(Bloomberg) — Heichinrou, an legendary Chinese restaurant in Japan launched 138 years ago, became the latest establishment to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic, filing for individual bankruptcy defense Thursday.
The restaurant’s main branch, an institution of Yokohama’s famed Chinatown, started personal bankruptcy proceedings at the request of collectors with total credit card debt likely exceeding 300 million yen ($2.3 million), in accordance to analysis firm Teikoku Databank. Established in 1884 and catering to foreigners who settled in the port city all through the Meiji Restoration, it claimed title as the oldest current Chinese cafe in Japan on its internet site.
The multi-storied flagship cafe, just minutes from the major gates of Chinatown and well known for its reliable Cantonese delicacies, was a major draw to holidaymakers from all over Japan and overseas alike. Taking in and ingesting establishments have been strike significantly really hard by the pandemic because of to govt phone calls to shorten opening several hours, contributing to 536 failures in the marketplace, or about 15% of the 3,468 bankruptcies nationwide tracked by Teikoku Databank.
Heichinrou’s other branches in Tokyo, Osaka and Kitakyushu are operated by a independent organization and will remain open up. The restaurant’s sales arrived at 10.8 billion yen in the calendar year by way of March 2007, but fell to 6.5 billion yen in the calendar year finished March 2016 as superior overhead charges and the economic downturn took a toll, mentioned Teikoku Databank. The decline in company from the coronavirus dealt the last blow, and the primary department shut on Could 15.
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