Food Service Solutions EXPO (Yakiniku Business Fair & Izakaya JAPAN)

Food Service Solution EXPO is a business show for restaurants, bringing together services and products that support the management and store operations of yakiniku restaurants, izakaya, restaurants and restaurant chains. Its component shows, the Yakiniku Business Fair and Izakaya JAPAN, run at the same time, so you can compare everything needed to build a restaurant, from ingredients and cooking equipment to POS and ordering systems and promotional tools. This article covers the dates and venues of both the Tokyo and Osaka shows, exhibit categories and visitor profile, and how to register as a visitor, as well as information that staff responsible for ingredient procurement and menu development can use in practice, and how to think about food novelties you can give to customers. Unlike FABEX, which focuses on manufacturing prepared dishes, bento and ready-made meals, this show focuses on food served in restaurants.

Food Service Solution EXPO: Basic Information

The upcoming shows are the Osaka show in October 2026 and the Tokyo show in January 2027. Both are business shows for industry professionals, and admission is free with an invitation ticket or advance visitor registration. With the Yakiniku Business Fair and Izakaya JAPAN side by side in the same venue, a distinctive feature is being able to compare products across business formats, from restaurants centered on meat dishes to izakaya.

Item	Tokyo show	Osaka show
Dates	January 20 (Wed) – 21 (Thu), 2027	October 14 (Wed) – 15 (Thu), 2026
Venue	Sunshine City Convention Center, Ikebukuro	INTEX Osaka
Opening hours	10:00〜17:00	10:00〜17:00
Admission	Industry professionals only; free with advance registration	Industry professionals only; free with advance registration
Organizer	Yakiniku Business Fair Executive Committee / Izakaya JAPAN Executive Committee

Because the show is held several times a year in Tokyo and Osaka, you can plan store openings and exhibiting by region. Businesses considering expansion in western Japan can use the Osaka show, while those looking to develop products for the Tokyo area can use the Tokyo show. Dates can shift from year to year, so whether you plan to visit or exhibit, check the next dates on the official website before making plans.

What companies and products does it attract?

Products and Services Covered by Exhibitors

Exhibits center on products and services directly tied to running restaurants. The lineup supports everything from setting up a restaurant to daily operations: meat and sauces for yakiniku and meat dishes, ingredients and alcoholic beverages for izakaya menus, commercial seasonings and frozen and room-temperature ingredients, smokeless roasters and kitchen equipment, store systems such as ticket machines, POS, mobile ordering and reservation management, as well as uniforms and promotional tools. It is a show with strong interest in labor-saving products that assume staff shortages and in ingredients that lower costs while maintaining quality.

For ingredient manufacturers, proposals designed around restaurant kitchens tend to resonate here. Pre-prepared ingredients that cut prep work and room-temperature products that reduce waste directly address the challenges of restaurants running with limited kitchen space and staff. Being able to let visitors check both taste and ease of use through tastings is another advantage unique to food service shows.

The Restaurant Operators Who Attend

Visitors are mainly owners and managers of yakiniku restaurants, izakaya and restaurants, and staff at restaurant chain head offices responsible for ingredient procurement and menu development. With many visitors close to decision-making, from independent restaurant owners to buyers at multi-store chains, talks sometimes move to quantities and delivery terms on the spot. Businesses preparing to open new stores also come looking for everything they need to open.

Chain head office staff prioritize reproducibility across all stores and stable supply that does not depend on each store's cooking skills. Independent restaurant owners look for dishes that set them apart from other restaurants and menu items that can be served with few staff. What resonates changes with the visitor's business format and scale, so adjusting your presentation while asking how many stores they have and what format they are makes meetings more productive.

Component Shows Held Together: Yakiniku Business Fair and Izakaya JAPAN

Food Service Solution EXPO consists of two specialist shows, the Yakiniku Business Fair and Izakaya JAPAN, held at the same time in the same venue. The Yakiniku Business Fair gathers products for the yakiniku industry and restaurants serving meat dishes, while Izakaya JAPAN features exhibits supporting the opening, operation and menu development of izakaya. Although the formats differ, common store challenges such as ingredient procurement, labor saving and promotion overlap, so visiting both at once lets you efficiently find what your restaurant is missing.

Even restaurants centered on meat design their whole menu, including side dishes, drinks and a final dish. An advantage of visiting as component shows is cross-over use, such as a yakiniku restaurant looking for ideas for snacks and vegetable dishes at Izakaya JAPAN, or an izakaya looking for ways to strengthen its meat menu at the Yakiniku Business Fair.

Highlights for visitors and exhibitors

Check Taste and Ease of Use at the Same Time Through Tastings

The biggest highlight of a food service show is being able to actually eat and check ingredients. You can judge on the spot things documents and photos cannot show, such as the reproducibility of flavor, the prep work required and how good the plating looks. Visitors walk around imagining how an item would work in their own menu, so exhibitors who serve tastings in the form of finished dishes convey a clearer picture of what adoption would look like.

Compare Labor-Saving and Cost-Control Products

Labor shortages and rising ingredient prices are common worries for restaurants. The venue features pre-prepared ingredients that cut prep work, room-temperature and frozen ingredients that reduce waste, and systems that streamline ordering and checkout, so you can compare several companies side by side. Because you can see different solutions to the same problem all at once, it is easier to find the combination that fits your restaurant's priorities.

Get Advice on Opening and Multi-Store Expansion

For businesses about to open or considering converting the format of an existing restaurant, it is a place to gather the necessary products and partners all at once. Everything needed to open, from kitchen equipment to ingredients, systems and promotion, is laid out side by side, so you can prepare while checking that nothing is missed. If you are looking ahead to multi-store expansion, confirming directly with exhibitors at this stage whether stable supply for all stores is possible makes later decisions easier.

For companies considering exhibiting

Exhibitors include ingredient manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, system providers and promotional services that support restaurant operations. Details on exhibit formats and booth fees can be confirmed with the organizing executive committee or through the inquiry contact on the official website. Because most visitors are directly involved in running restaurants, this is a show where letting them experience how a product could be used in their own restaurant leads to business more readily than abstract product explanations.

As preparation, serving tastings in the form of finished dishes and summarizing cost, yield and prep time on one page lets visitors start evaluating adoption on the spot. Making booth samples something that can be taken back to the restaurant and tested in the kitchen makes quote requests more likely later. Visitors go around many booths in a short time, so rather than ending with a card exchange, recording each contact's format, number of stores and interests improves the accuracy of your follow-up.

Visitor registration and how to participate

Admission is by advance registration for industry professionals, and registering on the official website gets you in free. Reviewing the exhibitor list in advance and narrowing down the booths you want to visit and topics you want to ask about lets you use limited time effectively. The Tokyo venue, Sunshine City Convention Center in Ikebukuro, is within walking distance of Ikebukuro Station on JR, private railway and subway lines, and the Osaka venue, INTEX Osaka, can be reached from stations such as Cosmosquare Station on the New Tram. The surrounding areas get crowded during the show, so if you are coming from afar for several days, arranging travel early is safest.

[For Food Service] Tips for Ingredient Procurement and Menu Development

When restaurants use vegetables, fluctuating supply, prep work and waste tend to squeeze profits. Dried vegetables and dried vegetable soups keep for a long time at room temperature and can be rehydrated with hot water or dashi in just the amount needed, so vegetables can be built into menus while keeping prep work and waste down. Agriture processes dried vegetables including off-spec produce, vegetable powders, dried vegetable soups and tea, and can consult with you from the raw material selection stage on designing rehydratable forms that fit your restaurant's operations.

Requests from restaurants gathered at the show become material for the next product. If you take home comments such as "I want less salt in this soup" or "I'd like it finely chopped for garnish," make small-lot prototypes and then go into the next meeting, it becomes easier to make proposals tailored to each restaurant's menu. Vegetables that are hard to handle fresh can sometimes become ingredients that even small kitchens can use consistently once dried or powdered.

Linking to In-Store Merchandise with Rehydratable Dried Vegetable Novelties for Customers

At restaurants, contact with customers tends to end inside the restaurant. Preparing small food novelties to hand out at checkout or as a visit perk lets customers take the restaurant's name home to their dinner tables. Dried vegetables and dried vegetable soups that rehydrate with hot water, and tea in tea bags, are compact and easy to handle at room temperature, making them a good fit both as in-store giveaway novelties and for visitors to this show. The same product can play two roles: a sample for restaurants at your booth and a giveaway for customers in the restaurant.

Ingredients That Cut Prep Work Resonate in Restaurant Kitchens

Dried vegetables and dried vegetable soups can be handed over in a form restaurants can try as-is in their kitchens, making them well suited as samples that let restaurants experience taste and ease of use. As in-store giveaways, they let customers recreate the taste of the restaurant at home, which can lead to return visits and interest in original products. Agriture can prepare dried vegetables, dried vegetable soups and tea bags in small lots (from 50 bags), and can also discuss package design matched to the restaurant's name and menu.

From Samples to Commercial Adoption and Original In-Store Merchandise

Samples handed out at the show can become the entry point to commercial adoption or original in-store merchandise. You can build a flow where you first prototype in small lots and check the response in the restaurant, and if it shows promise, either increase volumes as a commercial ingredient used in the kitchen or put it on display as a merchandise item for customers. Because you can start from small lots, you can also try several flavors and packages to find the item that suits the restaurant's customers. Since the dishes served in the restaurant and the products customers take home can use the same ingredients, the restaurant's brand comes across consistently.

FAQ: Food Service Solution EXPO

Is there an admission fee?

It is a show for industry professionals, and admission is free with an invitation ticket or advance visitor registration on the official website. Entry for the general public may be restricted, so check the admission conditions on the official website.

How is it different from FABEX?

FABEX is a specialist show centered on manufacturing prepared dishes, bento and ready-made meals and on commercial ingredients. Food Service Solution EXPO, on the other hand, focuses on running restaurants that serve food on the premises, such as yakiniku restaurants, izakaya and restaurants, and holds the Yakiniku Business Fair and Izakaya JAPAN at the same time. Choose between them according to your purpose.

Should I go to Tokyo or Osaka?

The Tokyo show is held at Sunshine City Convention Center in Ikebukuro, and the Osaka show at INTEX Osaka. As a rule of thumb, choose based on your restaurant's market and opening plans: the Tokyo show if you are looking for products for the Tokyo area, and the Osaka show if you are considering expansion in western Japan.

Is it worth exhibiting or visiting for an independent restaurant?

Yes. Many visitors are independent restaurant owners, and you can look for dishes that set you apart from other restaurants and menu items that can be served with a small staff. An advantage is being able to check taste and ease of use through tastings and discuss purchasing terms on the spot.

Can food novelties to hand out in the restaurant be made in small lots?

Dried vegetables, dried vegetable soups and tea bags can be prepared from small lots (from 50 bags), and package design matched to your restaurant's name and menu can also be discussed. The same product can cover both samples for restaurants and in-store giveaways for customers.

Summary: Finding Products for Building Your Restaurant at Food Service Solution EXPO

Food Service Solution EXPO (Yakiniku Business Fair & Izakaya JAPAN) is a business show for restaurants, held at INTEX Osaka on October 14–15, 2026, for the Osaka show, and at Sunshine City Convention Center in Ikebukuro on January 20–21, 2027, for the Tokyo show. You can compare ingredients, equipment, systems and promotion side by side and check taste and ease of use together through tastings. If you are working on ingredient procurement or menu development for your restaurant, planning is easier if you start with dried vegetables and dried vegetable soups that can be handled at room temperature and keep prep work and waste down, and look for the form that suits your restaurant from both the commercial adoption and in-store merchandise angles.

Official information: Food Service Solution EXPO official website

Recommended reading

Commercial dried vegetables / Original vegetable novelties / FABEX Chubu 2026 / FABEX Kansai 2025

Last updated: August 12, 2026