Aug 11 (Nikkei) - Izakaya Japanese-style pubs are bringing in a new kind of customer, foreign tourists.
Food tours for travelers are helping Japan's major izakaya chains as they adjust to the waning popularity of drinking among young Japanese and to a falloff in the number of big group outings.
By bringing in tourists at lunchtime, pub operators are hoping to tap into a new revenue stream being created by the government's tourism drive, which is loosely connected to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
It is 11:30 a.m. in the corporate district of Shimbashi, Tokyo. American tourists step off a bus and are quickly funneled up to the fourth floor of an office building, to an izakaya called Nippon Maguro Gyogyoudan. The name translates as the Japan Tuna Fishing Industry Group.
Chefs prepare tuna in front of the visitors, who later try their hand at rolling the fish fillets into nigiri sushi and are also treated to freshly fried tempura.
Tour groups come through the place at least three times a week and daily during the peak spring and autumn seasons.
Major Japanese izakaya chain Watami runs Nippon Maguro Gyogyoudan. It is one of about 130 outlets under the company's various brands, including the well-recognized Watami and Miraizaka chains, which have begun to cater for foreign tour groups.
Watami is appropriating its large urban restaurants, those seating over 100, as lunch spots for tourists, in cooperation with tour operators. For this year, Watami is targeting a 30% annual increase in overseas visitors to 300,000.
To cultivate the tourist market, izakaya companies are also adopting new payment methods. In July, Daisyo began accepting WeChat Pay at 30 of its outlets. It also expanded an Alipay trial, running since February, to 30 stores. WeChat Pay and Alipay are Chinese smartphone applications that use QR codes to help users settle their bills.
Daisyo operates a network of seafood izakaya, where ease of payment is seen as a drawing card for individual and family travelers.
