Zensho Founder Kentaro Ogawa Dies at 77

Tokyo, April 7 (Jiji Press)–Kentaro Ogawa, founder and chairman of Zensho Holdings Co., a Japanese restaurant chain operator, died of myocardial infarction on Monday. He was at 77. Ogawa opened the first Sukiya “gyudon” beef-on-rice restaurant in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, in 1982. He adopted Australian beef for Sukiya restaurants after the import of U.S. beef was banned due to the outbreak of mad cow disease in 2003, a decision that helped to boost revenue. He grew Sukiya into the largest gyudon chain in Japan. Under the leadership of Ogawa, Zensho acquired many restaurant chains, including noodle chain Nakau and former hamburger chain Lotteria. Zensho became the largest restaurant chain operator in Japan in terms of revenue in the year that ended in March 2011. He became president and chairman of Zensho in 2011. Zensho came under fire in 2014 for leaving only one worker on duty at each Sukiya restaurant late at night. In 2025, the company struggled with a series of foreign object contamination in food. In 2025, Ogawa handed over the presidency of Zensho to his second son, Yohei, focusing on the role of chairman. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]