The financial success of three restaurant chains offering "gyudon" beef-on-rice dishes in 2006 came down to how each responded to Japan's decision last summer to drop the ban on U.S. beef imports amid the mad cow disease scare, according to financial results the three had released by Friday.
Lingering consumer concern over the brain-wasting disease has since limited the quantities of U.S. beef imports, keeping import prices and the costs of restaurants using U.S. beef high, according to the results of Yoshinoya D&C Co., Matsuya Foods Co. and Zensho Co.
Yoshinoya restarted actively offering gyudon dishes incorporating U.S. beef last September, cashing in on an upsurge in sales at their restaurants, its results show.