Yoshinoya may not be a familiar name in New Zealand, but in Japan it is as familiar as McDonalds with its bulls-horn logo punching into the sky and its staff putting lunch on the table for millions of Japanese office workers every day.
Yoshinoya food like this could be contaminated by nuclear radiation, but that will not stop millions of Japanese office workers from eating it every day. Photo: Steven Bolton
And with hundreds of outlets across Japan, the company has a huge appetite for the fresh raw ingredients it uses in the guyon beef-bowl dishes it is best known for.
The company has announced a joint venture with farmers in Fukushima Prefecture to grow and supply rice, onion and cabbage for their restaurants.
Badly affected by fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, both social and nuclear, farmers from Fukushima have been unable to sell their produce anywhere outside the prefecture, despite their prices being the lowest in Japan.
Still in its early stages, Yoshinoya has invested 10 million yen in the Yoshinoya Farm Fukushima project which is expected to yield 35 tonnes of produce next year.
The agreement was being explored before the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent shutdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant and mirrors one Yoshinoya already have with farmers in Kanagawa Prefecture.
So who wins from the deal?
It seems everyone except the office workers and salary men who visit Yoshinoya restaurants every day all over Japan.
Fukushima’s farmers, whose produce is widely mistrusted and subject to rigorous testing before it can leave the prefecture, will now be able to make a living from farming.
While Yoshinoya will gain a secure supply of vegetables and rice, a significant interest in their own supply chain and the ability to say they are helping to support Fukushima’s shattered rural economy.
But Jamie Young, a New Zealander who teaches English and has lived in Japan since the mid-90s, says Yoshinoya may have bitten off more than they can chew.
Even though the deal will only supply one thousandth of the produce the company uses annually, he says now whenever people hear Yoshinoya they automatically think “irradiated food”.
It is what Mr Young describes as one of a series of corporate and Government mistakes since the tsunami which could make the Fukushima Daiichi situation a lot worse than it needs to be.
As well as Yoshinoya’s seeming desire to commit “corporate suicide”, he says a similarly illogical decision by the Japanese government to distribute rather than contain contaminated waste from Fukushima is “astonishing”.
“They’re freighting radioactive sludge from Fukushima to other parts of Japan as a way of sharing the burden.
“But the result is that the contamination, which was mostly concentrated in one small area, is intentionally being spread all over the country, even as far south as Okinawa.”
He says the social obligation people feel in Japan to help each other may be playing some part in the Government’s thinking.
However, rather than being a good corporate citizen, Yoshinoya “may be exploiting this sentiment” in a bid to increase margin on every one of the millions of beef-bowl lunches they serve every day.
“The idea of sharing the burden and team spirit is a commendable and it’s great for a baseball game or something, but with Fukushima it’s just spreading poison around. It’s stupid.”
