HE SIMPLY wanted a taste of working overseas. But in 1997, four years into his Singapore posting, Japanese engineer Takahashi Kenichi cooked up a different plan and started a restaurant instead.

Today, Mr Kenichi, 52, is the founder and chief executive of Japan Foods, a multimillion-dollar firm that runs restaurants under popular Japanese brand names in Singapore and Malaysia.

The firm has just got on board Catalist, the Singapore Exchange's second board.

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