World Pepper Rice Day
One day. Seventeen countries. 2,845 plates in 2025 — and a Guinness World Record. Here's what July 3rd looks like in 2026.
World Pepper Rice Day falls on July 3rd. It started as a small marketing moment in 2018 and has since turned into a global coordinated serving event — the kind that actually shows up in the Guinness Book.
In 2025, 2,845 plates of Beef Pepper Rice were served across 15 countries in a single 24-hour window. That's the current Guinness record for the largest coordinated teppanyaki-style serving event. This year we're aiming for 5,000 plates across 17 countries.
Why July 3rd
July 3rd is founder Kunio Ichinose's birthday. The Pepper Rice dish was invented in our original Tokyo R&D kitchen in 1994, and he plated the first one on what would become his 52nd birthday. The team has celebrated the day internally since the brand was 3 years old; it went public as a global event in 2018.
How to participate
Show up. That's the entire protocol. Every participating store runs the day-of menu from open to close. If you want the limited merch drop, arrive in the first hour — last year some stores ran out of the anniversary hats by 11am.
