日本の飲食業界にテイクアウト文化を　Penetrate the take-out culture in Japan

English version of this post is available below.

こんにちは、3児ワーママのマミントンです 。

コロナウイルスの感染が日本で確認されてから約１年。現在は２度目の緊急事態宣言が出てから１週間半が過ぎました。ニュースでは「ころな慣れ」や「若者の過信」など、緊急事態の中でも人出が減らない現実が報道されている一方で、家族・観光客向けのショッピングモールや、施設内の飲食店では空席が目立ちます。

例えばお台場のアクアシティ。綺麗な夜景が見えるお店が沢山あり、コロナ禍でなければ週末はお客さんで賑わっているはずなのに。現在は休業する旨を知らせている貼り紙や、開店しているお店もお客さんはポツリポツリと数人いるだけ。ラストオーダーは１９時。補助金は一律の６万円。６万円で生き残れるお店もあれば、賃料が高い土地にお店を構えるお店や大型店舗にとっては６万円では生き残り戦略にはなりません。

私はアメリカの田舎で育ちました。幼少期の週末は母も家事・調理から解放されたくて毎週食べていたのは近所の中華料理店のテイクアウト。英語では「Chinese take-out」という言葉で親しまれています。鶏肉の甘辛揚げが大好きでした。アメリカでは中華料理店に限らず、どこのレストランもテイクアウトが可能で、日本のようにピザや牛丼のファストフードやお弁当屋さんに限らず、どんなお店のお料理も持ち帰って楽しめるのが当たり前でした。

コロナ禍になり、町のお店でも「テイクアウト」や「お持ち帰りのお弁当」のメニューが出始めてはいるものの、実施していないお店も沢山あるように感じます。Uberや出前館も便利ですが、このようなデリバリーサービスを使用すると、レストランの売り上げも下がってしまいます。デリバリーを否定しているわけではなく（私も月に何度かは愛用していますので笑）、より気軽に色々なレストランの美味しいグルメをお持ち帰りできたら楽しいのにな、と思うのです。コロナ禍で倒産が相次いでいる中、私たちに娯楽の時間を提供してくれる飲食業界の皆さんに何とか生き残ってほしい。そしてステイホームしがならも、大好きな美味しいお料理をもっと気軽に自宅で楽しみたい。

日本の飲食業界の皆さん、もっともっと「テイクアウトメニュー」を提供してください！ワーキングママとしても嬉しいサービスです。家族５人分を買いにいきます！

Hello, I’m Mamington, a working mom of three.

It has been 1 year since the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Japan. We are currently undergoing the second State of Emergency. We frequently see worrying news casters commenting that the society is getting “used to” COVID-19, or that young generation are overly confident that they will not be affected by this deadly virus. A lot of people are seen out and about in certain areas or metropolitan Tokyo, while shopping malls and areas popular to tourists are empty.

For example, Odaiba. This is like the Navy Pier of Tokyo, popular to tourists and families, with gorgeous city views and many restaurants that are lined up back in the day when we were not going through a pandemic. Currently, restaurants are either temporarily closed or if they were open, empty tables stand out. Last order for dinner is taken at 19pm and restaurants close by 20pm. The government provides a JPY 60,000 subsidy (roughly US$ 600) for every restaurant that cooperates with this 20pm so-called soft curfew regardless of the characteristics of the restaurant. This subsidy could be a life saver for some, but for others who pay a large amount of rent due to to the size or location of the restaurant, this subsidy is not nearly enough to survive.

I grew up in the country side in America. When I was young, my mom would want a break from her daily chores and we had a habit of ordering Chinese take-outs from a nearby restaurant. I loved the sweet and sour chicken. In America, you can order and take out delicious food from pretty much any genre of restaurants and they did not have to be fast food restaurants with drive-thru.

Now that we are going through a pandemic and there are limitations for restaurants to operate, I see more places that offer take-out or bento menus but the take-out culture has not penetrated enough. Uber, Demaekan, and various other delivery services are great bit delivery service providers obviously has to take commission from the restaurant that they deliver on behalf of. I am not denying the delivery culture (I enjoy delivery food multiple times a month), but I think that having take-out culture to be more common in Japan in addition to the delivery culture doesn’t hurt. The fact is that restaurants are shutting down because of COVID-19. Restaurants that provide us with delicious food and joyous time are closing, and that is simply a sad fact. I want to see more restaurants survive through this horrifying crisis. I want the option to be able to enjoy the foods of my favorite restaurants at home, and contribute to the restaurants to survive as well.

Please, restaurants owners in Japan. Offer more take-outs. Let the food take-out culture penetrate. Your take-outs will help with my work-life balance as well! I will be there to purchase a fabulous dinner for five.