Heishinro, Japan's oldest Chinese restaurant group, bankrupt in 2025 after 141 years

Heishinro, one of Japan's oldest Chinese restaurant groups, ceased all operations on May 20, 2025 and entered bankruptcy proceedings the following day. The Tokyo District Court issued a bankruptcy commencement order for both Heishinro Co. and its affiliate Heishinro Japan, with combined liabilities of approximately ¥2.95 billion.

Founded in Yokohama Chinatown in 1884, Heishinro grew from a small restaurant into a group operating multiple brands. At its peak in FY2007, annual revenue reached ¥10.8 billion. The group ran Heishinro fine-dining outlets in Tokyo, Osaka and Kitakyushu, alongside the SARIO fast-casual chain and department-store deli counters selling frozen dim sum and gift sets.

The business had been in decline for years. Revenue fell from ¥10.8 billion in FY2007 to ¥6.5 billion by FY2016 as Japan's economy stagnated and corporate dining budgets shrank. In 2016 a Hong Kong fund acquired the business, establishing a new company to continue operations. But the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a devastating blow: revenue dropped to ¥5.7 billion in FY2020, the group posted a ¥622 million net loss, and it recorded five consecutive final deficits that drained all equity.

The 2025 bankruptcy was the third collapse for the Heishinro name. A separate entity running the Yokohama flagship store had already failed in 2022 with ¥300 million in debt, and the original company had been liquidated in 2017 after the 2016 sale. The brand's 141-year run as a going concern ended in a year when the pandemic's long tail and a shrinking Japanese economy proved too much for even the most established names to survive.