Acquisition · Restaurants
Yoshinoya buys 70% of Seattle ramen chain Kizuki to grow its US noodle business
- Buyer
- Yoshinoya Holdings (Tokyo)
- Target
- Kizuki International, Seattle, Washington
- Value
- About ¥4.66B (for 70%)
- Status
- Completed on September 1, 2026.
- Date
- 2026-07-10
Yoshinoya Holdings agreed, through its US holding company, to acquire 70% of Kizuki International, which runs about 17 ramen and izakaya restaurants centered on Seattle and has its own production kitchens. The price was about ¥4.66 billion. Kizuki had revenue of roughly ¥5.8 billion in 2025.
Why it matters
Yoshinoya has named ramen its third pillar after gyudon and udon, and the US is where Japanese ramen commands premium prices. Buying an established chain is faster than building stores one by one.
About Kizuki
Kizuki International was founded in Seattle in 2016. Besides its Seattle kitchen it has production kitchens in Texas and San Francisco. In 2025 it earned an operating profit of about ¥291 million.
Ramen as a third pillar
Yoshinoya's main brands are the Yoshinoya beef bowl chain and Hanamaru udon. It has been building ramen into a third business at home, including buying the ramen operator Withlink Holdings, and Kizuki is its first big step with ramen in North America.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
