Voluntary Report - public distribution

**Date:** 5/25/2006

**GAIN Report Number:** JA6508

JA6508

**Japan**

**Market Development Reports**

**Food Business Line - Periodic Press Translations**

**2006**

**Approved by:**

![](media/image1.wmf)Kevin Sage-EL, Deputy Director, ATO Tokyo

Agricultural Trade Office

**Prepared by:**

Juri Noguchi, PR Specialist, ATO Tokyo

**Report Highlights:** *Am/pm Japan Co., Ltd.* to include nutritional
supplements in box lunch sets; *Skylark Co., Ltd.* will begin indicating
the origin of ingredients in its 3000 restaurants; Livestock farmers
explore developing restaurants and retail stores in Tokyo in order to
showcase their pork and beef products; *Sapporo Breweries* starts sales
of wines with special properties, using no anti-oxidizing agents and
high in polyphenols; Sales increase for produce grown without chemicals
in anticipation of new "Positive List" regulations effective in May.

Includes PSD Changes: No

Includes Trade Matrix: No

Unscheduled Report

Tokyo ATO \[JA2\]

\[JA\]

![](media/image2.png){width="0.7423611111111111in"
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![](media/image2.png){width="0.8319444444444445in"
height="0.6625in"}**Food Business Line**

*Periodic Press Translations from ATO Tokyo Vol. VI, Issue 2, February
1-28, 2006*

# 

# Retail/Wholesale 

-   *Am/pm Japan Co., Ltd.* will make a new offering on the market
    consisting of a healthy menu box lunch, which will include a sample
    of a nutritional supplement (multi-vitamin). (b. 2/15)

-   Major frozen food manufacturers including *Ajinomoto Co., Inc.* are
    targeting the middle-aged consumer segment for the first time in the
    recent years. New and reformulated lines of rice menu items using
    high quality special blend rice and improved taste are quickly
    entering the market. (b. 2/20)

# Food Service 

-   *Skylark Co., Ltd.* will begin indicating the origin of ingredients
    beginning with the revision of its spring menu. Initially, origin
    information will be shown for meat and seafood. With this activity
    to include almost 3,000 Skylark outlets, there is likely to be an
    influence on the whole food service industry. (b. 2/1)

-   *Aim Services Co., Ltd*., one of the major institutional food
    service companies, will establish its research and development
    department called Innovative Dining Solutions Center in April to
    develop nutritious and high value-added menus matching customers'
    needs. Simultaneously, the company will apply the brakes to the low
    price competition strategy. (b. 2/12)

-   Livestock farmers started developing restaurants and retail stores
    in Tokyo under their own direct management to sell their pork and
    beef products. In recent years, livestock farmers have tried to
    promote their own new brands in various regions of Japan. However,
    they have difficulty expanding their branded sales in competition
    with other already established brands in Tokyo and other heavily
    populated markets. (b. 2/12)

-   According to the reports, sales in December 2006 by the top two
    family restaurants in Japan - total sales of *Skylark Co., Ltd*.
    will increase by 3.0% while that of Royal Holdings will increase by
    10.3% compared to the same month last year. (b 2/20)

-   According to the interim report of the Japan Food Service
    Association's survey regarding menu and food labeling, 78.5% of 135
    surveyed companies released information in any style. The most
    frequent content of the labeling was "allergy", which increased by
    1.9 percentage points to 51.9%. The second frequent was "nutrition",
    and the third was "country of origin". (b. 2/27)

# 

# Food Processing/New Products/Market Trends

-   [*Kirin Beverage Co*. will start its sales promotion in cooperation
    with Japan Vegetable and Fruits Meister Association which certifies
    the "Vegetable Sommelier". The sommelier will do in-store campaign
    to promote high quality of the product materials. (b]{.mark}. 2/3)

-   The sales of frozen spinach is 4.7 times larger than the same week
    of last year due to the record coldest weather of this winter.
    Contrary to the frozen spinach, the sales of salad dressing
    decreased by 5-10% and that of condensed milk also decreased by
    30.5% due to the shortage of salad leaves and strawberries. (g. 2/9)

-   The market size of drug stores is expanding. According to the Japan
    Chain Drug Store Association's forecast, the total sales of all drug
    stores to be 4.5 trillion yen, which is 6.0% increase compared to
    last year and doubled in 5 years. The well-stocked and a variety of
    nutrition supplements and discount sales of cosmetics contributed
    the increased number of customers. (a. 2/11)

-   Sapporo Breweries starts selling new lines of domestic wines made by
    new technology in March. Polyphenol. No anti-oxidize agent is used,
    while oxygen in wine is successfully decreased to 1/20 compared to
    other regular wines with anti-oxide agent by applying their brewing
    technology for beer. (b. 2/3)

-   U.S. beef, shipped before that date of the reinstated ban on Jan.
    20, arrived at customs by sea or air but has not been allowed to
    pass the animal quarantine. About 1,366 tons of U.S. beef are being
    stored at warehouses, according to an association of 31 meat
    exporters and importers in Japan. Although the organization asked on
    Feb. 9 that the U.S. Meat Export Federation buy back the meat and
    also pay the cost of storage, no response has been received. (a.
    2/23)

# 

# Food Safety/Consumer Awareness 

-   According to the Japan Public Management Ministry's household
    expenditure survey completed on February 10, total household
    expenditure for food in 2005 declined by 1.2% compared to 2003.
    However, per capita expenditure for food decrease slightly by 0.5%
    taking into account a 0.9 decrease in the number of household
    members. (f. 2/13)

-   According to "1000 House-holding Survey" conducted by the Nikkei MJ
    newspaper, almost 60% replied that they will not buy U.S. beef after
    the resumption of U.S beef imports. Demographic result shows that
    the older, the higher ratio of not-buying U.S. beef because they
    "cannot trust its safety" (61.6%), "don't need beef to be the
    U.S.'s" (16%) and "feel opposed to the attitude of the U.S."
    (15.2%). (b. 2/15)

-   The sales of domestic produce of value added by using of beneficial
    insects and microbes to control noxious pests to decrease the amount
    of pesticide use and increase the quality started expanding. It is
    likely to be popular due to the enforcement of "Positive List"
    chemical residue regulations starting in May. (b. 2/27)

-   SK Foods Co., Ltd. , one of frozen food manufacturers, will
    introduce in the market shrimp products which were cultured without
    antibiotics and compound feed. They made it possible by establishing
    technology and hatchery plant which enabled to raise shrimp fry in
    Indonesia. (b. 2/27)

# ATO/Cooperator/Competitor Activities/Trade Shows 

-   Raisin Administrative Committee and U.S. Dairy Export Council held
    California Raisin & American Cheese Baking Seminar in cooperation
    with Nippun Co, Ltd., February 14-15 in Tokyo. Approximately 1600
    experts of baking technology and development from bakery industry
    attended. Similar events will be held in other cities including
    Sapporo, Osaka Kobe and Nagoya. (f. 2/23)

** Sources **

\(a\) The Japan Economic Newspaper (b) The Nikkei Marketing Journal

\(c\) The Japan Food Journal (d) The Beverage & Food News Commentary

\(e\) The Japan Food News (f) The Food Industry News

\(g\) Fuji Sankei Business I (h) Pan News

\(i\) Nihon Keizai Shimbun

DISCLAIMER - *Food Business Line* is derived from major Japanese news
wires, mass distribution press, and food industry newspapers and
magazines. Inclusion of an item in *Food Business Line* does not imply
agreement by USDA or U.S. Embassy/Tokyo; nor does USDA or U.S.
Embassy/Tokyo attest to the accuracy or completeness of the translation
of the news item. ATO Tokyo cannot further translate or send source
materials to users.