Mom’s Touch, the South Korean burger and chicken chain, is shifting its Japan business from company-run stores into full franchising, and pairing that move with a run of master franchise deals across Southeast Asia and Central Asia. The pivot signals that the brand now sees its overseas network, not its home market, as the main engine of growth.
The brand marked the shift with a franchise showcase in Tokyo on 16 July 2026, drawing about 25 companies online and in person for brand briefings, operating seminars, menu tastings and one-on-one consultations. After two years of building recognition through its own outlets, Mom’s Touch is now ready to hand stores to local partners.
The groundwork looks solid. Mom’s Touch first landed in Japan in October 2023 with a three-week Shibuya pop-up that pulled in roughly 33,000 visitors, of whom 99 percent said they would return once a permanent store opened. Its Shibuya flagship went on to pass 100,000 visitors and 100 million yen in sales within 40 days, and two years in had logged about 1.44 million cumulative visitors.
Japan carries strategic weight because of the scale of its food-service franchise sector and the strength of local interest in K-food. Mom’s Touch runs four directly operated stores and one franchise store there today, and the company expects the pipeline to move quickly.
“More than 10 new stores are expected to open,” a Mom’s Touch official said.
To lead the build-out, the chain appointed Shoichi Nakamura, a former president and CEO of Pizza Hut Japan, as head of its Japanese business in April 2026, and set up a franchise-centred structure with a Japan-specific operating model adapted from the Korean playbook.
Japan is only one front. Mom’s Touch is layering master franchise partnerships across several markets, each at a different stage:
Mom’s Touch is running a two-speed playbook that is worth studying. In Japan, it invested in company-owned stores first to prove the concept, then flipped to franchising once demand was clear. Elsewhere, it is moving straight to master franchise partners who take on capital and local execution. That mix of direct control where the prize is biggest and partner-led speed everywhere else mirrors the approach behind other Korean brands using Southeast Asia as a launchpad.
The broader picture is a Korean quick-service sector treating cross-border franchising as a core growth channel rather than a side project, part of the wider re-centring of master franchising on Asia. Brands weighing a similar path can study the ground rules in individual markets, from Malaysia’s registration regime to the live franchise opportunities across the region.
Source: Seoul Economic Daily — Mom’s Touch Bets Big on Japan, Launches Franchise Push
Analysis by Sean T. Ngo, CEO and Co-founder of VF Franchise Consulting.
Email: info@vffranchiseconsulting.com | Hotline: +84 90 306 54 58
