Osaka restaurant bankruptcy: LIAISON operator owes ¥1.2bn

The Osaka restaurant bankruptcy of The DINING, the company behind the one-Michelin-star French restaurant LIAISON, involves liabilities of about ¥1.2 billion, according to credit research firm Teikoku Databank. The agency said on September 16 that the operator had stopped trading by September 3 and was preparing to file for bankruptcy.

The debt is owed to around 300 creditors, MBS News reported, citing Teikoku Databank. According to the agency's Osaka branch, quoted by Sankei News, it is set to be the largest liability recorded by a restaurant business in the Kinki region this year.

The DINING was founded in December 2011 in Osaka's Kita ward. Sankei News reported that it ran restaurants serving the regional cooking of Miyazaki, as well as pork shabu-shabu and skewer restaurants. In 2013 it opened Mansaku, a Miyazaki restaurant, in the Grand Front Osaka complex, according to the business news site Fukeiki.com.

About 30 outlets and ¥2.35 billion in sales, but rising costs could not be passed on.

A Michelin star and about 30 outlets

LIAISON opened in November 2017 and received one star from the Michelin Guide, according to Teikoku Databank. Fukeiki.com dates the star to 2018.

Teikoku Databank said the company expanded quickly after the Covid-19 pandemic, opening LIAISON sister restaurants, French bistro-bars and French kushiage counters. Sankei News reported that it ran about 30 outlets in department stores and commercial buildings near Osaka Station and in Kyoto, Nagoya and central Tokyo, with revenue of about ¥2.35 billion in the financial year to September 2025.

What led to the Osaka restaurant bankruptcy

According to Teikoku Databank, the cost of opening new sites mounted while higher prices for ingredients and labour could not be fully passed on to customers, and the company remained loss-making. The agency said the restart of loan repayments deferred during the pandemic and the burden of rent further strained its cash flow.

The company transferred the operation of some outlets to other businesses in an attempt to recover, Sankei News reported. LIAISON restaurants began closing about a year ago, and the most recent closures included every LIAISON location, MBS News reported, citing the agency.

Other restaurant groups have also shrunk this year, including Whitbread, which closed its last 106 Beefeater restaurants in the United Kingdom. In Japan, some ingredient prices have climbed sharply in 2026: saury prices have tripled as Hokkaido landings shrink.

For the Osaka restaurant bankruptcy to proceed, the petition still has to be filed: The DINING has entrusted the process to its lawyers, according to Fukeiki.com.