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Kikkoman’s secret sauce: A taste for trying new things
Unraveling Japanesecompanies
HIROKO NAKATACONTRIBUTING WRITERLong before Japanese cuisine took root,
as it has now in the United States, soysauce was a familiar item in U.S. supermarkets. That popularity was supported
by Kikkoman Corp.’s long efforts, creating
hundreds of recipes every year to tempt
American palates.
“Still now, we are proposing at least 200
recipes every year not only for American
consumers but also restaurant owners,”
said Osamu Mogi, director and senior
executive corporate officer in charge ofinternational operations for Kikkoman.
On Instagram and other social media,
Kikkoman promotes various recipes —from a soy sauce brine for roast Thanksgiving turkey to desserts like chocolate
fudge brownies with a bit of soy sauce andsnacks like butter-soy sauce popcorn.
Staying responsive to market demand

Kikkoman Corp.’s director and senior executive
corporate officer, Osamu Mogi
HIROMICHI MATONO

has been key for the Japanese soy saucemaker to develop its business acrossroughly 350 years.
Kikkoman started exporting its products to the U.S. before World War II,
mainly targeting Japanese Americans andJapanese people working in the country.
The company resumed exports of soy
sauce to overseas markets after the war
because despite the postwar domestic
economic recovery, the consumption ofseasonings does not necessarily rise intandem with economic upturns.
For further business growth, Kikkoman
adopted a pair of new strategies. One wasto diversify its business in response toWesternized food culture. The company
widened its product lineup by acquiring
marketing rights in most of Asia and Oceania for the processed fruit and vegetable
maker Del Monte and launching a wine
business with the Manns Wines brand.
The other strategy was to globalize its
business. Kikkoman had confidence in theperceived quality of its products throughfeedback from U.S. journalists, educatorsand others who had come to Japan after
the war.
“That was why we embarked on theU.S. market. We took the approach to getpeople to use soy sauce for their daily
meals, as selling it only for Japanese foodwould not expand the market,” Mogi said.
Taking this tack, the soy sauce maker
opened its first overseas sales subsidiaryin the U.S. in 1957. Its first overseas plant
started shipments in 1973.
It began with demonstrations at supermarkets, always an effective way toincrease food sales. In front of shoppers,
Kikkoman representatives would grill andslice steak, dip it in soy sauce, let customers try a piece and urge them to buy thenew kind of steak sauce. But getting customers to try one bottle of soy sauce was
not enough, Mogi said. What was important was that they try to cook somethingwith it for themselves, experience theHIROMICHI MATONO

good taste, use up the whole bottle andgo buy another. To assist, we developed
countless recipes.
“Such an approach takes time. But
once the customers understood the delicious taste, it would lead to the buying ofanother bottle. And the customers would
very likely become our loyal users,” Mogicontinued. “How to link the first purchaseto the second one is the most important
point in Kikkoman’s marketing.”
Asked how the U.S. operations could
endure its long profitless period until theestablishment of the manufacturing plant,
Mogi said one of the reasons was theventure spirit that they wanted people
overseas who had not yet tasted soy sauce
to give it a try. Another reason was thatthey were confident in their product andbelieved it would succeed.
Kikkoman’s story begins with makers
of soy sauce — or shoyu, a fermented sea-L’Atelier de Noto
French restaurant, producers forge Noto futuresoning made with soybeans, wheat, salt
and water — who started production inthe 1600s in the area that is now the Chiba
Prefecture city of Noda. In 1917, eight soy
sauce makers, including the Mogi family, joined to form Noda Shoyu Co. at atime when the modernization of Japanese industries was underway. The company later became Kikkoman, from thewords “kikko,” meaning turtle shells, and“man,” meaning 10,000. Turtles have long
been said to live for 10,000 years and arethought of as a symbol of good luck.
Mogi, the director for Kikkoman, said
that already in 1925, the company was
telling its workers to operate the business in the belief that society’s interestis also one’s own interest. Each founding
family also has its own credo, such as thatthe goal for the company is not merely
earning money but also doing something
meaningful for society.

MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITERTAEKO TERAOCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Facing the Sea of Japan on the Noto Peninsula in northern Ishikawa Prefecture,
Wajima is a city known for its lacquerware and morning market. The culture
and geography are quite different fromthose of elegant Kanazawa, although bothare in Ishikawa. Wajima is a rustic city surrounded by the sea and mountains. It ishere that L’Atelier de Noto has establisheditself in an old house that was formerly alacquer workshop. The harbor is only a
few minutes’ walk away, close enough tofeel the sea breezes.
Owner Toshiya Ikehata is a French chef
who sharpened his skills at well-known
restaurants in Osaka and France. After
returning to Japan from France, he initiallyplanned to open a restaurant in Osaka.
“I happened to be visiting Wajima,
where I grew up, and an acquaintanceasked me to do some catering,” herecalled. “I was cooking with the terrificlocal ingredients, and that’s when my feelings started to change. In culinary school
I was embarrassed to have come from arural area, but during my time training inFrance I realized that rural areas actually
have the best ingredients, and customers

come from around the world to dine atrestaurants there. I felt like in that sense
Wajima had greater potential than Osaka,
so I opened my restaurant here.”
L’Atelier de Noto opened in 2014. Overtime, Ikehata deepened his relationships
with local producers to the point that
he now sources 99% of his ingredientsfrom the peninsula, primarily Wajima.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I can say
to producers, ‘I want ingredients that will
work for this specific dish,’ so I’m getting
ideal ingredients,” he said. “In exchange,
I pay higher-than-market prices for thefish, vegetables and other products they
supply to me. Without that, we won’t beable to hand this work down to the next
generation.”
The prix fixe menu brims with Notoflavors. There is an oyster and chrychrysanthemum green flan and a chilled miniature kabocha (pumpkin) soup with amaebi (northern prawns) or baigai (Japaneseivory shell sea snail), among others. Themenu always showcases ingredients attheir seasonal peak in Noto, for example
in the kobakogani (female snow crab)
risotto.

The climax of one meal was a fatty
nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) roasted
and steamed with a sauce flavored withishiru, a local fish sauce made in housefrom nodoguro and shiitake. Without
the foods of the Noto Peninsula and theirproducers, the cuisine of L’Atelier de Noto
would not exist.

SHIGERU SAKAGUCHIMAYOR OF WAJIMA

L’Atelier de Noto opened in2014 as our city’s first French
restaurant. Since then, I havebeen fascinated by its variety of dishes using an abundance of ingredients blessed by the Noto
Peninsula’s satoyama and satoumi areas.
Our city focuses on hospitality that satisfies overseas customers under the phrase“gourmet food and tableware,” which combines the traditional craft of Wajima lacquerware with gourmet food made from thefresh produce of the mountains and sea. We
look forward to welcoming tourists to ourcity following the winning of this award.

This section highlights theenvironment and a sustainable society. For more information please visit https://sustainable.japantimes.com

NAONORI KIMURA
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH PLATFORM INC.
(IGPI) PARTNER

Kikkoman Corp.
originated frombrewers of soy
sauce who started
business 350 years
ago. Later in 1917,
eight brewer families in the city of
Noda in Chiba Prefecture joined together
and laid the ground for the current form of
Kikkoman. What they aimed to do was toincrease their value further by merging intoa company that operates in harmony withsociety.
Before World War II, Kikkoman wasalready exporting soy sauce to Japanese living abroad. After the war, it decided to enter
overseas markets. In the United States, thelargest market, it developed recipes thatmade the best use of the taste of soy sauce.
The key to succeeding in the market wascreating a “culture” of soy sauce by doing
business with local customers for a longtime. It seems the U.S. operations struggled
financially until the manufacturing plant
was established. What encouraged it tocontinue the business without giving up
was the leaders’ belief in the product andspirit of adventure.
Kikkoman is now looking to strengthen
its presence in other markets such as SouthAmerica and India within the next 10 years
under the vision of “bringing soy sauce topeople around the world.” What fuels its
motivation to take on another new challenge remains a belief in the product and aspirit of adventure. Since its business deals
with food, something very close to people’s
daily lives, it aims to respond to changes in
consumer mindsets and grow sustainably
as a company that solves social issues. Ibelieve it will see another 350 years.

Sakaue raises consciousness
along with grass-fed cattle
ESG/SDGs

Address
Nihonryori Yukimoto
2-43 Towa-cho, Iida,
Nagano Pref. 395-0086,
Japan
https://yukimotohanare.com/“Hundreds of years ago, they alreadyinsisted on what is required for a company in our era,” Mogi said. “The reason
why we continued to stay in business forsuch a long time is that we have this philosophy as our backbone — a philosophyof living together with the communityand society.” This way of thinking leads toKikkoman’s current business philosophyof becoming a company meaningful forsociety and our planet, he added.
Fortunately, it is getting easier toenter markets in other countries amid
demographic changes and emerging
new generations, Mogi said. In Europe,
where Kikkoman has generated two-digit
growth or more on average every year
for a quarter of a century, traditional foodcultures have slowly changed. For example, French people once enjoyed eating
cheese with a glass of wine after dinner,
but younger generations barely follow thecustom anymore. Because of the changesin European societies, Kikkoman creates recipes both for each market and forEurope overall.
In the future, Kikkoman aims to fortify its ventures into new markets suchas South America, India and Africa, Mogisaid. He also stressed the importance of
keeping up with consumer mindsets,
especially at a time when new generations such as Gen Z and millennials have amore powerful presence in our society.
“They gauge companies from a perspective of whether the companies work onsocial issues or not. I always feel that ourcorporate brand could deteriorate if we
do not address issues proactively,” Mogisaid. “In any case, we will do what impacts
society, because that’s investment for thefuture.”

Sakaue Co. Ltd., an agricultural corporation
established in 1995 in the city of Shibushiin Kagoshima Prefecture, started raisinggrass-fed Japanese black cattle in 2019. This
project won the Excellence Award of theSustainable Japan Award 2022 presented byThe Japan Times.
The award recognized the circular natureof the project, which involves feeding cattle
grass and silage produced by its farmers,
composting the manure from the livestockand then using it to grow agricultural products. It also provides an alternative to grainfed beef, which is facing soaring prices ofimported grain and problems of food shortages in some countries.
“Domestically produced grass-fed beef
is not common, and consumers in Japantend to imagine tough meat that stinks abit when they hear ‘grass-fed.’ The business model of grass-feeding Japanese black
cattle and selling beef was quite new,” CEOTakashi Sakaue said in a recent online interview with The Japan Times. On top of that,the company did not sell its beef throughthe existing distribution system. “At thebeginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, theprices of meat dropped. It did not makesense to sell our beef the conventional way,
so we decided to sell it directly to consumers online. Due to the pandemic situation,
we had time to try this option,” he said.
Sakaue explained that agriculture andlivestock farming differ from other industries in two basic ways. The first is that
farmers deal with living things. The second

Roast beef done with satoyama beef SAKAUE
CO. LTD.

PAGE: 7is that farmers live where they work. “Aclothing manufacturer does not live in afactory, but most farmers have their houseright next to their farms. You can relocate
factories, but you cannot move your farmelsewhere,” he said, pointing out that thisis why farming businesses tend to become
closely connected with their communities.
“My parents engaged in agriculture, too.
When they could not afford to buy farmland, someone in the community leased
part of their land to them,” he recalled.
But the times have changed and the number of farmers is decreasing. “The issue ofabandoned farmland is rising. I wanted togive back to the community in a way thatsolves its current problems and uses its
existing resources,” he said. Uncultivatedland often lies between forests and villages
in areas referred to as satoyama, which
are blessed with natural resources and canbe easily accessed by people. This is oneof the reasons why they named the beef
“satoyama beef.”
Another reason is because “satoyama” is aconcept unique to Japan. “There is no word
in English that describes what satoyamais,” Sakaue said. Masatoshi Nakagawa, thehead of the company’s sales department,
nodded and said: “It is not only unique, butalso attractive to foreigners because it is thekind of ‘Japan’ that they want to see. I used
to work for a travel agency that specialized
in offering tour packages to inbound tourists. Many of our customers wanted to see
rural scenery, exactly the satoyama kindof landscape, more than tourist spots.” Heexplained that the name “satoyama beef”
may attract interest from such people.
As the times change, so do what andhow to sell, and who to sell it to. Today’s
challenges may not be so in the future. The
shortage of farmland is a problem of thepast. People are looking for sustainable andhealthy options rather than quantity andproductivity. “The value of our company
lies in our effort to provide something new
to society by adopting to the changing
environment and situation with commonsense,” Sakaue said.
There is a principle that Sakaue upholds
in proving the company’s value. “We needto look for an optimum solution based on
our philosophy, the environment and theeconomy. We have our own beliefs about
what we want to do, and we need to take

Sakaue Co. Ltd., CEO Takashi Sakaue SAKAUE
CO. LTD.

nature and the environment into consideration, too. But we cannot motivate otherpeople without economic viability. We
should not let one of these three concepts
overwhelm the other two just because
we think it is right,” Sakaue said, explaining that when the balance of the three
concepts is optimized, a business becomes
truly sustainable.
Satoyama beef is a perfect example ofsuch a sustainable business. It is a resultof the fusion of the company’s will tocontribute to the community, its environment containing abandoned farmland,
and the marketing method of reachingout to consumers interested in natural andsustainable foodstuffs. “But the optimum
balance itself keeps changing. We need
to watch carefully to grasp changes andalways seek an optimum balance,” Sakauesaid.
The company’s principles permeate toeach of its staff members, half of whom arein their 30s or younger. Very likely, manyof the young employees wished to workfor the company because of its foresightin making farming about much more thanjust growing food. This year, the company
will collaborate with the city of Shibushi
to further nurture human resources in
the agricultural sector. “We aim to engage
more people who empathize with ourideas to make agriculture a sustainableindustry that can meet the changing needsof society,” Sakaue said.
The Sustainable Japan section highlights issues related
to the environment and asustainable society. For more
information, see https://sustainable.japantimes.com/esg