Hidakaya, which captured late-night dining demand, adopted a strategy of targeting locations near train stations rather than roadside sites and has pursued a policy of accelerating openings near stations.
Approximately 50 years ago, the founder opened Rairaiken in a shopping district in Iwatsuki. Because daytime business alone was not viable, the restaurant stayed open until late at night, giving the founder a strong sense of the scale of nighttime demand.
From the time of its founding, the business thoroughly considered how to operate around the clock and explored ways to capture nighttime demand at a time when few competitors were open late.
During the Showa era, street stalls lined the areas around train stations, and many customers enjoyed ramen and oden late at night. The writer, however, anticipated that the stalls would eventually disappear.
Against this backdrop, the business shifted to a strategy of capturing late-night demand by accelerating openings near train stations.