[floatl][/floatl]More changes afoot in the restaurant business. Suntory has announced that it is making an offer for well-known tonkatsu brand Maisen. Suntory intends to include the company in the same business unit which currently operates Pronto cafes and Subway sandwich shops in Japan. Maisen was set up in 1965 by housewife Chiyoko Koide, starting with a shop in the basement of the Mitsui Building in Yurakucho under the name Seisen. The firm's hirekatsu sandwiches were a particular hit and they set up a flagship restaurant in Aoyama, began to use the name Maisen and used that brand to expand to selling the sandwiches through department stores nationwide. Katsu sandos were particularly popular with exam takers because katsu can also mean to succeed. The same pun explains today's popularity of Kit-Kats at exam time.