MOS Burger

SENDAI, JAPAN —The tip-off that MOS Burger, a chain of more than 1,500 shops, is a little different (and very Japanese) is the blackboard at the entrance.

Resting on an artist's easel, it lists, in colorful pastels, the names of the farmers who grew the vegetables and the region where they were produced: From Nagasaki and Miyazaki prefectures, Mr. Harata, Mr. Furukawa and Mr. Nagatomo supplied the lettuce, cabbage and tomato; from Hokkaido, Mr. Kashiwaba supplied the onion.

Don't expect to eat and run. After ordering, wash your hands at the nearby sink, pick up a complimentary newspaper or magazine, take a seat and wait for your teriyaki burger and Japanese salad to be served. If you ordered a coffee (made individually from freshly ground beans) expect it to arrive first, in a ceramic mug, the sleeve of sugar aligned parallel to the edge of the tray, the stainless steel spoon on the right, pointing at a 90-degree angle to the sugar.

The young man or woman who sets it on your table, decked out in MOS attire (gray ball cap and sunflower yellow apron, a blue and gray striped golf shirt, name tag clipped over the left breast pocket), will bow smartly before trotting back to the kitchen. When your meal arrives, expect another bow following the verification that what is in the basket on your table is indeed what you ordered, though the possibility of a screw-up seems as unlikely as a surly employee.

Quality, not speed, not price, is the underlying message, a marketing strategy that has kept MOS Burger afloat during the most severe economic recession since the end of the Pacific War, as World War II is referred to here. While Ronald shuts down shops, the number of MOS Burgers has held steady for the past four years.

The name, MOS, though it might give an American pause, is well-intentioned: Mountain-Ocean-Sun; in Japanese:

Yama

Umi

Taiyo

The idea is to convey the atmosphere of the shop, which, admittedly, runs to overstatement when translated from the Japanese: "as high and noble as a mountain; a heart as deep and wide as the oceans; affection as warm as the sun."

MOS Burger was the brainchild of Satoshi Sakurada. While working at an investment company in Los Angeles in the early '70s, he frequented a local hamburger shop and hit on the idea that a counterpart to an American icon would be as popular with his countrymen. In 1972, he started MOS Food Services, Inc. and opened the first shop in Tokyo. A year later, the Teriyaki Burger was introduced, and it has been a mainstay ever since. The present menu has 21 sandwiches, plus MOS chicken and several desserts including a cheesecake stick. The price of a set meal including sandwich, fries or onion rings combination (or salad), and drink (a choice of tea, coffee or soup — clam chowder, corn or pumpkin curry) is less than 700 yen, about $5.85.

Seasonal treats also make appearances on the menu. The one for the winter menu was the Sautéed Kinoko Burger — a patty of beef on crisp lettuce topped with a thin wedge of pumpkin, mushrooms sautéed in a splash of red wine sauce and all of this topped with a dollop of mild white wasabi. Other seasonal selections have included the Nan Mexican (naan bread in the role of a soft tortilla, layered with ground beef, lettuce, and tomatoes) and the Tsukune Patty, a minced beef dumpling burger with stir fried vegetables and sesame sauce. The Almond Chicken Burger was rolled out on March 2003, and the Half Chicken and Roast Pork (served on what is billed as "graham bread") on April 24.

Mr. Sakurada, who passed away in 1997, accomplished what so many innovative Japanese have done so well: take a winning idea from a foreign country, reinvent and refine it, thereby creating something uniquely Japanese.

The next step, judging by history, is exporting this uniquely "Japanese" creation. MOS Burger shops have found loyal customers in Taiwan, Singapore and Hawaii. Though at the present time there are no plans to take on Ronald on his home turf, times change. The production of automobiles and steel were once the domain of American companies.