Japan's biggest beef bowl restaurant chain said on Friday profit fell 33.8 percent for the year to February as a ban on beef imports from the US following a case of mad cow disease hit sales.
Yoshinoya D and C said group net profit came to 5.7 billion yen (US$53 million), down from 8.6 billion yen the previous year.
Sales fell 3.4 percent to 141.05 billion yen, with pre-tax profit down 17.3 percent at 12.4 billion yen.
Yoshinoya forecast gloomy business prospects for the year to February 2005, projecting a net profit of 3.16 billion yen and pre-tax profit of 4.17 billion yen on sales of 129 billion yen.
The company said the sales and profit declines were due to the suspension of its popular "gyudon" beef-on-rice dish in February when stored supplies ran out following the government's ban on imports of US beef.
By using US beef for 99 percent of its domestic needs, the company had attracted customers of all age groups with its "gyudon" bowl, or steamed rice topped with thinly sliced beef and onions cooked in soy sauce and sugar, for an affordable 280 yen in Japan.
But it has since been forced to serve other dishes, such as curry and chicken bowls domestically. Its overseas beef bowl operations have largely escaped the mad cow scare unscathed.
Japan banned beef imports from the US following the discovery in December of the first case of mad cow disease in the US.
Japan, the only country in Asia to have confirmed the disease, uncovered its first case in September, 2001 and shortly afterwards introduced measures to screen every cow slaughtered for consumption.
Washington has rejected Tokyo's demand to screen every slaughtered cow for mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known as BSE.
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