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Kenneth Yang, the son of George Yang – the tycoon who secured the franchise of the famous McDonald’s brand and brought it to the Philippines – has reportedly consolidated control and local franchise ownership of the popular Manmaru Japanese Izakaya brand that first gained a strong consumer base at the Makati Cinema Square, right across the Little Tokyo restaurant enclave along Pasong Tamo.

The popularity of Manmaru, which opened in March 2019, was such that even during the pandemic, it helped keep the Japanese restaurants in the area popular for takeouts, and has even spurred the opening of new reasonably priced Japanese eateries in the area after the pandemic.

The original Manmaru Izakaya was established by Osaka-based Eat Factory Holdings Co., Ltd.

Due to its popularity and reasonable prices, in September 2024, a second Manmaru Japanese Izakaya branch opened along Tomas Morato St. in Quezon City in partnership with the Yang family.

And just last year, in November, a third branch opened in BF Homes in Parañaque.

Kenneth, who took control of the family’s businesses with the retirement of his father a couple of years back, is now clearly out to carve his own franchise venture — this time by growing one of Filipinos’ favorite cuisine — Japanese food.

ADB holds AsPac food systems forum

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank is holding a four-day Asia and the Pacific Food Systems Forum 2026 starting today to Thursday, March 19 to advance its $40-billion Food Systems Transformation commitment.

The four-day forum will bring together government leaders, global experts, development partners, private sector innovators and civil society representatives to shape a resilient and sustainable food future for the region.

The theme of the Manila conference is “Feeding the Future, Sustaining the Planet.” The forum will address the urgent need to transform agri-food systems amid escalating environmental risks, water stress, biodiversity loss and rising food insecurity.

There will also be opportunities to learn more about ADB’s flagship programs, including Sustainable Rice Farming, Glaciers-to-Farms, Source-to-Sea resilient river basins, Mountains-to-Delta, Nutrition and the Pacific Agri-Food Investment Platform.

The ADB points out that more than half of the world’s undernourished people live in Asia and the Pacific. In 2021, it reported, 1.9 billion people in the region could not afford a healthy diet. Food systems, it said, employ nearly 40 percent of the regional workforce. An estimated 80 percent of food consumed in Asia is grown on small farms.

Productivity losses from poor diets, the ADB cited, rose 14 percent globally since 2016, with South Asia posting a 20 percent increase. The region feeds more than four billion people using just 28 percent of global freshwater. Rice alone uses roughly 40 percent of irrigation water. Glacial retreat in Central and West Asia threatens water for hundreds of millions of people downstream.

The ADB pledged $14 billion for 2022 to 2025 to help ease the worsening food crisis and improve food security, and an additional $26 billion was pledged for 2026 to 2030, of which $18.5 billion would be sovereign contributions and at least $7.5 billion would be from the private sector. The private sector target is expected to be more than 27 percent of total.

What is food systems transformation?

It describes the shift from isolated sector interventions toward addressing the full system of how food is produced, processed, distributed, accessed and consumed. It also takes into account the environmental and social conditions that shape whether these systems are resilient. This approach acknowledges that productivity gains are not enough if they don’t improve nutrition or reach food-insecure communities. Food systems transformation is not a new sector or a new funding window. What changes is how investments conform with a systems-wide approach.

A ceremony for collaboration between the Philippine government – through the Department of Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization and ADB for the 2026 National Investment Forum will highlight today’s opening.

On Tuesday, ADB president Masato Kanda will deliver his opening and keynote speech, followed by a session on Food Systems Transformation for a Sustainable Future featuring prominent leaders in this field.

Tuesday’s session aims to support ADB’s shift from crisis response to long-term food systems transformation under the $40 billion agenda.

The Partners and Thought Leaders session aims to strengthen science to policy pathways by integrating research on rice, livestock, aquatic systems and One Health into ADB’s programming and project design, identifying opportunities for joint flagship initiatives under ADB’s $40 billion food systems agenda and establishing practical mechanisms for long-term coordination — including joint working groups and shared data platforms — and aligning partners around a unified, science based vision for transforming food systems toward nutrition, climate resilience and nature positive outcomes across Asia and the Pacific.