Japanese revolving sushi bar restaurant chain Kura Sushi yesterday opened its first overseas flagship restaurant in Kaohsiung. It is also the chain’s 51st outlet in Taiwan.
With an area of 2,000 ping (6,612m2), the flagship restaurant is the largest Kura Sushi outlet in the world, accommodating 288 customers, said Kura Sushi Asia Co (亞洲藏壽司), the company’s Taiwanese subsidiary.
The restaurant designed by Kasiwa Sato combines sightseeing and food, and features 100 Japanese-style lanterns at the front of the outlet, Kura Sushi Asia said.
Photo: CNA
The chain arrived in Taiwan in 2014 with the goal of opening 50 restaurants, a target achieved in January, Kura Sushi Asia chairman Kentaro Nishikawa said.
Kura Sushi has opened four global flagship restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka, and is launching its first overseas flagship outlet in Kaohsiung as it is upbeat about an anticipated boom in the local tourism, and food and beverage industries, the company said.
The conveyor belt sushi chain has 530 restaurants in Japan, 46 in the US, 51 in Taiwan and is set to open its first outlet in Shanghai this year, Nishikawa said.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
While many restaurants withdrew from China due to its strict COVID-19 restrictions over the past few years, Kuro Sushi considers it a potential market for business growth and plans to open more stores there, he said.
The firm aims to increase its number of overseas restaurants to 400 by 2030, he added.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SUBSIDIES: The nominee for commerce secretary indicated the Trump administration wants to put its stamp on the plan, but not unravel it entirely US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency in charge of a US$52 billion semiconductor subsidy program declined to give it unqualified support, raising questions about the disbursement of funds to companies like Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). “I can’t say that I can honor something I haven’t read,” Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, said of the binding CHIPS and Science Act awards in a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “To the extent monies have been disbursed, I would commit to rigorously enforcing documents that have been signed by those companies to make sure we get