Yaohan 八佰伴

Yaohan Co., LTD. (株式会社ヤオハン Kabushiki Kaisha Yaohan), or Yaohan (Japanese: ヤオハン or 八百半; Chinese: 八佰伴) was a Japanese retail group. The company was founded in 1930 by Ryohei Wada (和田 良平 Wada Ryohei) and incorporated in 1948. Initially a single shop, it later expanded into a major supermarket chain with most retail outlets located in Shizuoka prefecture, south of Tokyo. It was listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange. The store was far more established and notable outside Japan, due to restrictive laws in Japan that made it difficult to set up new businesses, such that by the time it opened its first store in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the company was already in a state of decline due to accumulated debts from over-expansion.