Photo/Illutration A dark street is illuminated only by light from a 24-hour family restaurant and convenience store in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward in 2008. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Skylark Holdings Co., Japan’s largest family restaurant chain operator, said it will end 24-hour services at 155 eateries under the Gusto, ‎Jonathan’s and Bamiyan brands by April.

The number represents 5 percent of the company’s 3,200 outlets.

It also said on Jan. 20 that the operating times of 400 of its other restaurants will be shortened by several hours.

Skylark, the first family-restaurant operator in Japan to offer 24-hour services, is now one of the last to do away with the practice.

The company began making its restaurants accessible at all hours in 1972 to get a head start on its rivals. At the peak in 2009, the company ran 728 round-the-clock outlets.

But Skylark started reducing the operating hours in 2012 after fewer customers visited the restaurants late at night.

The services industry in Japan also faces labor shortages and rising personnel costs.

According to a survey by Recruit Jobs Co., the hourly wage at restaurants in the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas was 1,039 yen ($9.45) in December, 80 yen higher than the rate three years earlier.

Saizeriya Co. ended its 24-hour service at all its family restaurants in 2011. Royal Holdings Co. followed suit in 2017.

McDonald’s Holdings Company (Japan) Ltd. reduced the number of 24-hour outlets from 1,840 at the end of 2014 to 786 by the end of September 2019.

Convenience store chains started to terminate the practice after the manager of an understaffed Seven-Eleven outlet in Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, closed the shop for certain times of the day in February last year despite opposition from corporate headquarters.

An estimated 132 Seven-Eleven stores are expected to start reducing their operating hours by the end of February following verification tests.

FamilyMart Co. plans to adopt a system in March to allow store managers to close their outlets at night.

(This article was written by Akifumi Nagahashi and Kazutaka Kamizawa.)