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172 locations out of ~1,000 in Japan, many of which were opened during the pandemic to handle increased delivery demand.

This is a nothingburger. (Nothingpizza?)

Thank You for the summary. Saving me time to read the article.
Good riddance - it's garbage "pizza" constitutes a poor choice in Japan where good food is everywhere
It's just as good as Pizza LA for way less money and basically equal to Pizza Hut. The options for pizza are actually pretty limiting, even in Tokyo, if you're sick of Italian style pizza. From memory you've basically got Devil Craft, Pizza Slice, and PizzaKaya, although there may be some newer places with Detroit pizza getting more popular

It's much better than Domino's in the US if you are commenting on Domino's in general.

Well, generally speaking all big chains have better quality of food in Japan, even McD (I don't eat that personally but numerous acquaintances confirm it).

It likely has nothing to do with production but rather with sourcing - shitty components are not readily available in Japan as they are in the US.

No there's plenty of terrible and subpar food in Japan. Basically all cheese and non butter or yogurt dairy products not from a specialty store, anything from Akafudado, any food establishment run by an elderly person you weren't specifically recommended, most foreign food you randomly find walking around that isn't from China, Korea, or India. Spend more than a couple weeks there eating from the best places you found on the internet and it's very apparent.

Quality of chain food is usually down to how fresh it is, mostly from high turn over, and workers actually caring. Some of it is culture, but I taught college kids and many of them expected and got promotions to manager or corporate after working part time jobs during college.

Pizza in Japan usually sucks unless it's Italian style because they can't charge a premium on specialty buffalo mozzarella cheese and it's hard to get anything else of quality in bulk. I've had the discussion with Japanese living abroad about how there are obviously lots of dairy farms in Hokkaido producing quality milk and butter, but everything else is over priced and/or terrible. Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Costco can use their global sales to import or buy domestic in bulk. Sometimes the chains completely rework the product for the market. Domino's and KFC basically taste nothing like their US version. McDonald's is the same just often times fresher

Thanks for the deep dive! Having tried other burgers in Japan, but not McD’s, does McD’s Japan use fluffy milk-bread-style buns? When confronted with a pillowy burger bun surrounding an otherwise flavorful and juicy meat patty, my mouth really wanted more bran flavor and gluten in the bun.
Domino's sort of originated the urban "ghost kitchen" model and refined stereotypical pizza delivery to a slick art.

Ghost Kitchens have come full circle at this point, and many eateries with independent delivery can't maintain it.

Delivery customers today are asking why maintain a separate account, app, and loyalty to the one, when even the custom apps proliferate.

Fingers crossed the branch near me doesn't close.

There are other pizzerias that serve my location, but prices would go up if competition disappears.

Japan, its not too late to stop it !