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Fewer ramen restaurants declare bankruptcy in Japan for first time in several years

Casey Baseel Jan 14, 2026
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Annual study shows fewer ramen joints went bankrupt in 2025, but that doesn’t mean everything is fine and dandy for the industry.

2024 was a rough year for ramen restaurants in Japan, as research firm Teikoku Databank found 79 ramen restaurant bankruptcies in its annual study of the industry, the most ever since its first iteration in 2010. 2024 wasn’t an isolated case, either, as it marked the third year in a row of increasing bankruptcies.

Things are finally looking better, though, as Teikoku has just released the results of its 2025 study, in which ramen restaurant bankruptcies fell by 25.3 percent, to 59.

For the study, Teikoku Database counted ramen restaurants that had debts exceeding 10 million yen (US$65,000) and had filed for bankruptcy proceedings.

Analysts point to rising costs as the reason for the large number of bankruptcies in recent years. Teikoku prepares an annual ramen cost index, calculated as the Tokyo-area average prices for the ingredients in a typical bowl of tonkotsu ramen: wheat for the noodles, pork bone for the broth stock, and toppings of vegetables and sliced pork. Since 2020, that total price has risen by 41 percent, Teikoku says.

Though ramen restaurant bankruptcies fell from 54 cases in 2020 to just 17 in 2021, when pandemic-period government aid was propping up many eateries, they rose to 33 in 2022 and then 53 in 2023 before hitting their peak of 79 in 2024. So while 59 bankruptcies in 2025 remains a significant number, it’s still encouraging to see the first decrease in four years.

Teikoku credits the reduced bankruptcies to a combination of factors, including trends such as brothless ramen that requires fewer ingredients and operational changes such as cashless payment systems and utilization of centralized kitchens providing semi-finished products to individual restaurants, allowing for smaller staffs and lower overhead costs. Teikoku says there’s also been a shift away from trying to succeed through high-volume sales and towards trying to increase per-customer profits, sometimes through offering more premium-style ramen or simply raising menu prices, with the latter being something that Teikoku says there’s growing acceptance of among ramen restaurant diners.

However, this doesn’t mean that running a ramen restaurant is now an easy path to financial success. While 2025’s 59 bankruptcies is a decrease compared to 2024, it’s still the second-highest number since 2010, and prices for ingredients haven’t come down, so those cost pressures are still there for restaurant operators. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Teikoku’s study is only concerned with bankruptcies specifically. So if, for example, the owners of a ramen restaurant decide to shut their business down after being forced to drain their savings to cover their debts, they’re still in a very bad place financially, but not counted as one of the year’s bankruptcies in Teikoku’s study. There’s also the question of how viable raising menu prices is as a long-term strategy, as it runs the risk of undoing ramen’s long-held image as a tasty but affordable dining option, and in turn eroding its fanbase, especially among younger diners.

That said, fewer bankruptcies, in and of itself, is a good thing, and Teikoku says there’s a chance that the number will fall even lower in 2026 as large restaurant groups, chains, and investment funds look to acquire or merge with small/medium-scale ramen restaurants facing financial difficulties or lacking a successor to take over from owners looking to retire.

Source: Teikoku Database via FNN Prime Online via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko
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