Warm Up
What did you eat for dinner yesterday?
What was your favorite food as a kid?
What food do you NOT like?
Reading
The World Loves Japanese Food
There are now around 187,000 Japanese restaurants outside of Japan. That's according to a survey by the Japanese agriculture ministry. The number of restaurants has increased by 20% since 2021 when the survey was last done. This means, there are now three times as many Japanese restaurants around the world as there were ten years ago. North America has seen a small decrease in the number of Japanese restaurants but there are more than ever before in Europe.
The agriculture ministry believes that this may be partly because of the popularity of anime shows in other countries. That may be especially true in Central and South America, where the number of restaurants doubled to almost 13,000 between 2021 and 2023. However, the ministry also said that it had changed the way it does the survey and this may have allowed it to find more restaurants in these areas.
There are 122,000 Japanese restaurants in Asia, and the country with more Japanese restaurants than any other is China, where there are more than 78,700. In the US, there are around 26,000 restaurants and in South Korea there are now more than 18,000.
Reading Comprehension
How many Japanese restaurants are there outside of Japan?
Which country outside of Japan has the most Japanese restaurants?
Has the number of Japanese restaurants in Europe increased or decreased?
Discussion Questions
What are your thoughts on the survey's findings?
Why do you think Japanese food is so popular around the world?
Do you imagine Japanese food in other countries is as good as it is in Japan?
In your opinion, what are the best Japanese foods?
Are there any local foods from your region you'd recommend trying?
What countries do you think have the best food?
How often do you eat out?
What are your favorite restaurants?
How do you find or choose new restaurants to try?
If you could open your own restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
