The Japanese Branch  

       For twenty years, Din Tai Fung has only opened one restaurant. Finally, Mr. Yang agreed to open a branch store in Tokyo, Japan. Why was the first branch store in Japan, not in Taiwan? The key person in Takashimaya who helped opening the first branch store was Mr. Sano . He was interested in opening a branch store in Japan.

      The owner of the Takashimaya Department Store started to talk about opening a branch with Din Tai Fung. At first, Mr. Yang hesitated for a long time. ”Japanese do things carefully, and their realistic attitude of excellence will be great to work with Din Tai Fung. We will have the best chance to become an international well-known company. But making dumplings is unlike the production of fast food. The skills of making dumplings are from the years of experiences that a chef could accumulate. Also, Din Tai Fung’s staff is not enough...”,he thought.

      Mr. Sano never gave up his dream for opening a branch store. After several talks and discussions, Mr. Yang agreed to authorize the Shinjuku Takashimaya Department Store as their first Din Tai Fang branch store. But the condition was, the Japanese chefs needed to come to Taiwan to learn how to make Din Tai Fang’s dumplings.

      The Japanese chefs came to Taiwan and learned how to make Din Tai Fang’s dumplings. They found out that it was very difficult. Many people thought that the original production of the dumplings was easy, actually they were wrong. There were many challenges for the chefs as they learned to make dumplings. Plus, the languages barrier, food cultures and concepts were all factors that made the chefs really distressed.

      After a long and hard preparation period, the first branch store was finally opened on 4th October, 1996. It is located on the 10th floor of the Shinjuku Takashimaya Department Store in Japan.

                                                                                                                                   Monica


Din Tai Fung’s Branch in Shinjuku, Tokyo. 〈Provided by Din Tai Fung〉