TOKYO: Japan’s fast-food chain Sukiya will shut nearly all of its roughly 2,000 stores nationwide for four days from Monday following recent incidents of customers finding a rodent in a bowl of miso soup and a bug in another meal, it said on its website on Saturday.

Sukiya, the country’s biggest beef bowl chain owned by dining giant Zensho Holdings, last weekend apologised that miso soup served at one of its locations in western Japan in January had contained a rat. Zensho shares fell as much as 7% on the following Monday.

In a Saturday statement, Sukiya said it had also suffered a second contamination incident on Friday, when another store in suburban Tokyo served product containing a bug.

As a result, it had decided to close all Japanese restaurant locations, except for a small number in shopping centres, between March 31 morning and April 4 morning to take measures to prevent further infestations.

“We take very seriously the fact that this incident has occurred,” Sukiya said. “We deeply apologise to our customers.”

As of the end of 2024, Sukiya operated 1,965 stores in Japan, according to Zensho’s latest filing, exceeding those of rival beef bowl chains Yoshinoya, which had about 1,250, and Matsuya, with about 1,100.

Sukiya also operates around 650 stores overseas in regions such as China, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Reuters