Yo-Kai Express, a Silicon Valley-based food tech company, is debuting its Yo-Kai Express autonomous restaurant platform in J.R. East Tokyo, making the machine available in three transportation locations, including Japan's Haneda Airport Terminal 2, J.R. East Tokyo Station, and Shibaura Parking Area.
Founded in 2016, Yo-Kai Express is an autonomous restaurant platform that serves contactless, freshly prepared meals with over 30 menu varieties, 24 hours a day.
The machine's cooking technology creates hot ramen noodles on-demand, just like those served at street-side restaurants. Yo-Kai Express has installed these machines in approximately 50 locations throughout the U.S., including airports, hotels, hospitals, corporations, universities, and conference centers, serving over 200,000 meals to date.
"We are very excited to bring Yo-Kai-Express to Japan, the birthplace of ramen," said Andy Lin, founder and CEO Yo-Kai Express, in a statement. "Our vision has always been to come to Japan, and we're pleased to have the cooperation of Ippudo, one of Japan's leading ramen brands, in product development, and to have the technical and operational support of SoftBank Robotics."
The company's machines are serving freshly prepared noodles in six varieties in 90 seconds at the three locations, along with the four original flavors (Chicken Yuzu Shio, Tokyo Shoyu, Sapporo Spicy Miso, and Kyushu Tonkotsu). Ippudo Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen and Ippudo Plant-Based (Tonkotsu-style) Ramen will be offered soon.
"We have supported this project as a technology partner for the past three years," said Akiho Shibata, CTO and general manager of technology at SoftBank Robotics Corp., in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to work together to promote the development of food tech solutions, provide services that impress our customers, and work together to solve social problems such as food scarcity through technology."
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