Mom’s Touch makes strides into Japanese market

A promotional image for Mom’s Touch’s Gim-Tteok-Sun combo in Japan / Courtesy of Mom’s Touch

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Mom’s Touch is enhancing its presence in the Japanese market with various collaborations with other Korean brands.

The Korean chicken sandwich franchise said Wednesday it is giving out free meal upgrade coupons to customers who visit Samsung’s Galaxy Experience Space pop-up in Shibuya, Tokyo, until Aug. 6. The coupon can be used at Mom’s Touch’s Shibuya location to upgrade their sandwich to a meal.

It also promotes Samsung’s pop-up store event at the Shibuya branch.

Separate from its collaboration with Samsung, Mom’s Touch has partnered with Samyang Foods to offer a special menu at the Shibuya location.

Catering to young Japanese people’s interest in spicy food, the two introduced the Gim-Tteok-Sun combo, a portmanteau of “gimbap” (Korean seaweed rice roll), “tteokbokki” (simmered spicy rice cake) and “sundae” (Korean blood sausage), served with Samyang’s spicy chicken sauce.

“The new combo aims to attract young women customers who are interested in Korean food,” a Mom’s Touch official said in a press release.

Mom’s Touch opened its first branch in Tokyo’s busiest district in April. The official said it drew 100,000 visitors and generated 100 million yen ($633,000) in sales within 40 days of opening.

The homegrown franchise’s success came as a surprise since the Japanese market had been considered one of the most challenging franchise markets in the world. A number of Korean franchises attempted to enter the market, only to quit later.

“Mom’s Touch has always been open to collaboration with other brands,” said the official. “With shared customer target, we partner with any companies from different industries.”

Mom’s Touch also partnered with online game developer Smilegate to introduce the Lost Ark Mokoko Mom’s combo on Thursday. Released in 2014, Lost Ark has been one of the country’s most popular online MMORPG action role-playing games.

This partnership was the third of its kind between the two companies since they had introduced their first Mokoko combo meal in 2021 and opened their joint pop-up store in Gangnam District, Seoul, in 2022.