It's hard to put into words how big the Chinese food market is in Japan. In addition to the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants, there are also a variety of Chinese foods and ingredients in the supermarket, not only dumplings, steamed buns, siu mai and other common foods, but also microwave tofu, fried rice noodles and other microwave ready-to-eat Chinese pre-made dishes, even bean paste, aged vinegar can be easily bought.
The most convenient is of course the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants. Japanese people often refer to Chinese food (Chinese cuisine) simply as "Chinese". There is no doubt that "Zhonghua" means delicious, but at the same time it is a very rich concept: sometimes it is associated with luxury, gluttonous feasting, and more often it is reminiscent of the intimate, family-friendly Chinese restaurants that can be found everywhere on the street. There, you can eat fried rice, ramen, dumplings, xiao long bao, boiled liver tips, back pot pork ......
It can be said that "China" has been deeply integrated into the Japanese market culture. The Japanese have given this kind of Chinese restaurant the name "Machi-chugo", which means that everyone can afford to eat it right next to you.
Japan's mainstream **TBS TV station has a program called "Let's have a drink in Machi Chugo", which is broadcast every Monday night from 10 to 11 o'clock, and has been on the air for nearly five consecutive years since it began broadcasting in April 2019. The program is led by Shintaro Tambukuro, a popular citywalk comedian and president of the All Japan Bistro Federation of Bistro Restaurants, and has visited more than 270 town-based Chinese restaurants so far. The program team's favorite visit is the small shops left over from the Showa period (late 1926 to early 1989) that can be found in every city in the Japanese archipelago, where Tamabukuro enjoys leisurely and drinks, eats, and chats with the locals.
In recent years, many Japanese diners who are looking for delicious food have become more satisfied with the Chinese restaurants that are common on the streets. In their eyes, these timeless "Chinese" have gradually become "old shops" that cater more and more to the tastes of the Japanese, and the Japaneseized "Chinese" is not the same thing as the real "Chinese".
As a result, they began to look for those "China" that were specifically open to Chinese in Japan, and called them "Gazhonghua", which means authentic and authentic "China". With the help of the power of the Internet, many small shops have become famous and well-known. "Gazhonghua" became a hot word in Japan for a while, and celebrities visited authentic "Gazhonghua" restaurants with various tastes and appeared on many Japanese TV food programs.
As early as 2004, the results of the economic census conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan on "general restaurants" showed that there were 60,942 Chinese restaurants in Japan, and the proportion of "general restaurants" exceeded that of Japanese restaurants, ranking third after cafes and public restaurants. The average annual turnover of each Chinese restaurant is 33.45 million yen. In addition, according to the 2012 economic census data, the market size of Chinese restaurants is about 1,162.9 billion yen, and the main forms are "Chinese restaurants" and "Chinese ramen restaurants", accounting for 48% each9% and 478% market share, almost evenly divided in the world.
In addition to the unique Chinese restaurants, there are also large Japanese chains such as "Gyoza Wangsho", "Hitakaya" and "Osaka Wangsho" in Japanese Chinese food. "Osaka Wangjiang" has expanded its main business from Chinese food chain stores to Chinese food manufacturing and sales, becoming a pivotal Chinese food manufacturer and grabbing a place in the Japanese food market dominated by giants.
According to some data, "Osaka Wangjiang" began to get involved in frozen food in 1993, and now the group's food sales have been comparable to the sales of "Osaka Wangjiang" chain stores. In Japan, where annual sales are about 70 billion yen, "Osaka Wangsho" already accounts for one-third.
In addition to dine-in, take-out, and pre-made dishes, Japanese people are also keen to cook Chinese food at home. In order to make it easier for everyone to make Chinese food at home, Japanese food manufacturers developed Chinese seasonings such as "mapo tofu vegetarian" in the 70s of the last century. Over the past 50 years, major food manufacturers such as Marubeniya, Ajinomoto and Nagayaen have continued to adapt to consumer demand and improve and enrich their Chinese seasoning product lines. Taking "Mapo Tofu Vegetarian" as an example, the product is divided into different spicinessness and sweetness, supplemented by various publicity introductions to broaden everyone's application scenarios. Not only can you use "mapo tofu vegetarian" to make mapo tofu, but you can also cook mapo eggplant, mapo bean sprouts, mapo vermicelli, etc.
With the expansion of product varieties, the Chinese seasoning market has also grown steadily. According to data from market research agencies, the domestic Chinese seasoning market size in Japan was approximately 59.8 billion yen in 2020.
In recent years, operators in the Japanese catering and food industries have not only continued to dig deep into the long-standing "treasure mine" of Chinese food in the Japanese domestic market, but also paid attention to the rapid growth of the Chinese consumer market.
The Mitsui & Co. Strategic Research Institute reported that with the change of Chinese lifestyles, the ready-to-eat consumption market, including pre-made dishes, is growing rapidly, and the size of this market is expected to reach 250 billion yuan in 2025. In China, many companies are not fully prepared for the emerging ready-to-eat food market, and it is difficult to meet consumer demand for a while, which is an important business opportunity for experienced Japanese manufacturers. (Liu Chunyan).
Editor-in-charge: Pure Gang.