Japanese Restaurants Take Crisis-Hit Thailand By Storm

BANGKOK (dpa) – Amid the Asian economic crisis, many Thais apparently drowned their sorrows in tons of Japanese sushi, soba noodles and sake wine.

“The recession had no negative impact on us,” said Amornphan Thanusil, assistant manager of Thailand’s hugely successful Fuji Japanese Restaurant chain.

While thousands of businesses went belly-up and consumer sales plummeted in the aftermath of the financial crisis that hit Thailand in mid-1997, Japanese restaurants have proliferated.

“In fact, this has been the golden age for Fuji because just as the Thai economy was collapsing, eating Japanese food became very fashionable here,” crooned Amornphan, a Thai national.

In recent years Thais, especially teenagers and young adults, have been turning to Japanese cuisine and all other things Japanese such as clothing fashions, hairstyles, pop music and raunchy comic books.

Bangkok’s first Fuji Japanese Restaurant outlet was opened in 1982 by Japanese entrepreneur Kenji Tanaka, previously the manager of the up-market Dai Koku restaurant.

Now the Fuji chain has 17 branches, 15 in Bangkok and two in the provinces. It is the biggest Japanese chain in Thailand, where there are now more than 300 Japanese restaurants with an annual turnover of more than 3 billion baht (70 million dollars), according to the Thai Farmers Research Centre.

The centre said the number of Japanese eateries in Thailand is likely to increase by another 20-25 per cent this year.

Japanese restaurants are hardly new to Bangkok. The Thai capital is home to the largest overseas Japanese business community in the world, estimated at more than 20,000.

High-priced Japanese establishments catering to Japanese expats have been on the Bangkok market for decades. What has changed over the past three or four years has been a mushrooming of Japanese restaurants catering to Thai tastebuds and their recession-hit wallets.

“Previously, Japanese restaurants were too expensive for Thais because everything was imported,” said Amornphan. “The Fuji concept was to combine Thai and Japanese ingredients, and cook them in such a way that would suit the Thai market.”

Not only does Fuji’s Japanese food taste different than authentic Japanese fare, but the restaurants’ decor is Thai style, with more open booths and large spacious rooms. The atmosphere is noisy and friendly, not quiet and cosy in the Japanese tradition.

Another successful Japanese restaurant chain in Bangkok, the Singapore-owned Oishi, even serves Japanese buffet lunches, which are popular among Thais but would undoubtedly make any self-respecting Japanese connoisseur cringe.

Authentic Japanese cuisine, which is heavy on the raw fish, seaweed, tofu and cold turnips, would not go over big among Thais who are accustomed to some of the world’s spiciest dishes.

“If restaurants here sold authentic Japanese food it would be too bland for Thai people, and not suit their tastes,” said Janta Taphaneeyapan, a Thai employee at the Bangkok Language Centre of the Japan Foundation.

Another attraction for Thai people offered by Fuji and the growing crop of other Bangkok-based chains, which include Oishi, Nippon Tei, Akkamon, Zen and Sumo, is the reasonable price.

A set lunch at Fuji, for example, costs approximately 3.50 dollars, whereas a more authentic Japanese meal at the posh Shindai Koku restaurant, whose clientele is primarily Japanese expats, costs 15 dollars and up per person.

But prices on Japanese food at even the upmarket restaurants have fallen in recent years because of the economies of scale that come with the growing Thai market for Japanese food imports.

“Nowadays it is very easy because there are many Japanese brokers who handle the imports. If we had to do the imports ourselves it would be very expensive,” said Amornphan.

Fuji estimates that at least 50 per cent of its ingredients are imported, all through Japanese brokers who control the trade. He said that all Thailand-based restaurants must source their ingredients through brokers based in Japan, even though many of the products originate elsewhere, such as the territorial waters of Hawaii and South Africa.

Despite the surge in popularity of Japanese food in Thailand and other Asian cities, there do not appear to be any Japan-based fast food multinationals similar to McDonalds.

One such, Sushi King of the Texchem Group in Japan, opened one branch in Bangkok last year and plans three more this year. Sushi King has reportedly had more success in Malaysia, where it already has 21 outlets.

“It would be hard to make a global franchise for Japanese restaurants,” opined Amornphan. “It’s too tough to control the quality. For instance, we offer about 200 items at Fuji, while McDonalds offers just beef, pork and chicken. The Americans are clever.”