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How are Tokyo's Independent Restauranteurs Surviving the Pandemic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

James Farrer
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Abstract

Globally, independent restaurants have been dealt a double blow by COVID-19. Restaurant staff face the risk of infection, and restaurants have been among the businesses hardest hit by urban lockdowns. With fewer resources than corporate chains, small independent restaurants are particularly vulnerable to an extended economic downturn. This paper looks at how independent restaurant owners in Tokyo have coped with the pandemic both individually and as members of larger communities. Both government and community support have been key to sustaining these small businesses and their employees during this crisis.

Keywords

COVID-19vulnerable populationsrestaurateurshospitality workerscommunity resilience
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 18 , September 2020 , e13
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2020

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References

Notes

1 NHK. May 12, 2020. “タクシーや理美容など 収入や雇用に不安広がる 新型コロナ影響”

2 Katherine Miller. May 8, 2020. “Restaurants Need More Information to Reopen”, James Beard Foundation

3 David Marchese. March 27, 2020. “David Chang isn't sure the restaurant industry will survive Covid-19”, New York Times Magazine.

4 Kim Severson and David Yaffy-Bellany. March 20 2020. “Independent Restaurants Brace for the Unknown”, New York Times.

5 Haas, Stacey, Eric Kuehl, John R. Moran and Kumar Venkataraman. 2020 (May). “How Restaurants can thrive in the next normal”, McKinsey and Co. (May 2020).

6 Jenny Zhang. May 6, 2020. “The Path to Survival Is Even More Complicated for Immigrant-Owned Mom-and-Pop Restaurants”, Eater.

7 See James Farrer. 2018. “The Decline of the Neighborhood Chinese Restaurant in Urban Japan” Jahrbuch für Kulinaristik – The German Journal of Food Studies and Hospitality, Vol. 2, pp. 197-222.

8 Statistics Bureau of Japan. 2019. “Economic Census”

9 Tokyo Bureau Environment. 2020. 東京都における外食産業の概況

10 The online interviews were conducted in Japanese on Facebook Messenger. A Japanese research assistant conducted two of the interviews alone, while three were conducted together with the author. The face-to-face interviews all were conducted by the author. All were conducted between May 1 and May 14, 2020. I have chosen to anonymize the names of the restaurants as well as the two neighborhoods, since some of the financial issues discussed might have implications for aid applications.

11 Takano Tomohiro. May 15, 2020. “コロナだけじゃない、「二重苦」と戦う日本の飲食業界” Newsweek.

12 Interviews with chefs Narisawa Yoshihiro and Yamamoto Seiji (Ryugin) by the author in late 2018 and early 2019.

13 Haas et al. 2020. “How Restaurants can thrive.”

14 Jada Nagamo. May 2, 2020. “Japan's small companies apply for cash grants amid pandemic” Nikkei Weekly.

15 See James Farrer. 2020 (forthcoming) “The Space-Time Compression of Tokyo Street Drinking” Food, Culture and Society (accepted May 2, 2020) {copy available upon request}.

16 Alex Martin. May 9, 2020. “Hard sell: Japan's retail sector may need to reinvent itself in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic”, Japan Times

17 Hisano, Hiroshi. May 15, 2020. “Royal Holdings to close about 70 restaurants across Japan due to coronavirus losses”, Mainichi

18 Leika Kihara and Daniel Leussink. June 25, 2020. “Japan's izakayas, once a staple of after-work socialising, crippled by pandemic”, Reuters

19 Nihon Keizai Shinbun. May 14, 2020. “飲食店では「最低1メートルの間隔」、外食の業界団体が指針”, Nikkei