I didn’t realize Sukiya surpassed Yoshinoya. 2,000 locations sounds like a lot, but beef bowl restaurants are like Starbucks. I live in a rural farming city of about 10,000 people and we have two Sukiyas. With several more in neighboring cities.
Edit: clarification
Having known a lot of people working in kitchens here and having seen some kitchens here, I really wish Japan would step up random inspections and enforcement. The owner (at least, maybe others as well) are required to be re-certified yearly with courses (also available online since corona at least), but I’ve not seen much of anything to enforce the conditions on the ground after the test unless there are customer complaints. Rats and roaches are far from unique to Sukiya, especially in places like Tokyo.
Yobagoya