Restaurant Support Site "Saki Meshi" Suntory Endorses Initiative, New Efforts Begin

Gigi (Fukuoka City, President Ryosuke Imai), a company that shares "new values" with the world, launched the "Saki Meshi" project in March. This initiative aims to support restaurants facing difficult circumstances due to business suspensions and other impacts of the recent coronavirus pandemic by allowing customers to prepay for future meals.
"Saki Meshi" utilizes the "Gochimeshi" feature from the company's service, which allows users to "treat others to a meal through an app." It enables people to prepay for meals at their favorite restaurants they currently cannot visit due to stay-at-home requests, with the intention of dining there once the situation stabilizes.

Subsequently, the project received funding, website development support, and marketing assistance from Suntory Holdings, which endorsed the initiative. Starting May 25th, new measures were implemented, including waiving service fees, introducing donation initiatives, and a site renewal.
Gigi stated, "This strengthens our mechanism to quickly deliver cash to restaurants without waiting for business to return to normal after the coronavirus crisis subsides. We aim to expand the circle of support, led by consumers, beyond just government and local authority assistance."

The support involves uniform cash donations to restaurants registered with "Saki Meshi (and Gochi Meshi)". It will be funded partly by Suntory's contribution and partly by donations accepted from supporters between May 25th and 31st, with the total amount distributed in early June.
Suntory will cover the transaction fees incurred when supporters purchase "prepaid tickets," making the support free of charge and ensuring the full amount reaches the restaurants. This fee waiver begins on the 25th and will continue until the total amount of Suntory's contribution and the covered ticket fees reaches 100 million yen.
The number of registered restaurants has increased from approximately 2,000 before the project announcement to about 7,000, thanks to the utilization of Suntory's domestic sales network and official SNS accounts.
"Saki Meshi" website: https://www.sakimeshi.com/