Founder of Japanese restaurant giant Shokukiya passes away from a heart attack at age 77

Ask AI · How will the passing of Kentaro Ogawa affect Zensho Group’s global strategy?

According to reports, on April 6, Kentaro Ogawa, the founder and chairman of Japanese restaurant giant Zensho, died of a myocardial infarction at the age of 77. On the 7th, his company publicly announced his death. The wake and funeral will be held with family-only private ceremonies; the date of the memorial service and other details have not yet been determined.

▲ Kentaro Ogawa

Kentaro Ogawa founded Zensho in 1982. He led the company’s chain brand Sukiya to rise, and, through strong leadership and proactive acquisitions, developed the group into Japan’s largest chain restaurant operator. Public information shows that Sukiya was founded in June 1982. Its headquarters are located in Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo. In Japan, it has 2,000 locations, and it also operates directly in China—Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, Tianjin, and Guangdong—along with more than ten other countries and regions worldwide.

Ogawa dropped out of the University of Tokyo. After that, he joined Yoshinoya, which later became one of his toughest competitors. In 1980, Yoshinoya faced a financial crisis. In 1982, Ogawa opened a bento shop, and that bento shop became the predecessor of Sukiya.

Subsequently, Sukiya continued expanding within Japan, and the company developed rapidly. However, in 2014, due to criticism over employees’ excessive workload (for example, working alone until late at night), the company began reviewing its labor management practices, including assigning multiple employees to each store. Meanwhile, amid a shortage of labor in the restaurant industry, in the spring of 2021 the company reached an agreement with a union during wage negotiations, implemented annual base wage increases up to 2030.

Sukiya actively pursued overseas expansion, including acquiring a company that operates a delivery sushi chain in the United States, and it has already become the first Japanese restaurant company to have sales exceeding 1 trillion yen by fiscal year 2024.

Red Star News reporter Shen Xingyi

Editor Guo Zhuang Review Gao Shengxiang