Yoshinoya beef bowl chain exec dismissed over sexist remarks

Boycott Yoshinoya!!!! This is not going far enough!!! Need to appoint a female executive in his place. and also replace him with a female executive. Preferably from some smaller town or rural community. And also get a more diverse workforce in Yoshinoya. Disgraceful.

Boycott Yoshinoya

This isnt the US. Things get handled differently here.

And also get a more diverse workforce in Yoshinoya. Disgraceful.

Only said by someone who has never actually been inside a Yoshinoya. Diversity here means a % of men and women, and Yoshinoya does have a diverse staff!

What a complete bafoon! Knowing the company, they will dismiss him (from his position) and relocate him to another, so not to fire him. I wouldn't be surprised. I don't think boycotting Yoshinoya's will not do much of anything. If anything, less people, especially women, won't want to work for this bozo. Just complete stupidity on his part.

The strange thing is I have never seen a woman eating in a Yoshinoya.

According to Yoshinoya Holdings, Ito was attempting to get attendees to propose ideas for making young people fans of beef bowls when he said, "It's like a plan to get a green young girl from the countryside who doesn't know what's what, to use (Yoshinoya) for the first time and get her totally hooked."

People know what his fetish is. Well shabu-shabu beef has some double meanings.

This guy was saying the quiet part out loud.

I have a feeling that the company was looking for a good reason to get rid of this guy and he handed it to them on a plate.

Facepalm. Probably thought it would be an interesting analogy to connect to young people who BTW, don't care about this political correctness.

It is okay to be offended. The world is full of those who are too easily offended and need to harden up.

Having said that, these are not remarks that reflect well on the company, and he should know better. Dismissal appropriate for his sheer stupidity.

Good grief

If this was genuinely his attempt at humour, then a very deep bow will be required before anyone hires this oaf again, otherwise I fear he may have fallen on his literal sword....

He thought he had bowled them over with his wit, but some people had a beef about what he said. Dimwit! You have to know that is not going to fly nowadays. Oh well, maybe Matsuya is hiring.

Yoshinoya serves customers imported US beef from growth hormone-fed cows. If more people boycott the beef-bowl chain, they’ll have fewer health problems.

he likened an approach to targeting young diners to keeping young women captive and getting them addicted to drugs.

His original gaffe is no doubt highly insensitive, but also nuanced too much to translate well in English. Lewd enough, the news readers had to rephrase it. That's why it has been going viral on sms.

Good for firing him quickly. Ito=伊東..Typical...surname

All these people who write their own speeches really need someone to look it over before they dig a grave for themselves in public.

But i doubt i care anyway what they say. I go for the food. Not to listen to some old man personal speech.

From an article in another newspaper, the company share price tanked after his remarks so obviously they had to get rid of him.

these old men saying these things doesn't surprise me no more... i know far too many old japanese men at my work who would not find this offensive nor would they have an issue with this guys statement....

What a stupid comment, glad he got canned. What? Yoshinoya can't compete based on taste, quality, price, service, all the "normal" things in the industry? They have to resort to "addiction"?

They should dismiss the whole Yoshinoya chain. It's disgusting. It's not often that I take one bite and cannot finish the plate. Yoshinoya is marginally worse than MacDonalds.

Their 'food' tastes disgusting. Extra reason to avoid it like the plague.

Masaaki Ito, 49, also an executive officer at the parent company, Yoshinoya Holdings Co, was giving a lecture Saturday on digital marketing for working adults held at Waseda University, where he likened an approach to targeting young female diners to keeping them captive and getting them addicted to drugs.

Whoever booked this joker , to give the presentation should also be reprimanded. I take it Waseda will not be booking any more Yoshinoya lectures in the future.

Anyway, Yoshinoya should be concentrating more on the oil infused garbage they call "gyudon."

Go to Sukiya or Matsuya where they know how to do fast food right.

Well done Yoshinoya. It would have been easy (and all too typical) to ignore and ride this one out, but they took action.

Boycott Yoshinoya!!!! This is not going far enough!!! Need to appoint a female executive in his place. and also replace him with a female executive. Preferably from some smaller town or rural community. And also get a more diverse workforce in Yoshinoya. Disgraceful.

I have an inkling that Wakarimasen's comment was intended as sarcasm, poking fun at the kind of thing you'd see on Twitter if it happened in the US. Dunno, maybe I'm wrong.

A pretty dumb comment from Ito, but just a few short years ago a deep bow and some fake tears would've been enough to pay his penance to society. Nowadays everyone seems to be baying for blood.

Imagine the culture inside of the company that made this guy think the example was appropriate for an official talk at waseda.

There is a difference between humor and serious comment.

People seem to have lost the ability to recognize this.

The new woke world is a more boring place because of this.

And yes, some jokes offend.. Get over yourselves...

Boycott Yoshinoya!!!! This is not going far enough!!! Need to appoint a female executive in his place. and also replace him with a female executive. Preferably from some smaller town or rural community. And also get a more diverse workforce in Yoshinoya. Disgraceful.

I agree but think even this is not going far enough!! They should change the name of all stores to Yoshinoyako-sumimasen, appoint a female Ainu from a small rural indigenous village in Hokkaido as the CEO, and replace all beef bowls with Tofu bowls!! If these demands are not met within 2.6 weeks then BoyCOtt!

Reminds me the sexist remarks of Mori on the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

What a fried egg!! Its a reflection of what Japanese men think of women in general especially those from the country side that see tokyo for the first time. " "It's like a plan to get a green young girl from the countryside who doesn't know what's what, to use for the first time and get her totally hooked."

Boycott Yoshinoya!!!!

Why? Seems like the problem is actually solved, the guy apologized and the company is going to retrain their staff, don't think that problem will happen again.

Amid concern the backlash could affect company performance, his removal from both executive roles was decided at a hastily convened board meeting late Monday.

It also seems that they acted quickly and nipped that problem right in the bud immediately.

This is not going far enough!!! Need to appoint a female executive in his place. and also replace him with a female executive. Preferably from some smaller town or rural community. And also get a more diverse workforce in Yoshinoya. Disgraceful.

Again, not a big fan of boycotts unless really necessary and they tackled the problem, if they didn't then we need to think of the next step, but I am not about to hurt all those innocent employees that show up to work and do their job, don't think it's fair at this point to punish them over one execs idiot and insensitive remark.

"gyudon say"

Yoshinoya's stock fell as much as 4.3 per cent in morning trading in Tokyo on Tuesday, the biggest intraday decline since October 2020. The stock had been up 5.3 per cent this year before the remarks became public.

JohansawadaToday  07:03 pm JST

these old men saying these things doesn't surprise me no more...

"old"? He's only 49.

Haha I thought the same thing.

anyone who would call a 49-year-old an old man must be in his teens

I haven’t been to this restaurant in sometime. I’m not a fan of their regular gyudon but their karubi don is more than palatable. I haven’t had it in a while though.

I know where I’m going tomorrow for lunch now

Disgusting, like the taste insulting food they try to sell.

49 is pretty old. Past middle age.

I work at a Japanese company in the same type of industry and I'm sad to say that kind of attitude is the norm. The smart ones know better than to expose their vile opinions openly, but behind closed doors I've heard some truly appalling statements over the years:

"Jews, Indians, Koreans, and Chinese - these are races you cannot trust"

"You cannot promote women to managerial positions because they are hysterics"

"People in developing countries have low IQs so we have to make our advertisements simple and easy to understand"

That's just a couple of the choice zingers I have heard over the years from people who were high up in management. The last one came from our director of international business....

The comment in Japanese is 「生娘をシャブ漬け戦略」-- my translation: "Strategy to get innocent girls hooked (on Yoshinoya) like speed".

The statement is reflective of a deep-seated arrogance towards women and stupid thing to say. It's also a reflection of the dark side of marketing, which reduces the world to 'market segments' that are there for taking via clever strategies. Marketing imposes it own imperatives on us as if we were rodents on a wheel, or speed addicts.

But spare a thought for the exec, no doubt just a gung-ho marketing type who worships 'market share' and climbing the corporate ladder. Hope he learns his lesson and moves on with his life.

He has been cancelled for inadvertently speaking the truth.

Food companies routinely mix addictive substances into processed foods to create a craving for Their products.

What are people getting ’offended’ about? He was simply describing what happens in the world; he was not in any way advocating it.

(If he’d said 生息子 (naïve young man) rather than 生娘 (naïve young woman) would people have been so ‘offended’? I doubt it. But if he’d said 生息子 it would, being relatively inaccurate, not so vividly have substantiated the point he was making.)

TT

Only in Japan.

Anyway, Yoshinoya should be concentrating more on the oil infused garbage they call "gyudon."

agree. ate there once. Never again. A friend of mine found a maggot in his kim chi there once too and there was news years back about someone finding a cockroach in their bowl- so no thank you.

Go to Sukiya or Matsuya where they know how to do fast food right.

ABSOLUTELY! The latter being my personal favourite.

Much ado about nothing.

Grow a thicker skin.

A bit of a knee jerk reaction imo. Every companies goal is to get you “hooked” on their products. Personally if you want me hooked give me quality and good bang for my buck. Anything less and you have lost me. Trying to get me hooked on crud is an impossible task not matter how you wrap it or dress it up. These the advertising rarely comes close to what you are actually getting. Take a look at the Mac D photos of their food and compare that to what’s actually in your hand.

49 isn't an old man in Japan.

However its futile to argue his lecure was insensitive ,sexist and innapropriate.

How his lecture could benefit anyone is inconceivable .

Certainly a self imposed demise.

According to Yoshinoya Holdings, Ito was attempting to get attendees to present marketing strategies for making young women fans of beef bowls when he said, "It's like a plan to get a green young girl from the countryside who doesn't know what's what, to use (Yoshinoya) for the first time and get her totally hooked."

He's akin young bumpkin girls as fresh meat for Yoshinoya