Complete Guide to Restaurant Opening Procedures | Comprehensive Explanation of Notifications, Costs, and Schedule [Latest 2026 Edition]

When opening a restaurant, the most important thing is to move forward with preparations in a planned way. Start by grasping the overall picture up to the opening so you can check what needs to be done and when.

It’s said that opening a restaurant takes about 6 to 12 months. For that reason, you need to manage a schedule that clearly lays out what to do and when to do it.

Here are the general steps and approximate timeline leading up to opening your business.

• 12–6 months beforeConcept design; business plan and financial plan
• From 6 months before: Property search
• From 3 months before opening~Interior construction, infrastructure contracts, menu development and purchasing, equipment and fixtures procurement, various procedures, recruitment and training
• One month ago: Preparing to open the shop

Using this roadmap as a reference, it’s important to understand the overall process and then proceed with your preparations with enough time to spare.

To make a restaurant successful, it is crucial to first clarify the concept of what kind of establishment you want it to be.

When we talk about a concept, it can sound a bit vague, but it becomes easier to understand if you think of it as making concrete decisions about what kind of place you want your shop to be—for example, the “business format” such as whether it will be an izakaya or a restaurant, the “image of your customers” you mainly want to attract, the “menu you will offer” to those customers, and the “atmosphere of the shop” including interior design and customer service.

Based on this concept, you will then work out your business plan, funding plan, and property search. If the concept remains vague, your overall plan will lose focus—for example, you might end up opening a store in an area where your target customers don’t live, or be unable to decide on a clear direction for your menu. Try to make your concept as concrete and specific as possible.

We also have a more detailed article about creating concepts. Please take a look.

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経営

飲食店を成功に導く！コンセプト設計のステップと成功事例

飲食店を開業するにあたっては、自分の店で何を提供したいか、つまり「コンセプト」を明確にすることが重要です。コンセプトが曖昧だと、本当に来てほしいお客さまの姿が見えず、「誰のためのお店か」が曖昧になってしまいます。この記事では、頭の中のアイデアを具体的な言葉に落とし込むための具体的なステップと、明日から使える考え方をご紹介します。

Source: April 2024 Survey on the Actual Conditions of New Business Startups by Japan Finance Corporation

Creating a business plan helps you turn your ideas into concrete actions and numbers, and enables you to objectively evaluate your own business. Not only does it clarify the feasibility of the business and its challenges, but it also makes your shop’s concept and goals clear, which in turn makes it easier to gain understanding and support from stakeholders such as suppliers and staff.

In addition, a business plan is also required when requesting a loan from a financial institution to raise the funds needed to start your business, so it can be said to be an important document that is useful both for organizing your own business and for preparing for financing.

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経営

飲食店開業で失敗しない！事業計画書の作成方法と成功に導くポイント

初めて飲食店を開業する方に向けて、事業計画書の作り方をテンプレートに沿って解説します。開業準備に必要な項目の書き方や、金融機関で評価されるポイント、開業時にありがちな失敗などを年商1億規模の飲食店経営者の経験談に基づいてお伝えします。

To open a restaurant, you will broadly incur costs for acquiring a property, interior and exterior construction, and purchasing kitchen equipment and fixtures, requiring on average about 8.83 million yen in funds. In addition, since you will not start making a profit immediately after opening, you also need to secure working capital.

Here is the breakdown.

Breakdown of costs for opening a restaurant

• Interior and exterior construction costs: approximately 3,000,000–5,000,000 yen
• Machinery, fixtures, equipment, etc.: approximately 1,000,000–2,000,000 yen
• Working capital (3–6 months): approximately 1,000,000–3,000,000 yen
• Tenant and rental costs: approximately 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 yen

Source: Extracted and adapted from Japan Finance Corporation, “Guide to Starting a Business+”

In addition, while funds are raised from financial institutions, personal savings, and relatives, we can see that on average more than half of the total amount tends to be financed by financial institutions.

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経営

飲食店の融資面談で聞かれること｜担当者が評価する回答例とポイント

飲食店開業では多くの人にとって必須の「融資面談」。金融機関の担当者は何を見て、どんな質問をするのか？自己資金の出所の見せ方や事業への熱意の伝え方、具体的な回答例まで、審査を通過するための準備と面談時のポイントを分かりやすく解説します。

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The amounts introduced here are only averages, so they can vary greatly depending on the type of business, location, and number of seats. When I opened a 70-seat yakiniku restaurant in central Tokyo, the property acquisition cost including key money and deposit was about 7 million yen, around 10 million yen went into interior work and equipment, and 2 million yen was spent on fixtures and supplies.

Once you’ve firmed up your concept to some extent, the next step is to start looking for a property. If you plan to raise funds, this will have a major impact on your business plan, so it’s best to work on property search and business plan creation in parallel.

When looking for a property that matches your shop’s concept, you will move forward with the cooperation of a real estate agent, but in the end it’s also important to “use your own feet” and search yourself. Not all property information comes through real estate agents, so once you have a rough idea of the area where you want to open, you also need to take action by personally looking for properties that interest you and directly inquiring about them.

Also, when looking for a pre-fitted property, be sure to carefully check whether the existing equipment, such as air conditioners and ducts, operates without any issues. In addition, obtain the floor plans from when the previous store closed, and always confirm whether you can obtain a business license based on those closing-time plans. If you cannot get a business license, you may end up having to redo the interior construction, even though you went to the trouble of acquiring a pre-fitted property.

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When you talk to a real estate agent, don’t just tell them about your preferred location and rent budget—make sure you also let them know whether you plan to run a heavy food and beverage business (one that produces a lot of smoke or oil). Some property owners do not allow heavy food operations, so once the agent knows this, they can avoid those properties and only suggest suitable ones. Also, a person in charge of site development at a major yakiniku (grilled meat) chain once said, “You have to earn your properties with your own feet,” meaning that in the end it’s important to go there yourself, see the place with your own eyes, and make the decision personally.

Once you’ve decided on a property, you can finally move on to the interior design of the store and concrete preparations for running it. From this stage, many things will start progressing in parallel.

For interior construction work, it’s important to get multiple quotes from different contractors and choose one that fits your budget and desired image. When requesting quotes, you’ll receive various proposals, so it’s recommended to check each firm’s past projects on their website and select a contractor whose work closely matches the finish you’re aiming for. The construction period varies depending on the contractor and the scale of the project, but as a guideline, you should assume it will take several months.

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If you’re having trouble choosing an interior contractor, one option is to ask a restaurant you know to introduce someone. When a contractor is introduced through a personal connection, they are less likely to cut corners and will usually do solid work, so the quality is often more reliable. It’s also recommended to have the interior contractor accompany you when you view the property, so they can check whether the work can be done in line with your vision.

Ideally, you should arrange contracts for utilities such as electricity, gas, water, and telecommunications as soon as the property is decided. Interior construction and meetings with stakeholders will basically take place at the store, and without electricity or water it’s impossible to work, so it’s necessary to set up these contracts early.

In particular, be aware that it can take about a month from signing the contract to having the internet connection activated. If the previous tenant already had an internet line installed, activation can proceed smoothly. However, if your shop is the first to install an internet line, construction work will be required to bring the line in, and you will need to coordinate with the property owner and the interior contractor. Make sure to consult all relevant parties in advance.

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Internet line installation can sometimes take more time and money than you might expect. For example, if your store is not on the first floor but on an upper floor, additional construction work may be required, which can increase both the time and the cost. During long holiday periods such as Obon, Golden Week, and New Year’s, all contractors stop work, so be sure to create your schedule with these periods in mind.

Here, “menu development” refers to translating the business format conceived during concept design into concrete recipes, ingredients, and product names. As a rule of thumb, menu development is carried out in detail starting about two months before opening.

You’ll procure the ingredients needed for the menu by contracting with each supplier, but if you don’t already have connections with vendors, you’ll need to search for them on the web. You then make a comprehensive decision based on factors such as price, delivery time, and delivery days from several companies. If you have to look for suppliers from scratch and can’t find any, you’ll end up having to completely rethink the menu from the ground up, which may even change the entire concept. Therefore, if you don’t have any supplier connections, make sure to search for suppliers in parallel from the concept-design stage onward.

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Suppliers will look at things like how much you’re able to purchase, so clearly present a plan backed up by numbers. That said, in the end it all comes down to relationships between people, so it’s important to properly convey your feelings and vision for your shop and make them want to “support you.” In the early days after opening, it’s hard to turn a profit because of ingredient purchasing and transportation costs, but keep operating without compromising on quality. As your customer base grows and your purchasing stabilizes, your suppliers will come to trust you more, and negotiations will become easier.

When it comes to attracting customers to restaurants, using social media and gourmet websites are common methods. In particular, since gourmet sites offer different plans and pricing depending on the platform, it’s advisable to consult with them before opening if you have the time. Because there are multiple platforms, business negotiations will take a certain amount of time.

Also, you can negotiate with gourmet websites even before your business license is issued. Once the license is granted, the contract will be finalized when you provide the license information.

Make a list of the equipment and fixtures you need to open your business—such as kitchen appliances, tableware, POS registers, and reservation books—and proceed with purchasing them.

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It’s recommended that you consult an interior contractor about fixtures and equipment. If you want to keep costs down, consider searching online as well. We also recommend taking out insurance for restaurants, as it can cover unexpected breakdowns. In addition to equipment and heavy machinery, you should also consider improving operational efficiency and reducing labor costs through systems such as POS registers, reservation ledgers, and self-ordering.

It’s easy to focus only on procedures and notifications, but preparing digital tools is also essential for smooth store operations after opening. Some tools take time to implement, so start getting ready as early as possible.

Respo, which operates this magazine, supports new business owners by providing reservation ledgers, site controllers, POS systems, mobile ordering, and payment terminals for a monthly fee of 0 yen, and also operates a reservation site with no customer referral fees.

https://respo.autoreserve.com/

To open a food and beverage establishment, you must submita business license applicationto the public health center, and to the fire department, afire prevention manager appointment notice,among other documents. Since the required forms and standards differ by municipality, be sure to check in advance which documents are needed for these procedures.

We’ve compiled a list of all the procedures required to open a restaurant, including where to file, who needs to file, deadlines, and approximate costs. Start by getting an overview of the whole process.

Employees not only need to be hired, but also trained in actual operations, customer service, and other areas so that everything runs smoothly on the day. Since hiring also involves an element of “luck” at that moment, decide on the non‑negotiable points and make a plan so that you have all the necessary staff in place at least one month before opening.

Considering the training period, it’s ideal to have all staff in place one month before opening, so by starting recruitment three months before opening, you can reduce the risk of “not having enough people.” On the other hand, if it’s your first time opening a business, you may find it hard to compromise and end up spending too much time, so make sure to set clear “standards” in advance.

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人材

[With Practical Examples for Job Interviews] More Important Than Skills! Questions to Reveal the ‘Aptitude’ of Restaurant Staff

This article explains interview techniques to prevent mismatches when hiring restaurant staff. The key to building a strong establishment is not only assessing skills and experience, but also identifying qualities such as honesty and motivation. We introduce five specific example questions that draw out a candidate’s true nature in an interview, along with concrete evaluation points and tips for probing more deeply.

When hiring employees or part-time staff, refer to the local going hourly wage in the area where you plan to open, and post your job listings on various recruitment platforms. Recently, there are also job sites dedicated specifically to the food and beverage industry, so it’s worth considering using those as well.

Employee training is mainly divided into kitchen and floor (hall) operations. However, for both groups, it is important to communicate why this restaurant was created and what we want to offer here, so that each person can think about how they should act.

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In the kitchen, the most important thing was simply to “be able to reproduce the flavors the owner wanted.” I just kept doing the steady work of “cooking and tasting, over and over.” For the dining area, I didn’t just explain the details of how to serve customers; I would actually take staff to restaurants I considered ideal, so they could get a feel for the “atmosphere of the service” and the “clothing,” and other aspects that are hard to put into words.

There are many things to do to prepare for opening a store, but here I’ll focus on the pre-opening that should be held about one to two weeks before the grand opening.

During the pre-opening, you operate the business as if it were the real opening, check for any operational issues, and make final adjustments so that employees become familiar with the actual work environment. You can also invite friends and acquaintances to get their comments and gather objective feedback.

In the process of opening a restaurant, the following kinds of mistakes are often seen. By understanding them in advance, you can avoid making the same errors, so be sure to check them beforehand.

We couldn’t get the business license application done in time, so the opening will be delayed.

It takes about two to three weeks from application to issuance of a restaurant business license. If you think, “I’ll just apply after the construction work is finished,” the permit may not be ready in time for your planned opening date.

As a countermeasure, we recommend counting backward from the scheduled completion date of the interior construction and consulting with the public health center in advance as early as possible. Ideally, you should complete the application process while the construction is still underway so that the facility inspection can be carried out right when the work is finished.

Cases where business operations are suspended due to failure to file required notifications

It is not uncommon for businesses to serve alcohol late at night without submitting a Notification of Commencement of Late-Night Alcoholic Beverage Service. Operating without this notification is subject to fines, and in cases deemed malicious, the business may even be ordered to suspend operations.

Use the checklist at the end of this article to identify which notifications are required for your type of business operation. If you are unsure how to decide, we recommend consulting the relevant administrative authority.

Forgetting to file a blue tax return and missing out on tax-saving benefits

It’s quite common for people to submit their business opening notification but forget to file the application for approval of blue tax returns. If you miss the application deadline (within two months from the start of business), you can only file a white tax return for that year and won’t be able to claim the maximum deduction of 650,000 yen.

Submit the notification of business opening and the application for approval of blue return together as a set. You can file them at the same time.

Finally, here is a checklist for the procedures required to open a restaurant. Since there are many different authorities to notify and the deadlines vary, make sure you manage everything carefully so that nothing is overlooked.

• Have you obtained the Food Sanitation Supervisor qualification?
• Have you applied to the public health center for a restaurant business license?
• Have you passed the public health center’s facility inspection and received your business license?
• Have you submitted the Notification of Commencement of Use of Fire Protection Target Facilities to the fire department?
• Have you submitted your business opening notification to the tax office?
• Have you submitted the application for approval of blue tax return to the tax office?

• Have you appointed a fire prevention manager and submitted the appointment notification to the fire department? (For facilities with a capacity of 30 people or more)
• Have you submitted a notification to the fire department for the installation of equipment that uses fire (if there is any fire-related equipment)?
• Have you submitted a Notification of Commencement of Late-Night Alcoholic Beverage Service at Eating and Drinking Establishment to the police station (for serving alcohol after midnight)?
• Have you completed the procedures for enrolling in workers’ accident compensation insurance at the Labor Standards Inspection Office (when employing workers)?
• Have you completed the employment insurance enrollment procedures at Hello Work (when employing staff)?
• Have you completed the procedures for enrolling in social insurance at the pension office (in the case of a corporation)?
• Have you submitted a notification of establishment of a salary-paying office, etc. to the tax office (in the case of a corporation)?

• Have you selected and ordered the kitchen equipment (refrigerator, stove, ice maker, etc.)?
• Have you selected and ordered the furniture for the guest seating area (tables, chairs, sofas, etc.)?
• Have you prepared enough dishes, cutlery, and cooking utensils?
• Have you prepared uniforms, cleaning supplies, and consumables?
• Have you selected and introduced a POS register and cashless payment terminal?
• Have you implemented a reservation and customer management system?
• Have you implemented the accounting software and completed the initial setup?
• Have you checked which subsidies, such as IT implementation subsidies, you can use?

When you open a restaurant for the first time, there’s so much to think about and do that you may often feel confused, but if you carefully check and deal with each task one by one, you can definitely move forward—though in reality, things will probably not go according to plan most of the time.

Even in such situations, it’s important not to panic and to keep moving forward steadily, even if only little by little.

I hope this article helps you in opening your restaurant and in the success of your business afterward.