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The story
Touch-panel ordering is spreading rapidly across restaurants in Japan, and opinions clashed over it on 5ch’s Breaking News+ board. According to the article, the system — in which customers order directly from a tabletop terminal that sends the order straight to the kitchen — has become common at izakayas and family restaurants in particular. On the thread, most posters welcomed the tabletop touch panels themselves, but there was persistent pushback against QR-code and LINE-based ordering that requires using one’s own smartphone, with complaints like “you walk in and immediately get pressured into adding the place as a LINE friend.” Opinions also split over hygiene, screen readability, and whether the systems are really just about cutting labor costs, exposing a gap between what works for restaurants and what actually feels convenient for customers.
Published 9/13 (Sun) 10:00
Yomiuri TV
Touch-panel ordering systems have been spreading rapidly through the restaurant industry lately. Adopted across a wide range of establishments, from izakayas to family restaurants, the system lets customers pick what they want to eat from a dedicated terminal at their table and send the order straight to the kitchen. While it offers the convenience of ordering without having to call over staff, it has also stirred up mixed reactions from the public.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Ordering on my own phone? Eh, not really.
LINE ordering? I'm not going.
Right?
Getting pressured into adding them as a friend the second you walk in — total boundary fail, it's annoying.
People who don't like it could just see the sign and walk on by.
One time I walked in, found out it was LINE-only ordering, and just walked straight back out.
They should just put up a bold sign that says "This restaurant uses smartphone ordering."
People who are fine with that will still come in, and people who aren't just won't.
What bugs me is letting people in without telling them first.
Some people will say "then just walk right back out" (said with a smug little smirk), but that's a waste of time and mildly stressful.
That's such a hassle.
Yeah, it just feels like a pain, mentally.
Which part specifically?
"Even when I select alcohol, the drink I actually want doesn't come up right away. There's a 'straight from the brewery' option, but I can't find my way to it. I keep wondering what I'm supposed to tap to get there."
??
Yeah, this one's confusing.
I think what she means is: she wants the "straight from the brewery" drink advertised on the banners and posters, but when she operates the tablet, she can't get from the alcohol category to that specific item — it just doesn't show up.
McDonald's touch panels are huge, but they don't fit in your field of view, so they're actually hard to read.
And depending on the location, other customers' lines or barriers get in the way, so you can't even step back from the panel.
Places like Matsuya have screens that run tall too, and I've missed the d-points offer shown at the top several times without noticing.
I'm a woman, 160cm tall, and it's positioned somewhere I have to look up at.
What if some malicious terrorist smears germs on it?
Wouldn't that be just as true of a paper menu?
If the whole point for you is having a lively time with the group, I think you'll have fun no matter what the ordering system is.
If you don't like it, go to a high-end restaurant instead.
You pre-yutori old farts (i.e., the generation older than the "yutori" kids raised under Japan's relaxed-education policy) should own up to the fact that you burned through the good times like idiots.
Seriously, exactly that.
Led by the people who were in their 30s-40s at the peak of the bubble economy, they're eating up young people's futures lol
Ah, it's that whole labor-cost-vs-capital-investment tradeoff thing.
Like Hidakaya bringing in touch panels plus serving robots — if that ends up more cost-effective than hiring one more person, I think that's fine.
If my workplace doesn't have the money to hire people either, I wish they'd at least install a speaker system or PA announcements to call people over.
Even when the table's been wiped down, you still run into touch panels that are sticky here and there.
True enough.
You can wipe down a touch panel, but I've never once seen anyone clean a paper menu lol
It'd be embarrassing if it weren't an iPhone.
With Android you've got the staff and other customers watching.
Never thought about that, but I guess some people do worry about it.
Sounds like a fragile mindset.
Oh really, so an old iPhone with a cracked screen is fine then?
Probably worried about their data plan lol
It's a pain to stare at your phone screen and order when you're drunk.
Then again, thanks to that I end up skipping one more dish or one more drink, so it's good for my wallet lol
And my own phone's been in the bathroom with me, so it's dirty anyway.
And some places don't even have Wi-Fi — total disrespect.
It doesn't actually use as much data as you'd think, so I say don't sweat it.
If you're worrying about that stuff while eating out, you're not going to be popular with women.
Rough if you've already hit your data cap though.
Huh?
So the tap-tap crowd (people glued to their phones) tries to one-up people over something like that? lol
What a lightweight.
It's common at izakayas.
Some places have even switched from tablets to QR codes.
Ah, so it's common at izakayas. I haven't been to one in about 10 years, so no wonder I didn't know.
There's a place that switched back from QR codes to staff taking orders.
Apparently once customers got drunk, entering QR codes became too much of a hassle and sales dropped — turns out a staff member asking "another round?" really does matter.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The spread of touch-panel ordering is rooted in the reality restaurants now face: with the minimum wage rising and labor shortages worsening, they can no longer staff as many floor workers as before. As the thread notes, some chains, like Hidakaya, pair reduced staffing with serving robots, while others, like Matsuya, run into practical issues — such as shorter customers struggling to see items displayed near the top of the touch panel. The main point of contention splits roughly along these lines: tabletop touch panels tend to be readily accepted, while QR-code and LINE-based ordering that requires customers to use their own phones draws strong psychological and practical resistance — complaints about being pressured into adding a LINE friend, or worries over data usage — leaving opinion divided. There’s also pushback against the claim that touch panels are unsanitary, with some arguing paper menus are actually cleaned far less often, revealing a gap between the perception and the reality of hygiene. And as with the example of a restaurant that switched back from QR-code ordering to staff taking orders, changes in ordering method can affect average spend per customer, making this more than just a matter of personal preference — it ties into real business decisions.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “[For and Against] Is the Spread of “Touch-Panel Ordering” at Restaurants a Good Thing or Not? The Real Feelings of Stores and Customers.”
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