The number of Japanese restaurants in Thailand in 2023 rose by 8%

Editorial staff

The number of Japanese restaurants in Thailand in 2023 rose by 8% or 426 restaurants to 5,751 according to the latest market survey by the Japanese External Trade Organization (Jetro).

Jun Kuroda, Jetro’s president, said that Thailand now ranks the sixth largest for Japanese restaurant numbers in international market after China, the US, South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico with 78,000, 26,000, 18,000, 7,440 and 7,120 respectively.

However, when compared to population per Japanese restaurants in numbers, Thailand shares the 4th place with the US market.

The demand of Japanese eateries in Thailand has increased every year. Since 2007, the number of Japanese restaurants in Thailand has totaled 745. Of them, 555 branches are in Bangkok and the remaining 190 branches are in up-country.

In 2023, the number of Japanese restaurants increased by 8% to 5,751. Of the total, 2,602 restaurants are in Bangkok and the remaining 2,290 are in up- country and 850 are in five provinces including Nakhon Prathom, Nonthaburi, Prathum Thani, Samut Prakarn and Samut Sakhon.

Of the total 5,751, 1,372 stores are sushi restaurant, 1,354 Japanese restaurants and 741, 453, 437, 417 stores belong to ramen, suki/shabu, Izakaya and Yakiniku/BBQ respectively. The remaining are Donburi, Curry, Teppanyaki/Okonomiyaki, Soba/Udon and others.

The opening of overall sushi restaurants in 2023 declined by 4.1% to 1,372 restaurants from 1,431 restaurants in 2022.

The market survey found that more Yakiniku/BBQ restaurants ramen, Izakaya and Suki/shabu restaurants were opened in 2023. The number of Yakiniku/BBQ restaurants in 2023 increased by 22.3% from the previous year to 417, while ramen restaurants increased by 21.3% to 741. The number of Izakaya restaurants increased by 437 or 18.4% and the number of Suki/shabu restaurants increased by 17.4% to 453.

With the fierce competition, the number of sushi restaurants in 2023 in Nakhon Prathom, Nonthaburi, Prathum Thani, Samut Prakarn and Samut Sakhon declined by 13.3% from 2022 to 235. Sushi restaurants in the remaining provinces also declined by 6.2% to 648 from 691.

“We believe that Japanese restaurants still have more room to grow in Thailand,” he said.

Mr Kuroda said that new Japanese food operators particularly ramen, tempura and curry rice will debut their business in Thailand in the future.

‘’The recent Fukushima nuclear treated waste water release did not impact the exporting of Japanese fishery and food from Japan to Thailand because Japan has measures to control the safety of its product. While Thailand also has random inspection of food imported from Japan,” he said.

Export value of agricultural, forestry, fishery and food from Japan to Thailand from January to November 2023 was at 46.5 billion yen, a 0.2% increase from the same period in 2022. Jetro will promote and export more Japanese fishery and food from Japan to Thailand in the future.

In 2023, there was 187,000 Japanese restaurants in international market. Of the total, 122,000 restaurants are in Asia, 28,600 and 16,200 restaurants are in North America and Europe. The remaining are in Central and South America, Russia, Middle East, Oceania and Africa.