TOKYO -- This reporter visited a highly popular ramen shop in the capital's Nakameguro area early this September. While there were a few customers waiting in line, I was able to get inside right away -- all thanks to a "ramen fast pass" bought beforehand for 500 yen (around $3.30). This system is just like the fast track passes for places like Tokyo Disney Resort or Universal Studios Japan. Would you buy one?

1-hr wait or a 500-yen pass

The restaurant I visited was Ramen Jazzy Beats, a new eatery that opened this past August. It is a sister shop to Ramen Break Beats, in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, which received a Michelin Bib Gourmand award for providing good value in this year's Tokyo Guide.

The centerpiece of the menu is the "Chicken and niboshi (dried anchovies)" ramen which goes for 1,380 yen (roughly $9.15), including tax and cashless payment surcharge. Yes, it is priced far past the industry's vaunted "1,000-yen wall" that is assumed to scare customers away, and yet, the taste and presentation make it a popular item to show off on social media.

A worker in his 40s who was also using a fast pass said that he has used them at other places, too. "I don't like having to wait for hours. I'd rather eat without waiting even if it means paying up. If there's an hour of waiting, 500 yen is cheaper. That's how I feel," he explained.

Woes of the popular shop's owner

The fast pass system was developed by Tablecheck Inc., based in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, which provides reservation and customer management services to around 10,000 places in 35 countries or territories. Users book the number of patrons and time and date of their visit through an app or website, and purchase the pass using a credit card.

Why did Ramen Jazzy Beats bring in such a system? Ramen Break Beats owner Takuro Yanase was worried about troubling nearby shops whenever a long line formed outside. The first shop he opened had only eight seats. Within just six months of its January 2022 launch, it became a favorite spot with an endless line of diners-in-waiting. To reduce the queue, he introduced a registration system in which people write down their names and come back later to be seated. However, this didn't solve the problem as people lined up to sign in. He gave up on that idea and turned to a reservation-only system.

His second store, which had more seats, didn't have the same issue. However, for the third shop, nestled among other businesses under the elevated train tracks, the long, winding lineup would likely inconvenience his neighbors. Yet, he wished to avoid instating another reservation-only system.

What Yanase chose in the end was a two-tier system of fast track passes and wait tickets printed when the shop gets busy. For those with time to spare, they can get their ticket and wait their turn without forming a line. Rushed customers could buy a fast pass to get served quicker. When it isn't too busy, customers don't need to get tickets.

"I was nervous when we first opened," Yanase explained, since it was his first time experimenting with such a system. Contrary to expectations, many visitors purchased fast passes without hesitating. He continued, "We were able to convince them of the value of each bowl, including customer service."

More benefits than eliminating lines

Aside from preventing lines from forming, the passes carry certain benefits. According to TableCheck, some stores have reportedly boosted their earnings by around 30% thanks to an increase in visitors and the earnings from the passes themselves, even though there is a fee to use the system.

TableCheck CEO Yu Taniguchi raised another benefit, namely that the system becomes a way to gauge appropriate pricing for menu items.

Even though it is supposedly common sense in the dining industry that raising prices pushes customers away, clientele ebbs and flows can be determined in advance by using the fast pass system and daring to move the prices.

For example, if all the customers at a shop that sells 900-yen ramen use the fast pass, that means the product has a value of 1,400 yen, suggesting that there may not be too much resistance to a price increase.

On the other hand, an analysis of fast pass users suggests it could be wise to keep prices down if the customers are mainly foreign tourists. That's because, rather than the feeling "I'd pay 1,400 yen for this," a majority of customers could be there only on that day and at that time simply due to the circumstances of their trips.

Going forward, there are plans to expand the dynamic pricing feature for the fast pass. "We'd like to expand the choices for both restaurants and customers by allowing prices to change according to the time of year and events such as cherry blossom viewing and fireworks festivals," Taniguchi said.

(Japanese original by Akihiro Nakajima, Business News Department)