Restaurants serving "gyudon" stewed-beef-on-rice dishes will run out of beef next month due to Japan's ban on beef imports from the United States.
Nakau Co. will stop serving gyudon at its chain of about 280 restaurants Monday. The step has already taken effect at some 40 outlets in the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo. Zensho Co. will remove gyudon from its menu at all of its roughly 480 outlets Thursday.
Some restaurant chains may be able to continue serving gyudon longer than expected, however, because demand for alternative meals has slowed the reduction of beef inventories.
Yoshinoya D&C Co. -- the nation's biggest gyudon chain, with nearly 1,000 outlets -- had expected to run out of beef in early February, but the popularity of beef alternatives such as rice topped with pork curry or salmon eggs has left it with enough beef to last until the middle of February.
Japan banned the import of U.S. beef in late December after the U.S. confirmed its first, and only, case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born Holstein in Washington state.