Matsuya Re-swaps Images for 5 Lunch Sets on the Same Day: Morning's "Egg Exclusivity Rule" Rollout and Image Mismatch Likely the Cause

At 1 PM on April 28, the product images for five Matsuya lunch sets were swapped all at once in Matsuya’s menu data. The notable point is that these images had already been swapped once earlier the same day (10:58 AM). That means a reshoot was carried out only a few hours later.

Timeline of the Same-Day Swaps

Time	Image version	Changes made at the same time
10:58	_260407 → _260424	Side options cut from 10 to 4 / exclusive restriction introduced for raw egg and soft-boiled egg
Around 13:00	_260424 → _260428	Image-only re-swap

The 5 Items Affected

Menu item	Base price
Beef Bowl topped with Tomato and Cheese Lunch Set	760 yen
Beef Bowl topped with Green Onion and Soft Boiled Egg Lunch Set	730 yen
Beef Bowl topped with Grated Radish & Ponzu Citrus Soy Sauce Lunch Set	630 yen
Beef Bowl topped with Cheese Lunch Set	730 yen
Bowl of Mixed Simmered Beef and Kimchi Lunch Set	630 yen

The date portion of the file names changed from 260424 to 260428.

The “Egg Exclusivity Rule” Introduced That Morning

That morning, alongside a major trimming of the choice of side (10 options to 4), Matsuya introduced an exclusive topping restriction on raw egg and soft-boiled egg.

Side	Restriction
Raw Egg	Available only with the Beef Bowl Lunch Set
Soft-boiled Egg	Not available with the Beef Bowl Lunch Set

In other words,

• Beef Bowl Lunch Set (530 yen, plain beef bowl): only raw egg can be added (soft-boiled egg is not allowed)
• The five topping-based items (table above): only soft-boiled egg can be added (raw egg is not allowed)

This is a newly created rule under which the type of egg you can add switches completely depending on the main item.

Was the Re-swap Caused by a Mismatch Between the Images and the New Rule?

The fact that the Apr. 24 shoot was uploaded on the morning of April 28 and then replaced with the Apr. 28 shoot the same day strongly suggests there was a discrepancy between the image content and the new rule. Possible scenarios:

1. The exclusivity rule hadn’t been settled yet on Apr. 24 — The Apr. 24 shoot may have been done with plain lunch sets without egg toppings, or staged on the assumption that either type of egg could be added. It makes sense if, after announcing the rule and uploading the images in the morning, Matsuya decided that “the five topping-based items should be shown with a soft-boiled egg” and rushed into a reshoot.
2. The type of egg shown in the images contradicted the rule — If the Apr. 24 images showed a raw egg rather than a soft-boiled egg, the five items, which were supposed to allow “soft-boiled egg only,” would have been displayed with a raw egg on top, creating a contradiction. Once noticed, Matsuya reshot the soft-boiled egg version on Apr. 28 and uploaded it.

Either way, the sequence appears to be rule announcement in the morning → image mismatch discovered → reshoot within the same day.

Why Make the Rule Exclusive?

The rule looks complicated at first glance, but it can be read from the perspective of pricing strategy.

• The Beef Bowl Lunch Set (530 yen) is the lowest-priced configuration, a plain beef bowl. Allowing a raw egg (free) here appears aimed at making an “egg-on-rice beef bowl set meal” viable at the lowest price point.
• Allowing only a soft-boiled egg (free) on the five topping-based items (630–760 yen) boosts the appeal of the product photos with the more photogenic soft-boiled egg. A raw egg tends to give a “runny egg” look, which may have been a concern for the glamour of the topping-based items.

So the restriction seems to aim at tuning the presentation for each price tier: “raw egg for the cheapest configuration, prioritizing cost” and “soft-boiled egg for the topping-based items, prioritizing looks.” A one-egg limit has become the trigger that separates brand presentation by price tier.

Lunch Set Operations Still Unsettled

The lunch set images (the 260407 version) were prepared at the April 7 renewal, followed by the Apr. 24 version and now today’s Apr. 28 version, meaning three image swaps in just three weeks. The sides were also just cut from 10 to 4, suggesting that menu design and image presentation are being adjusted in real time.

The “Lunch Set with Choice of 60 Dishes” tagline is halved by the side reduction to 6 mains × 4 sides = 24 combinations. With the egg exclusivity rule on top, the simple multiplication of combinations is becoming a formality. Matsuya’s lunch set operations are in the middle of a muddle over a one-egg limit.