A branch of the Kyushu Pancake Cafe opened in Taipei on Monday, as the Japanese business ventures into the highly competitive yet lucrative Taiwanese market.
Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Taipei, Koji Muraoka, founder of Ippei Co., which operates the Pancake Cafe business as well as sushi restaurants and coffee shops across Kyushu, said that pancakes have a special place in his life. He described the reasoning behind the Taipei branch, saying: "I wanted to share my sweet childhood memory with the people in Taiwan."
Muraoka said that his parents had founded their first sushi restaurant decades ago in Miyazaki Prefecture, and that while the business had kept them very busy, his mother always made pancakes during weekends or holidays.