Language English

The purpose of this project is to study the market situation and consumers ’ beha-vior in the restaurant business in Vaasa, in order to develop a business plan for a Japanese restaurant in this city. The study focuses on two main areas, the devel-opment of our product, and how to bring it as a new product into this market. The theoretical part of the study consists of three parts. The first part is a thorough study about Japanese cuisine, which is the foundation of the product development of our own particular product. The second part deals with the general product de-velopment and introduction theory, which assists us in developing a reliable strat-egy to bring our product. The third part is the theoretical guidelines for composing a comprehensive business plan for the restaurant. The empirical part is a market study by the means of a questionnaire assisted survey. In total, 70 questionnaires were collected from respondents with various backgrounds mainly from Vaasa and Ostrobothnia region. The results of the study prove that there is a need for a sushi and Japanese restau-rant in Vaasa. Most people have already had certain experiences with sushi and Japanese food, and they have a positive attitude to bringing it into their diet. We also learnt some facts about people’s dining habits in restaurant which are impor-tant pieces of information for the development of our business plan in the future