests Market with Two New Types of Shops.
January 25, 2002... Fast food staple MOS Foods has opened two new types of shops on an experimental basis. Shanghai Ichiba offers five kinds of Chinese rice bowl dishes, each for 500 yen, including Shanghai Chukadon. The store measures only 59m2 and all 21...

Nippan Opens Large Japanese Restaurant in Tokyo.
January 25, 2002... Nippan is the operator of Aoyuzu, a large Japanese restaurant in Ebisu, Tokyo. Management estimates customers will spend an average of 4300 yen. The company operates 33 sushi and other restaurants, including one earlier Aoyuzu in Tokyo....

New Japanese Restaurant Recalls Ancient Architecture.
January 25, 2002... Global Dining has opened its second Gonhachi restaurant, this one of a larger scale. The shop seats 335 customers on three floors of a building designed to look like a kura, an old style storehouse with thick fireproof walls. Customers on...

Hotel Gets Attention with Simultaneous Restaurant Openings.
January 25, 2002... Feeling that its Japanese restaurants were ready for an update, the Century Hyatt Tokyo has opened three shops at once. The new configuration among the Japanese restaurants is designed in part to attract a new type of customer, specifically...

Chinese Delivery, Restaurant Businesses Join Forces.
January 25, 2002... Cooks trained at the famed China Chime restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo are now cooking for home-delivery shops. Delivery food business China Express and its operator Tap have partnered with China Chime in a venture expected to bring in 7 billion...

Starbucks Gains Large Cap Status with IPO.
January 25, 2002... Starbucks Coffee Japan entered the Osaka Stock Exchange NASDAQ Japan October 10 at a share price of 64,000 yen. That would give the issue a total market cap of 90.88 billion yen, eclipsing its coffee shop chain rival Doutor Coffee by 10...

Competition, Costs Give MOS Food Services a First-Half Loss.
January 25, 2002... MOS Food Services, operator of fast food restaurants, says it posted a first-half loss this year, the first since the company was listed in 1988. It paid a dividend of eight yen per share at the half, including a special dividend in honor of...

Electro-Magnetic Cooking System Runs on Lower Voltage.
January 25, 2002... The Kyakuseki-yo Denji Choriki is an electro-magnetic cooking unit designed for diners to sit around it. It costs 50,000 yen, which does not include installation, but users will realize savings because the unit requires a voltage of just...

Fujimak Offers Compact Electro-Magnetic Cooking System.
January 25, 2002... The IH Konro from Fujimak is compact and economical at 250,000 yen, but it heats up fast and conserves thermal energy. The manufacturer recommends using it with flat-bottomed pans (15-28cm) made of iron and some other materials. The item is...

Sales Promotion Sticker Printer.
January 25, 2002... The PC-12 from Roland DG prints highly durable sales promotion stickers and labels with resin ink. Resolution is a crisp 2400dpi, which is plenty for printing photographs, and the color lasts for weeks even outdoors. After printing, the...

Wooden Containers Intended to Ease Chemical Fears.
January 25, 2002... Responding to consumer concern about chemicals suspected to act as endocrinal disruptors, Chugoku Pearl Sales offers the Waki Series of wooden containers for food. The items are laminated to assure container performance, and users can have...

New Campbell Takeout Soups.
January 25, 2002... Campbell Reito (frozen) Soup Broccoli Soup can be eaten as soup or used to flavor other dishes. The condensed soup is creamy and filled with large broccoli pieces. Campbell Nakano also offers special takeout soup cups. The cups have...

Heinz Fond de Veau Sauce Base.
January 25, 2002... Heinz Japan offers Fond de Veau sauce base in a pouch. The ingredients include calf bone, vegetables and flavorings but no added salt. Restaurants can additionally season the sauce base to create their own original taste. Heinz says the...

Stock Base Eliminates Job of Prepping Pork Bones.
January 25, 2002... Amijirushi Shokuhin Kogyo sells Reito Super Genkotsu, a paste for making pork bone soup stock by adding water. The 200g bag creates as much stock as 2kg of bones and saves users the work of preparing the bone and skimming the broth. No salt...

Flour for Crunchy Tempura.
January 25, 2002... Tempura Dai Sakussen! is Showa Sangyo's new tempura powder. The company mills the flour to dissolve easily in water, avoid lumping and create very crunchy tempura coatings. Priced at 220 yen for 450g, the flour makes it easy to cook crispy...

Mild Vinegar Uses Cholesterol-Reducing Fungus.
January 25, 2002... Rabens Trading offers Dai Kou Su vinegar from a long-established Chinese manufacturer. The vinegar is brewed mild with only 2.5% acidity. The brewer uses red aspergillus fungus, which Chinese medicine promotes as a way to control...

Easy Pickling Liquid from Kenko Mayonnaise.
January 25, 2002... Kenko Mayonnaise offers one-liter containers of Salada Pickle, an easy way to make Western-style light pickles. The user simply soaks fresh or cooked vegetables in the liquid (which comes in onion, basil and ginger flavors) to produce...

Spicy Cod Roe Enlivens New Mayonnaise, Dressing.
January 25, 2002... Yamaya Communications vends two new products using the famed Yamaya spicy, salted cod roe known as mentaiko. Mentai Mayonnaise (300g, 500 yen), as the name implies, is mayonnaise seasoned with the roe. The manufacturer suggests serving with...

Frozen Whole Cuttlefish is Thick, Chewy.
January 25, 2002... Marin Foods sells Mongo Ika Sugatadzukuri, frozen whole cuttlefish caught near Yemen. The variety is thick and chewy with the thin surface skin removed. It can keep for a year in the freezer and defrosts in the refrigerator in a half-day....

Three Cheeses from Switzerland.
January 25, 2002... Murakawa offers Le Superebe cheese in Emmental (360 yen), Gruyere (360 yen) and Sbrinz (420 yen) varieties. The three are, respectively, a fondue cheese, a lightly sour and salty type and a powdered cheese, each using fresh milk from cows...

Sweetening Syrup in Resource-Saving Refill Container.
January 25, 2002... Star Eco Gum is a sweetening syrup in a special pump container designed to save resources with refill bags. Star Shokuhin Kogyo says that the pump reduces waste by about 98%. The syrup comes in 850cc containers that dispense 3cc of syrup...

New Beer Distinguished by Hemp Seed Extract.
January 25, 2002... Spirit of Hemp Beer is a lager with extract of Austrian hemp seeds, a good source of protein and essential amino acids. Seller Ale Japon points out that the product contains hardly any THC, the marijuana component. It has 4.9% alcohol...

Flowers Take Starring Role in New Herbal Tea Blends.
January 25, 2002... Natural Floral Tea from World Trading contains only fruit and flowers dried gently at cooler temperatures to maintain nutrients. The flowers in each herbal blend open up when steeped in hot water, letting the consumer enjoy their color and...

Multiple Benefits Touted for Tea from Tofu Lees.
January 25, 2002... Okara Cha from Sangi is rich in soybean isoflavone and thus may give a strong boost against cancer and hardening of the arteries. Sangi also recommends the refreshing and flavorful drink to post-menopausal women to help them stave off...

Burger Appeals to Taste for Luxury.
January 25, 2002... Lotteria restaurants offer the Matsutake Burger, made with the flavorful matsutake mushroom. The combination of a quintessentially Western food with mushrooms highly revered in Japanese cuisine makes the item uniquely attractive. Lotteria...

Fujiya Imports Aged Gourmet Salami and Ham.
January 25, 2002... Fujiya carries Fini Culatello di Zibello gourmet salami and ham products. Processed by Fini in the village of Zibello, the items are aged for over a year. The products therefore are in limited production, but they are served in restaurants...

Sunflower Seed Cooking Oil Appeals with Health Benefits.
January 25, 2002... Argentinean company Vicentin manufacturers its Sunflower Seed Cooking Oil made with traditional pressure methods. The product has no additives and uses no genetically modified seeds. Sunflower seed cooking oil is primarily fatty acids...

Leading Italian Pasta Brand Available in Japan.
January 25, 2002... The Rana brand of pasta, which claims half the market in Italy, is now available for restaurants in Japan. Rana has produced its items for 40 years and also manufactures sauces to go with them. Nichimen Foods is now importing the brand,...

Famous Sara Lee Cakes on Market Shelves.
January 25, 2002... Sara Lee Frozen Cake, imported from the US by Tomen, is now selling in supermarkets and is coming to restaurants. The varieties presently available include Original Cheese Cake and Blueberry Cheese Cake, both with Neufchatel cheese, as well...

Hotel-Style Orange Juice.
January 25, 2002... Kirin Tropicana's latest offering is Tropicana Asa no Hotel no Orange Juice ("morning hotel orange juice"). The 200ml cup (130 yen) contains 100% juice squeezed from fresh oranges that will remind customers of juice drinks they have enjoyed...

Hotel Room Deodorizer.
January 25, 2002... The Eppolion chemical deodorizer neutralizes a wide range of acid and alkaline smells, including hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, ammonia and trimethylamine. It also works on neutral smells, such as that of decaying fatty acids. Designed...

Soup Stock Features Shikoku Chicken with Bonito.
January 25, 2002... Yamaki sells Happo Dashi Jidorigatsuo, an industrial-use stock that blends chicken with dried bonito shavings. The chicken used for the stock is from Shikoku and is rich in aspartic acid and glutamic acid, in addition to a full-bodied flavor...

Overnight Pickle Seasoning.
January 25, 2002... Sanyo Shokuhin Kogyo sells the SO Gyomuyo Pickles Chomiryo (industry-use pickling seasoning) in Sweet (with clove and laurel) and Dill Herb varieties. The product, available in a one-liter PET bottle, makes Western-style pickles overnight...

New Hamburger Product of 100% Pork.
January 25, 2002... The Okinawan hamburger chain Jeff has started offering Butaniku 100%, a burger product made of 100% pork. The new product appeals to the traditional featured role of pork in the Okinawan diet as well as to consumer nervousness about beef...

Beef Seasoning without Beef.
January 25, 2002... Fine Foods, a purveyor of seasonings and spices, carries a beef flavoring that contains no actual beef. Originally developed several years ago to flavor foods for vegetarian and non-beef-eating persons in Southeast Asia, the product uses...

First Kitchen's Shrimp Burger.
January 25, 2002... Fast food chain First Kitchen offers a new burger made with peeled shrimp covered in a light coating and fried. The sauce too is richly flavored with shrimp as well as vegetables. The so-called Ebikatsu Burger is served with lettuce in a...

Asian Ingredients Enhance Dessert Pies.
January 25, 2002... First Kitchen's dessert menu now includes Matcha Adzuki Pie made with the distinctive flavors of powdered green tea and adzuki beans. The pie is intended for adult customers. Another new addition is the Chuka An Pie, made with Chinese bean...

Semi-Prepared Potato-Bacon Mix for Easy Dishes.
January 25, 2002... Ajinomoto has announced Ajinomoto Catering Delicatessen Half Made Shihoro Potato, a semi-prepared potato and bacon food with garlic flavor. It lets restaurants easily prepare original dishes with large Hokkaido potatoes. Suggested...

New Knorr Tartar Sauce.
January 25, 2002... Ajinomoto reports that its new commercial-use Knorr Sauce Chilled Sauce is a complete original, mildly flavored and having surpassing taste. The tartar sauce is targeted at hotels, halls and Western style restaurants. The manufacturer says...

Ajinomoto Re-Launches Quality Commercial-Use Tartar Sauce.
January 25, 2002... Ajinomoto has updated Ajinomoto Catering Tartar Sauce Mild, which gets its high quality from fresh domestic eggs and such flavorings as dill pickles, onion and parsley. It ships in packs of 10 one-kg tubes to restaurants, takeout shops and...

Knorr Sauce Line Brings Versatility to Kitchen.
January 25, 2002... Ajinomoto offers Knorr Sauce Free Arrange, including the shrimp-based Ebi no Aurora Sauce, Goma to Daizu no Sauce with sesame and soybean, and Ethnic Chili Sauce. The naming of the series implies the diversity that the sauces bring to the...