Amid mounting public fears over mad cow disease, otherwise popular "yakiniku" barbecued-beef restaurants are being dealt a serious blow.
The latest report released earlier this week by the Japan Foodservice Association shows that sales at yakiniku restaurants in September fell 12.1 percent from a year earlier in a setback apparently due to last month's discovery of Japan's first case of mad cow disease.
The figure represents the first double-digit drop since January 2000, when the association started reporting sales in the yakiniku category.
The number of customers in September declined 10.8 percent, the association said.
Sales at family-style restaurants offering choices of nonbeef Chinese, Japanese and Western dishes posted up to a 4.8 percent rise, with the number of customers rising up to 5.3 percent.
An association official said yakiniku restaurants are working to win back customers by reducing prices, but many of them have seen their sales fall by around 30 percent in October.
Overall sales at family restaurants in September fell 1 percent from a year earlier on the basis of existing outlets, and rose 5.9 percent when including new outlets.