Beefbowl Ushigoro

Beefbowl Ushigoro
His main theme was gyudon (beef and rice bowl). His territory was the Kanto and Kansai regions. He and his followers, more than ten in number, attacked shops with elusive guerilla techniques, which forced a major gyudon chain Yochinoya into bankruptcy in 1978. Numerous copycat offenders emerged later on.

Shinji Higuchi
(Tokyo, 1965). Movie director and SFX specialist, often worked in animation. His credits include The End of Evangelion (1997, storyboard), Gamera 3 (1999, special effects), Lorelei (2005, director) and Nihon Chinbotsu (Japan Sinking, 2006, director).

WORDS
Narrator: McNamara's Market Research Strategy, developed through thorough calculations of cost effectiveness, failed due to the unconventional nature of the Vietnam War. It was the same for Yochinoya's just-in-time delivery system. It was simply useless when faced with Beefbowl Ushigoro's elusive guerilla attacks. The prolonged state of alert undermined the company's foundation and quickly worsened its financial state.

THE AGE OF BEEFBOWL USHIGORO
1971 * Breaking away from the Japanese Communist League - Red Army Faction, a woman called Fusako Shigenobu founds the armed group Japanese Red Army (JRA) (February), establishing close ties to the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). * Instant Cup Noodles introduced onto the market. * The first McDonald's branch opens in Japan.
1972 * United Red Army members take hostages and barricade themselves inside the Asama Mountain Lodge. After a long siege, the police irrupt into the lodge (February 28). Interrogations reveal 14 murders in the course of United Red Army's internal disputes, or "deliberations." * Okinawa, under USA rule since 1945, is returned to Japan's sovereignty (May 15). * Japanese Red Army guerrillas attack Tel Aviv Airport, 26 die (May 30). * First tenants enter the Takashimadaira housing complex in Tokyo, a gigantic estate built on a former farmland area. * First Lotteria branch opens in Tokyo.
1973 * Oil crisis caused by the Yom Kippur War.
1974 * Japan's Former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato awarded Nobel Peace Prize. * The first Seven-Eleven convenience store opens in Japan.
1975 * Emperor Showa makes a state visit to the USA.
1976 * Lockheed Scandal and eventual arrest of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
1977 * Japanese Red Army hijacks Japan Airlines Flight 472 and forces it to land in Dacca. The Japanese Government frees six imprisoned members of the group and allegedly pays a $6 million ransom. * Mamoru Oshii joins Tatsunoko Production.
1978 * Consumer finance causing family bankruptcies. * Space Invader arcade game becomes a hit. * Family restaurant boom. * Singing trio The Candies breakup. * Beefbowl Ushigoro strikes Yochinoya; Hamburger Tetsu assails Lotteria. * Everyday life is taken over and transformed by "systems."
1978 * Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. * Urban legends disseminate. * TV animated series Doraemon starts. The stories are centered upon weak-willed and lazy Nobita, who inevitably comes crying to cat-robot Doraemon for some device to fix his problems.
1980 * Iran-Iraq War. * Yoshinoya, founded in 1899, goes bankrupt.

© 2006 MAMORU OSHII, Production I.G / TACHIGUISHI RETSUDEN Committee