Family Restaurants – Japanology Plus
[Applause] [Music] In Japan, what are known as family restaurants are places you can drop in anytime and enjoy a relaxed meal with family and friends. Featuring a variety of dishes from domestic and international cuisines, the extensive menu of a typical family restaurant includes over 100 items. Isles with extra room for strollers. All you can drink beverage stations and special seasonal dishes are just some examples of the hospitality and service customers can enjoy. When the restaurant industry faced a crisis during the COVID pandemic, they used their wisdom and ingenuity to overcome the crisis and continue to innovate even today. Since first appearing 55 years ago, this unique style of restaurant is still evolving with the times. In this episode, we explore Japan’s muchloved and always reliable family restaurants. Hello and welcome to Japanology Plus. I’m Peter Barakan. If you’re going out to eat and you have a small child or children with you, the chances are your options are going to be severely limited. In Japan, in a situation like that, many people will opt to go to what’s called a family restaurant, or in a typically Japanese abbreviation, family rest. Children are welcome at all times. The restaurants are open from morning till late at night. some even 24 hours a day. They’re inexpensive and the menus have a lot of variety. The restaurant business is infamous for its ups and downs. The family restaurants have managed to survive and maintain their ubiquitous position in Japanese dining culture. Hello. Hello. Yes, I’m nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Today’s guest is Ako Maddie, a scholar of the history of domestic life. Her wide-ranging work includes writing books and giving lectures on Japan’s food culture, including the restaurant industry. I’m sorry it’s so noisy, but these family restaurants do tend to be at the side of busy highways, don’t they? Yes, that’s right. Family restaurants tend to be located by main roads with raised signboards so that drivers can see them from far away. They usually have big parking lots and are intended to be a place that is easily accessible and inviting. Personally, recently speaking, the only times I go to family restaurants tend to be when we’re shooting a Japanology episode and we don’t have very much time for lunch and we’re in a van driving somewhere. Say, “Okay, let’s go to one of those.” You can pop in on a whim and there’s sure to be space for a big group. In that sense, they are convenient. They have an extensive menu and plenty of space. So many people use them for meetings. This is a chain that created the template for Japanese family restaurants. A friend of mine eats here regularly. And during the pandemic, she came even more often because she didn’t want the chain to go out of business. That’s how well-loved family restaurants are in Japan. And I think you’ll really come to understand that today. There are around 6,500 family restaurants in Japan. The history of eating out in Japan can be traced back to the second half of the 16th century. It’s said to have begun with tea houses that serve travelers on mountain passes or along the main roads. During the 17th and 18th century, many people moved to Edeto, present day Tokyo, from around Japan. Because the majority were men who had left their wives and children at home, demand for eating out grew. There were hawkers who sold food from baskets or tubs hanging at both ends of a long pole. There were also food stalls. Around that time, both ordinary restaurants and high-end eeries were born, leading to the further development of the restaurant industry. Then in 1903, a department store dining hall opened in Tokyo. This set the stage for today’s family restaurants. At its entrance was a display case containing replicas of Japanese, Western, and Chinese dishes, as well as desserts. Customers would consult these, then buy tickets to exchange for food. This fun and familyfriendly system is said to have originated in Japan. In 1970, the Japan World Exposition was held in Osaka. Around the same time, liberalization of capital movements helped bring American fast food to Japan, sparking a craze for dining out. It was during this time when the first family restaurants appeared, combining features of department store dining halls and American diners. Diners are roadside casual restaurants found mainly in North America. They serve dishes such as hamburgers, fried chicken, and pancakes. Taking inspiration from these, Japan’s first family restaurants were built by the side of highways in the Tokyo suburbs. Amid rapid economic growth, more and more families bought cars. This played a crucial role in boosting the popularity of family restaurants. They quickly became an indispensable part of Japan’s eating out scene. This is a typical example of an urban family restaurant. It makes effective use of space. This building has a notable feature. Look how it is raised up on pillars. Okay. You often see these, don’t you? With the parking downstairs and the restaurant upstairs. Yes. There isn’t much space available in the city, so they need to make efficient use of the space they have. The restaurant faces the main road, so a big parking lot is a must. The restaurant has various kinds of seats. Comfortable booths, tables for large groups, single seats at a counter, and tables for one. [Music] So, we get the big table. Okay. So, they’ve got three menus here. There’s a morning menu, a lunch menu, and a grand menu. Family restaurants have different menus for different times of day, and each chain has a wide variety of dishes for customers to enjoy. You find these very similar menus in most of the family restaurants down to all of the chain restaurants. There’s always a drink bar and you pay a set amount of money and you can choose whatever you want. Family restaurants started offering free coffee refills quite early on. Mhm. People appreciated the fact that they could stay and talk for a long time without being asked to leave. That was one of the major attractions. Looking at this menu, I’ve just had a thought. We all take it absolutely for granted that there are photographs of every item on the menu. But come to think of it, I don’t think you really see these outside Japan. As Japan modernized, it brought in Western food and Chinese food, which were adapted to suit the Japanese pallet. During the period of rapid economic growth, there were many people who were eating hamburger steaks or deep fried shrimp for the first time. So to show what those foods were, restaurants used photos and displayed food replicas which are extremely popular now. Right. The first time you see those, it’s really a wow. This is a children’s menu. A classic Japanese menu item for children is what’s called the kids lunch. These children’s menus you always find in family restaurants. Of course, they’re for families. But where do these kids menus originate? They were invented by a certain department store before World War II alongside the development of department stores. Industrial growth in Japan produced more middle class households of salaried workers. Menu items for children were created right at the time when Japan had become a little wealthier. So the roots of this go back to what like 1960s maybe the 1930s really toward the beginning of the show era. The first kids lunch was created in 1930. Its inventor liked mountain climbing. So it included a small mound of ketchup flavored rice with white rice on top to make it look like Mount Fuji covered in snow. Right at the summit was a small mountaineers’s flag. Here’s a present day kids lunch. Okay. And speaking of the kids lunch, here is the kids lunch. And you get all of this on one plate. Little bowl of rice here. There you got your mini hamburger, bit of fried chicken, some French fries, tomato, and again ketchup flavored spaghetti with a few bits of corn in it. What’s this little bowl for? I wonder. Okay. So you you really give a sort of full service for the kids, don’t you? Oh, okay. This is the dessert menu. Family restaurants have come up with many popular desserts. I must say, these desserts all do look very enticing, don’t they? Especially when you see the photographs. And this chain is famous for its desserts. That’s right. This restaurant is notable for bringing in the latest dessert trends from abroad. There was a craze for tiramisu in Japan in 1990. But this restaurant had tiramisu on its menu four years before that. It also introduced panakotta and mango desserts early on. The biggest boom it created was for nata de cocoa. That was a huge hit. I remember as well as its main menu. This restaurant has special seasonal menus. Oh, okay. So, what have you got right now? Oh, right. Woohoo. Sundays and pancakes and parfes. Those all look pretty nice, too. And that changes every month. [Music] Okay. Nata de Coco is just one example of how desserts at family restaurants can start a new trend. So maybe this menu contains the seed of a new hit. Right. Ako has chosen a strawberry parfait from the seasonal menu. Oh, that looks beautiful, doesn’t it? Yes, it’s beautiful. Peter has chosen a chocolate pudding parfait. Let’s have a little dig into that. Chocolate pudding. That’s That’s a first for me, actually. I don’t think I’ve ever had that before. Ooh, yum, yum. And little crunchy bits as well. Okay, I’m hooked. The sorbet is infused with the rich taste of strawberries. In the period when we were starting to have kids, I think it was still fairly common to have at least two children in a family. These days, I would say almost overwhelmingly people have one child. Obviously, there are some families that have more, but it does change your style of living quite a lot, doesn’t it? That’s right. There are couples who don’t have children and single people too. There really are various forms of family. Now, this style of space doesn’t exclude anyone. It isn’t only for fourerson families. The seating arrangements allow for diversity with seats for two people, four people, one person, or even 10 people. The family restaurant is always evolving in that way. Oh, so that’s before they go to school. [Music] [Music] Interesting. In recent years, family restaurants have also become a favorite of solo diners. Thanks to convenient features such as big tables, electrical outlets, and all you can drink beverage stations. They are popular with both remote workers and students. Yes, sometimes children can’t relax at home or where they live in the city is too cramped and they don’t have much personal space or sometimes maybe they just want to get away from their parents who are always telling them to do this, do that. Okay, I can kind of imagine that. During the economic boom of the 1980s, Japan’s culinary culture became more sophisticated. Various world cuisines became popular and the number of restaurants grew. There were more options for eating out and family restaurants faced fierce competition. The burst of Japan’s economic bubble in the 1990s led to a slump in the restaurant industry. But despite the many difficulties they faced, family restaurants used their knowledge and ingenuity to survive. More recently, the COVID pandemic caused customer traffic to decline dramatically. Japan’s leading family restaurant chains were forced to close some of their branches. But now these groups are starting new initiatives to help family restaurants survive. Our next stop is this restaurant. The chain got through the COVID crisis thanks to efficiency improvements. I didn’t expect to see a whole wall of these guys. And what else have we got here? More toys. Lots of them. And sweets. Okay. and the welcome committee. Hello. Hi. And here is one of the chain’s much loved staff members, a cat-like robot waiter. I have seen them. Um, and it has all sorts of facial expressions as well. [Laughter] [Music] It seems like these server robots sort of appeared out of nowhere. When did it actually happen? So, it’s during co It’s pretty quick. Okay. I think this idea is great and shows how big chains focus first and foremost on efficiency. us as a result of co I know a lot of people’s daily lives changed enormously and in a lot of cases still haven’t gone back to the way they were before. Have you noticed a change in your customers here? Okay. For example, So, people use the drink bar to mix different drinks together. How did you know that? Okay. So, all right. What are we going to What are we going to make? Orange juice. Orange juice. Orange juice. Okay. After the orange juice, Peter adds some sweet lactic drink. It’s kind of yogurty sort of drink. Just add hot water and the mocktail parts are ready. So, um, the tea has had a chance to steep a bit. So, we take the strainer out, put it in here, and I just tip the tea into here. Okay. Probably not all of it. There’s quite a lot of ice in there. Absolutely. It has a nice look to it, doesn’t it? It looks wonderful. So, let’s give it a try. It’s going to get better the f further I go down, I think. But it it actually does taste quite good. Um I’m getting more herb tea than the orange. And there’s a little hint of the the yogurty thing in the bottom. But okay, I can understand people why people would want to experiment. Anyway, next Peter is going to try this restaurant’s most popular menu item. Number 63. Are we number 63? Yes, we are number 63. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. [Music] Okay. Thank you. [Music] This is a hamburger steak with cheese inside. Okay. Wa. Practically jumped out. Oh. Okay. There’s There’s quite a lot of cheese inside there. Okay. So, shall we have a little taste while while it’s still nice and hot? It’s good. Normally in the west when you say a hamburger you think of a hamburger patty between in between two pieces of a bun. And to eat eat it like this on a dish is really unique to Japan, isn’t it? [Music] Okay. Scoop out the center of the hamburger steak. Mix the cheese and meat juices. Add some rice and sprinkle on some pepper. [Music] Mini mini cheese risoto. [Music] That actually is quite good. Maybe a tiny bit more pepper would have been good, but that’s that’s Yes, I like that. Is it hard to make? [Music] All right. Supporting each chain’s extensive menu is this central kitchen system that concentrates food preparation for multiple branches in one place. This system enables efficient management of quality and food safety. This particular chain has its own distribution network. This is where the cheese stuffed hamburger steak was developed. I can tell that we’re in some kind of a kitchen, but it doesn’t look big enough to be the factory where you actually make the food for the restaurants. So, what does happen here? Oh, cheesy hamburg. Interesting. And is the reason for doing that purely economic? [Music] Okay. Thank you very much. [Music] Thank you very much for today. We saw all kinds of family restaurants. What did you think of them? I think there two main takeaways for me today. One is that they maintain a high quality of food while making really big quantities for a vast number of people every day, year in year out. And that really is impressive. The other thing is that I’d always thought of family restaurants as being restaurants for families. And I think for a long time they were. What I hadn’t realized was that there are so many people coming to eat by themselves. And I I knew that solo dining was becoming more and more prevalent in Japan. But I didn’t realize that those people were coming to family restaurants to eat. Oh, I see. Back then, Japan was becoming wealthier and new technology and ideas were being introduced from the United States. This gave rise to family restaurants which were perfectly suited to the new era of the nuclear family. As you said, family restaurants offer high quality service and food that cater to a diverse range of people and have evolved as society changes. I think that is very Japanese. Prioritizing efficiency, but also deliciousness, comfort, the seating, spaciousness, and not asking people to leave. That’s very Japanese. Yes. Yes. Family restaurants contributed to Japan’s social and economic development over the years. Taking part in this program for people overseas has reminded me of that fact. Being on the show and hearing what you said have really given me a renewed appreciation for the value of family restaurants. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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Family restaurants in Japan serve up a variety of dishes at affordable prices for diners of all ages and appetites.