Takaya Awata

Takaya Awata is president and CEO of Tokyo-listed Toridoll Holdings, Japan's largest operator of udon noodle restaurants.

Awata opened his first yakitori grilled-chicken restaurant in 1985, after dropping out of the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies.

Toridoll has over 2,000 restaurants in Japan, China, Singapore, Europe. and the U.S.

In 2021, the firm listed its Tam Jai International, an operator of Chinese noodle restaurants that it acquired in 2018, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange but took it private in August 2025.

The company posted $1.9 billion in revenue in the fiscal year through March 2025, a 16% jump from the previous year.