Japanese Restaurants in the Middle East and Africa: 2025 Data

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) published its 2025 count of Japanese restaurants outside Japan on 28 November 2025. The Middle East and Africa are the two smallest regions in the survey, but both grew by about a fifth. Our overview article covers the world totals; this one goes country by country.

1. Two small regions, both up about 20%

Together they hold about 2,400 of the world's 181,000 Japanese restaurants, a little over 1%. Small, but growing faster than North America or Europe.

2. The trend since 2013

Since 2013 the Middle East count has grown about 6.4 times and Africa's about 5.3 times, faster than the world as a whole (3.3 times). Both stalled between 2021 and 2023 and picked up again in 2025.

3. Middle East by country

MAFF lists markets with 10 or more restaurants, rounded to the nearest ten. MAFF counts Turkey in the Middle East, not Europe. 2023 figures are from MAFF's 2023 country table; percentages are our calculation.

Turkey accounts for about two thirds of the Middle East's net growth and overtook Israel as the region's largest market. Outside Turkey, growth was spread evenly: almost every Gulf and Levant market added 10 or 20 restaurants. The Gulf states in the table (UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar) total 620 restaurants, up 80.

The UAE figure covers the whole country. MAFF does not split Dubai from Abu Dhabi.

4. Africa by country

South Africa is still the largest African market but the only one that shrank. Morocco is close behind. North Africa (Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia) totals 300. The listed African rows add up to 710, against MAFF's regional estimate of about 800; the gap is the many countries with fewer than 10 restaurants, which the country table leaves out. Madagascar was listed with 10 in 2023 and is absent in 2025.

5. Who is missing from the table

Oman does not appear in either the 2023 or the 2025 country table. MAFF only lists markets with at least 10 restaurants, so its absence means a count below that threshold or no figure reported. Treat it as unknown rather than zero. The same applies to most of sub-Saharan Africa.

6. Reading small numbers

• Rounding. Every row is rounded to the nearest ten. Because both years are rounded, a change of "+10" could mean anything from 1 to 19 restaurants.
• Only two data points. MAFF's 2023 table explains that country figures were not published before 2023.
• Local sources. Restaurants are counted if local websites, directories or guidebooks list them as Japanese, if they belong to a Japanese restaurant association, if the local Japanese community treats them as Japanese, or if the Japanese embassy or consulate recognises them. In a market of 40 restaurants, one new directory can change the picture.

7. What it means for hiring

• Few experienced cooks are already in-country. With a few hundred Japanese restaurants per country at most, the local pool of cooks with Japanese kitchen experience is thin. Plan on the possibility that senior roles will have to be filled from abroad.
• Visa rules, not demand, set the pace. Each country runs its own work permit system, with its own salary, quota and documentation rules. Start with the guides for Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and for Turkey the Turkey guide.
• Halal operations change the job. In the Gulf states and other Muslim-majority markets, halal sourcing and kitchen practice shape the role you are hiring for. See staffing a halal Japanese kitchen.

General information, not investment, legal or immigration advice. Restaurant counts are MAFF's rounded figures as published; percentages and group totals are our own calculations from those figures.