Japan restaurant bankruptcies exceed 900 for the first time in 30 years. Why are they going bankrupt even though customers are returning? (Spoiler- labor shortages, rising labor costs)
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/62b05bfcf02db48cf9f156768de3b65bac065a50
3 Comments
I don’t think this is Japan specific. It is a reflection of the times.
Particularly that the middle class has been squeezed. Mid level restaurants can’t survive as consumers either go really cheap (Saizeriya and the like) or really expensive. Wealthy will go for luxury experiences, and non wealthy would rather save and have the rare luxury experience than the increasingly underwhelming average experience a mid level restaurants will provide.
Of course, all factors such as labor shortage, labor costs, rising prices, fall in service quality, etc have made it even harder to survive, but I also see this as a reflection of the growing disparity between haves and have nots.
When your labour costs are unaffordable, but nobody involved is earning a livable wage, something eventually has to break.
You either put an end to capitalist greed and corruption higher up the chain, or you lower the quality of service and employ foreigners who will work for pennies (and accept the downsides that come with injecting millions of poorly integrated people living on the poverty line into society)
Fyi I’m pro-immigration, but governments like the current one are more likely to strip foreigners of their support and rights, rather than stop them from coming in all together, and despite anti-immigration people supporting these moves, they only end up amplifying the issues they talk about.
When the number of restaurants used to rely on a larger population, and a much larger working adult population, it is natural that there are far too many to survive with reduced customers and not surprising there are not enough staff for all of them.