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The managers of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan, a $1.2 billion company with more than 1,000 stores, tried to Americanize the Japanese consumer. It did not work.
The first drive-in store in a shopping centre in Nagoya was a disaster. This was the result of ignoring the differences between a country where people went shopping on a bicycle and one where people went shopping by car.
Takeshi Okawara, President and CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan, believes that globalization is not the same as Americanization. Globalization does not mean unifying various value systems into Western or Christian values, but rather accepting national differences and trying to find common ground on which to share information and values.
The food service industry in Japan did not really begin until the 1970s, some 20 years behind the USA. This was the period of operations when US-developed statistical quality control and chain distribution were introduced.
The 1980s was the decade for marketing. Restaurant chains in Japan grew rapidly through effective mass media marketing, particularly through television advertising. The country was viewed as a single market with a homogeneous population speaking one language.
However, the 1990s has brought about a number of challenges for the food service industry in Japan:
(1) High land prices are preventing business expansion. Strategies include opening stores specialized in delivery, building in lower rent areas and using a smaller kitchen area.
(2) Labour shortage and Japanese labour practices. A falling birth rate is a serious problem for the fast-food industry which relies heavily on part-time...