First Outlet for Anaheim Firm Near Osaka : The Sun Rises and Shines on Carl’s Jr. in Japan

The Famous Star has met the Rising Sun, and the latter seems to be smiling.

According to officials with Carl Karcher Enterprises in Anaheim, Japanese customers have been wolfing down Famous Stars and fries since the opening of the first Carl’s Jr. restaurant in the Far East last Friday.

The launch of the Carl’s Jr. outlet in Minoo, a suburb north of Osaka, “was one of our highest opening-day sales volumes ever,” said Patty Beckman, a spokeswoman for Karcher Enterprises.

“I can’t release the actual figures, but sales were in five digits,” she said.

The restaurant was built by Friendly Corp. of Osaka, which became the first Carl’s Jr. international licensee last year when Carl N. Karcher, founder of the hamburger chain, and Zenshiro Shigesato, Friendly’s president, signed a 25-year deal for an exclusive franchise.

Friendly, which operates more than 100 Western-style coffee shops in the Osaka area, plans to open at least 30 more Carl’s Jr. outlets in Japan by 1993.

Karcher’s international franchising staff is reportedly negotiating similar deals in several other Pacific Rim nations.

Other than the Japanese characters on the menu boards and a melon-flavored soda in the soft-drink dispenser, the Minoo restaurant is no different from the Carl’s in Broadway Plaza, downtown Los Angeles.

Cooking procedures in the Japanese Carl’s Jr. are also the same, and the menu is limited to such Carl’s Jr. specialties as the Famous Star Hamburger, Charbroiler BBQ Chicken Sandwich and Western Bacon Cheeseburger. There is no salad bar, but Carl’s Jr. Salads-To-Go are sold.

The landlord of the site demolished a profitable Friendly restaurant to make way for the Carl’s Jr.

“We have a lot of visitation from Japan in California,” said Steve Kishi, Carl’s Jr.’s director of international development, “so many people from there have visited a Carl’s Jr. We believe the Carl’s Jr. concept will be well accepted.”