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Taco Bell inks franchise agreement to expand in Japan

Tokyo-based Asrapport Dining Co. Ltd announced a franchise agreement with Taco Bell Corp. to open locations in Japan.

February 26, 2015

Tokyo-based Asrapport Dining Co. Ltd announced a franchise agreement with Taco Bell Corp. to open locations in Japan.

Asrapport Dining is a publicly traded holding company with a foodservice franchise business containing 429 restaurants throughout Japan. The agreement enables Asrapport Dining to become a franchisee and operator of Taco Bell restaurants in Japan.

"Our main business realm is dinnertime pub style restaurants. We seek to increase the competitive strength of our portfolio and grow the number of our restaurants that are frequented by customers throughout the entire day," said Shusaku Higaki, Asrapport Dining CEO, in a statement. "We believe that 'Taco Bell' holds strong growth potential and will enable us to create a new QSR category by cultivating the strong latent demand for Mexican inspired foods within Japan."

Taco Bell Corp., a member of the Yum! Brands, Inc., operates more than 6,000 restaurants globally, and seeks to increase its restaurant numbers by 2,000 and 1,300 inside and outside of the United States by 2022 and 2023 respectively, the press release said. The company is targeting markets in Europe (UK, Poland), Asia (Korea, Japan and Thailand), Latin America (Chile, Peru) and India.