Which McDonald's restaurant became the company's first location in Japan when it opened in 1971?

The Mitsukoshi Ginza department store location became McDonald's first restaurant in Japan in 1971.

McDonald's entered Japan through a partnership involving Den Fujita, who helped establish the company's Japanese operations. The first restaurant opened inside the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Ginza district, one of the city's prominent commercial areas.

The opening was an important branding milestone because it showed how McDonald's could enter a highly developed urban market through a local operating partner and a prominent retail setting. Japanese McDonald's later developed localized menu items and marketing while retaining the company's recognizable core identity.

The location is often confused with a standalone roadside restaurant or with later famous branches in Shibuya and other Tokyo districts. The first Japanese restaurant was specifically associated with Mitsukoshi Ginza and opened in 1971, several years after McDonald's first international opening in Canada.