Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store

What Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store does

Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store (こがね製麺 草津栗東店) is a single-location Sanuki udon restaurant in Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture, operated by 株式会社自動レジ研究所 (Automatic Register Research Institute Co., Ltd.), a private corporation incorporated in Osaka on June 15, 2023, with ¥1,000,000 in capital and led by Representative Director 鈴木 規之 (Suzuki Noriyuki). The store is the first Kansai-region location of the Kogane Seimen (こがね製麺所) brand, which operates 22 stores in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan's traditional Sanuki udon heartland. The restaurant serves general consumers — local residents, families, friends, and colleagues — seeking authentic regional udon outside Kagawa.

The restaurant offers a broad Sanuki udon menu including kake udon, niku udon, kitsune udon, tsukimi udon, zaru udon, curry udon, yak curry udon, white udon, and onigiri set meals, made from the parent brand's proprietary original flour and soy sauce formulations. The store's defining technical feature is an AI-powered self-checkout system (レジセルフレジ) using computer-vision-based people-tracking and facial recognition: customers order at self-service terminals, receive their noodles at the counter, and complete payment at rear automated terminals, with the AI linking the ordering customer to the paying party. The operating company's stated business is the social implementation of such self-checkout register systems, positioning the restaurant as a real-world proof-of-concept deployment.

Revenue mechanics are entirely retail — dine-in and takeout at a single physical location — with no disclosed pricing, no third-party delivery, no online ordering, and no wholesale distribution. Customer acquisition is driven by the official website (koganeseimen.net), organic walk-in traffic, and in-store QR codes that recruit members to a mobile app on iOS and Google Play. No revenue, headcount, or financial data is publicly disclosed.

Name

Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store

Legal name

株式会社自動レジ研究所

Website

https://koganeseimen.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store is a single-location Sanuki udon restaurant in Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture, serving general consumers with traditional udon dishes and an AI-powered facial recognition self-checkout system developed by its operating company, 株式会社自動レジ研究所.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Casual Dining / Japanese Udon Restaurant

NAICS

Limited-Service Restaurants (722513)

SIC

Retail-Eating Places (5812), Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

Asian QSR (Chinese/Thai/Japanese/Korean) (THAFAAAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Asian Fast Casual (Pan-Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean) (THAFABAE)

Keywords

• Sanuki udon restaurant
• Self-service dining
• Japanese noodle dishes
• AI-powered checkout
• Casual Japanese dining

Headquarters

HQ city

Osaka

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store (こがね製麺 草津栗東店) is a Sanuki udon restaurant that serves traditional Kagawa-style udon noodles made from proprietary original flour and soy sauce recipes, paired with a proprietary AI-powered self-checkout system that uses people-tracking and facial recognition to link placed orders to the paying customer. It operates as the first Kansai-region branch of the 22-store Kogane Seimen chain from Kagawa Prefecture, serving dine-in and takeout meals to walk-in individual consumers.

Product overview

Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store is a Sanuki udon restaurant chain that operates 22 stores in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, and has now expanded to the Kansai region with this first store in Kusatsu Ritto, Shiga Prefecture. The restaurant offers traditional Sanuki udon noodles with original wheat flour and soy sauce, complemented by a proprietary AI-powered self-checkout system that uses people tracking and face recognition technology to enable automated ordering and payment processing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sanuki Udon Menu (Kake Udon, Niku Udon, Kitsune Udon, Tsukimi Udon, On Tam Tsukimi, Konbu Udon, Oroshi Udon, Bukkake, On Tama Bukkake, Oroshi Bukkake, Niko Bukkake, On Tama Niko Bukkake, Zaru Udon, Kamatama, Mentaiko Kamatama, Kama Age, Curry Udon, Yaki Curry Udon, White Udon, Onigiri Set Meal) Traditional Sanuki-style udon noodle dishes from Kagawa Prefecture, including hot/cold noodle bowls with beef, tofu, egg and tempura toppings, plus curry udon variants, kamatama/kamaage offerings and onigiri set meals. Made with proprietary original flour and soy sauce recipes. Sold dine-in or takeout to walk-in individual consumers.
• AI Self-Checkout System (人追跡技術・顔認証技術を用いたレジセルフレジ) Proprietary AI-powered self-checkout flow (ordering terminal + rear payment machine) that uses real-time people-tracking and facial recognition to automatically link a placed order to the customer who pays, enabling cashier-less payment. Operated as a paid dining service within the restaurant for walk-in individual consumers.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature2 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Skylark Holdings: Large Japanese restaurant holding company operating casual dining and family restaurant brands; broad incumbent with foodservice scale and tech investment capability.
• Zensho Holdings: Major Japanese foodservice holding company operating multiple QSR brands including gyudon and udon concepts; broad incumbent with technology-driven operations.
• Toridoll Holdings: Parent company of Marugame Seimen and other restaurant brands; broad incumbent in the Japanese udon QSR space with deep capital and supply-chain resources.
• Nakau: Japanese fast-food chain operated by Zensho offering counter-service rice and noodle dishes; comparable QSR/counter-service format at similar price points.
• Yoshinoya Holdings: Major Japanese QSR holding company operating gyudon and other fast-food chains; broader incumbent with overlapping QSR/counter-service operating model.

Direct peers

• Marugame Seimen: Japan's largest Sanuki udon QSR chain with hundreds of locations nationwide; the most directly comparable operator in terms of cuisine, self-service format, and target customer.
• Yamada Udon: Self-service Sanuki udon chain with strong presence in western Japan; comparable format and target customer to Kogane Seimen's self-service model.
• Hanamaru Udon: Major nationwide Sanuki udon self-service chain operated by Toyo Suisan; directly comparable in menu, ordering format, and price point.

Regional players

• Kineya Udon: Shikoku-region Sanuki udon chain with self-service ordering; comparable cuisine and format, primarily operating in a different geography.

Others

• NEC (face recognition / retail AI): Supplier of facial recognition and computer vision technology to retail and foodservice; adjacent ecosystem player rather than direct competitor, relevant to the AI self-checkout build-vs-buy decision.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kogane Seimen Kusatsu Ritto Store