Interview with Mr. Z

"After graduating, I tried job hunting, but most of the time I’ve chosen to work for myself. Over the years, I’ve started businesses, from running a drugstore to now owning four gyoza restaurants. My philosophy is simple: if you’re going to start a business, you should aim to become one of the biggest players in the industry—otherwise, you’re just running to keep up with others.

For me, gyoza seemed like the right choice. It’s not an overly competitive field in Japan, which gave me room to grow. I started with a shop in a less-than-ideal location, built up some profit, and used that to open more stores. The key to restaurants, I think, is scale. Big chains like McDonald’s or Haidilao didn’t succeed because of some secret recipe—it’s because they scaled up.

Running multiple stores also makes things more efficient. For example, when I only had one shop, if someone called in sick, I had to step in myself. But now, I can shift employees between locations so the workload is spread out. I believe putting efficiency first is one of the main reasons my business has succeeded."