What Does the Popularity of a Chinese Hotpot Chain Say About Foreign Food in Japan?

It is around 8pm on a weekday in a big shopping mall in Chiba. A few shoppers walk through its wide corridors and most shops, selling everything from high-end fashion to tacky knick-knacks, predictably feel rather empty as the peak New Year's shopping season has already come to an end. Yet, in one corner of the mall, next to all the cheap eateries, some two dozen people are lined up in front of a boisterous restaurant behind a food court. While the other shops in the food court served the usual Japanese and Western cuisines, this one made sure its Chinese background was both seen and heard loud and clear.

This restaurant is one of a few Japan-based outlets of Haidilao, a massively popular hotpot chain in China. The firm has acquired a cult following in China for its unique service model, characterized by free nail salons, snacks, performances, and general rowdy nature that some have come to symbolize the pinnacle of "good service" in a country that is often known for very terse and non-customer-centric attitudes of staff in the service industry. By upending this image of bad service of restaurants in China, Haidilao has become a nationwide chain listed in Hong Kong and expanding to Chinese communities around the world.

That rowdy nature is no different in the Chiba outlet. While the menu of the restaurant is exceedingly simple, with just a few types of meat and vegetables, likely to simplify food loss and cut down supply chain costs, the human aspect of the restaurant stands out. Plenty of staff members (and a few robots) zoom among the different box seats, bringing pots, different ingredients for the hotpot, and gifts for the many birthday celebrations on-site. The hustle and bustle of the restaurant, filled with staff and customers, contrast greatly with the empty seats of the food court next door.

What is novel is that such an exotic restaurant can stand in a Japanese environment with its own sense of customer service, quite distinct from the Chinese one. Given that most of the staff members are not Japanese, and whose Japanese speaking level can be subpar, it is a wonder that many Japanese people would show up to the restaurant at all. And the fact that Chinese hotpots remain largely unknown to the Japanese population, despite the general ubiquity of Chinese food in the country, increases the hurdle of Haidilao getting regular Japanese clientele.

Perhaps the fact that Haidilao can have so many stores in Japan speaks to the continuing trend of Chinese immigration to Japan. "Authentic" Chinese food as a genre in Japan, distinct and separate from the Japanized Chinese cuisine that has been popular in the country for decades, owes its success to the patronage of millions of Chinese citizens who miss the taste of food. Once they marry locals (as I have) or other foreign residents of Japan, they inadvertently create a non-Chinese clientele for Chinese food through word of mouth.

Yet, the success of foreign food in Japan is certainly not limited to the Chinese. As the non-Japanese population in Japan grow to more than 3 million in recent years, many ethnic communities in the country have promoted their ethnic food in the country. Unfamiliar food would first cater only to one's ethnic brethren, followed by adventurous Japanese eaters, and eventually, over time, be accepted as mainstream. This process of culinary assimilation has become more diverse, more expedited, and more grounded in physical person-to-person exchanges with foreigners.

In many cases, foreign food has become popular despite adverse political relations or general mutual ignorance between Japan and other countries where the cuisines come from. Good Iranian, Russian, and Burmese food can be had in Tokyo despite Japan's hostility toward their governments and the resulting tightening of migration from those countries. In the case of Haidilao, the generally unfavorable view of China among the Japanese has not prevented the shop from doing a roaring business in this remote corner of Tokyo's outer suburbs.

Of course, it is difficult to say whether any of these foreign foods will become truly mainstream in Japan over time. The particularity of Japanese consumers and their tendency to see the country as culturally distinct from any other one out there remain a big obstacle to accepting what was once foreign as truly their own. But given the history of all the Japanese foods that used to be foreign, from curry to fried meat to wheat soup noodles, there is hope that the likes of Haidilao will one day spark emulators who are not simply targeting non-Japanese consumers.