Background: Originating from Shimabara (Nagasaki Prefecture), the site of the Amakusa Shirō rebellion, and situated across the Ariake Sea, Ōmuta City thrived on coal production, known as "black diamonds," supporting the rise of modern Japan. Since before the war (several generations ago), we have been running a ryotei (Japanese-style restaurant) favored by the Mitsui Zaibatsu, a major conglomerate.
During the period of high economic growth, we operated bars and clubs, transitioning to cafes and restaurants in the 70s, family restaurants in the 80s, dinner restaurants, karaoke, DISCO, and Amusement CASINO in the 90s, adapting our family business to the changing times. Since the mid-90s, we have helped over 2,000 couples with their weddings, and following the Lehman Shock, we introduced photo weddings, ceremony-only weddings, and fee-based wedding parties (these new plans still account for 20-30% of our wedding business revenue). We launched a 200 yen BAR (celebrating its 12th anniversary), and a sweets buffet (pre-COVID-19) two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, transferring the shop just before the pandemic. Currently, we are in the wedding and food and beverage business.
Since 2006, we have also contributed to regional promotion and investment, culminating in the nationally famous "Eco Village" (Uki City, Misumi) and supporting evacuees and resettlers from Eastern Japan after 311. During the Kumamoto earthquake, we volunteered to support victims, aid organizations, local governments, and served as a liaison with central government ministries, the government, and the Self-Defense Forces. We spent 60 million yen to restore our own damaged shops, becoming the representative business for the "Small and Medium Enterprise Group Facility Restoration and Improvement Subsidy Project," and assisted the recovery of several other group member companies. After restoration, we opened our shop space for markets and flea markets to help small and individual businesses start up and expand sales channels. This initiative also led to the opening of several new businesses and two alternative (free) schools. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we volunteered to take in school children who had nowhere to go due to school closures in March and discussed the situation with the Vice Governor of Kumamoto Prefecture. We responded to local and national television interviews to widely communicate the plight of wedding and banquet businesses. We also conducted volunteer activities such as free food distribution and consultations for those in need, such as single-parent families and the unemployed. In the 2020 Kumamoto Prefecture southern heavy rain disaster, we opened a part of our store as a collection point for support goods and a volunteer reception base in Kumamoto city, and also entered the affected areas to provide support.
Current situation: Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Kumamoto in February 2020, the last parties and weddings were held in mid-February and late February, respectively. All events at the end of February and March graduation season parties were cancelled, leading to a shutdown. Later, when the infection temporarily subsided, we conducted small family-only weddings and online events using a system we developed. The food and beverage division also experienced a 99% decrease in monthly sales due to the request for business suspension around last year's Golden Week and shortened business hours from the end of the year to February, and the subsequent request for self-restraint from going out, and is currently at about half of pre-COVID levels. Individual demand has recovered to 80% recently. From the second half of 2020 to early 2021, we invested 5 million yen in heat exchange ventilation systems (1500㎥ and 1000㎥ per hour), high-performance air purifiers, hypochlorous acid, and ozone equipment with the "Corona Special Response Type Small Business Sustainability Subsidy Business Exception Business Business Restart Frame" and "Kumamoto City Restaurant Infection Prevention Measure Support," completing infection prevention facilities as much as possible from the store side. We also developed a "Remote Wedding" system to broadcast weddings and events in high quality and high sound quality using the "Corona Special Response Type Small Business Sustainability Subsidy Business." We applied this technology to develop the video version of "Virtual Wedding" and "VFX (Special Effects Imaging Technology) Wedding" system, an evolution of the CG composite photography "Virtual Photo Wedding" (Trademark Registration No. 5303157) and "Virtual Location Photo" (Trademark Registration No. 5303158) developed in 2009.