Bridging the common understanding of how special food can be, NICHIFUTSU SHOJI is the gateway between two nations that cherish food deeply.
Japan and France have a deep and long food and cultural connection. If we look at the influence of France here in Japan today, we see the culture of patisserie, boulangerie, and French fine dining restaurants. The connection goes the other way as well, with the impact of the Japanese food and culture in France. What is it about the French and Japanese cultures that create such a deep and long-lasting connection between the two countries?
To be honest, I haven't thought deeply about it, but in my mind, both France and Japan have a long history, and we respect each other’s history and cultural background. France has the opposite culture in terms of food, and what I mean by that is that in Japan, we have virtue in deduction, whereas France has virtue in addition.
Since France and Japan are so opposite, I think they match very well, not just in terms of food, but in terms of things like buildings as well. For example, Japanese homes have traditionally been made with wood and paper, while French houses were made with stone and steel, so they are totally different. Because they are totally different or opposites, I believe these cultures match very well.
Japanese culture is totally different from all European cultures, but Japanese people are very diligent, and they like things that are straightforward. From that cultural perspective, I think the nature of France fits very well with that of Japan. For example, we import ovens from France, and if we let Japanese companies manufacture the same type of oven, they will manufacture something that is really perfect. With baking machines for bread, since the machine is too perfect, the vapor inside doesn’t escape, and if that happens, then the bread will not be soft enough. On the other hand, French ovens have a lot of gaps or spaces, so the vapors escape adequately. That’s why you can make such good bread with a French oven, but we cannot let Japanese companies make the same type of oven.
Talking about craftsmanship, Japanese companies have a history of taking products that were not uniquely made in Japan and adding value to them in such a way that they become even more popular around the world. We can think of companies like S&B Foods and their use of spices or CoCo Ichibanya, the curry chain that has been so successful that they’ve even set up shops in India. Your company has also helped to bring this French bread-baking culture to Japan. What is it about Japanese craftsmanship that makes companies so successful at taking products that are not from here and adding value to them?
I think that historically, Japanese people have had strong curiosity, and because we have a long history as a closed nation in the past, people want to know more about other countries. I think that is the background. For example, our writing system was originally derived from Chinese, and Japanese people adapted that script by also using another script we call hiragana, whereas Western words and text were adapted using a script we call katakana, which is based on sounds. As such, not only the food culture but also many other aspects of foreign cultures have been adopted and adapted by Japanese people.
Looking at France, of course, they also have other cultural and food influences, but those are mostly for the immigrants there. They do not extend their original culture because they are used and consumed by those immigrants. In contrast, Japanese people have gone to other countries and then brought part of the culture back to Japan, and then they arrange them within Japan, between Japanese people. That’s why they had more flexibility or freedom in arranging or updating those external ideas and products.
The same applies to the patisserie. In the past and over time, Japanese people have gone to France to learn about the patisserie and how to make French confectioneries. They then brought that knowledge back to Japan, and using the local Japanese ingredients, they tried to make something close to what they learned in France.
The other day, I visited a company called Colombin, which is an old confectionery maker in Japan that pioneered the development of shortcake, which is a cake made with strawberries and white cream. That was originally something that they saw in France, a confectionery using strawberries called Fraisier. They brought that idea back to Japan, and they tried to reproduce a similar thing with ingredients in Japan. That’s how they developed Shortcake, but you cannot find it in France. The same goes for Mont Blanc, which is a cake made with chestnut cream. Japanese people used to make Mont Blanc with sweet potatoes, not chestnuts, but that changed.
Those are two examples that illustrate how Japanese people have a lot of freedom and flexibility to rearrange or reinterpret Western influences to suit Japanese people’s appetites. It’s like using katakana to write Western words.
Bread is another interesting example. When we incorporate Western culture, we usually use the English word for it, but bread is different. We use the word pan, which is a Portuguese word. The Portuguese brought bread into Japan back in the 16th century, and soon after that, Japan closed the country to foreigners, so bread had its own evolution in Japan. I think we can now say that bread has become part of washoku, or Japanese cuisine, so when you go to a bakery in Japan, you will find a kind of bread that you won’t find in Europe, so that is another example of something that has been Japanized.
The same goes for what’s called Castella, which is a Japanese confectionery company whose origin is Portugal. That’s another representative example of something that has become a part of Japanese food over its long history.
In your president’s message, you mention that one of your core goals is to continue to deepen the cultural connections between France and Japan and to contribute to the evolution of the food culture and growth in both nations. What are some of the key strategies or initiatives that you’re putting in place to achieve that?
Originally, we started this business by challenging ourselves to make exactly the same French bread. Japanese people sometimes like to produce something that has the essence of France, but we wanted to offer something really authentic to the Japanese people, and as we expanded our business, we now have a lot of bakeries as our customers. Those bakeries often adapt their products that are derived from France. In contrast, we want to offer something authentic to customers. Of course, selling ingredients is important to expand the influence of the French food culture, so I believe that plays an important role, but on top of that, to deepen the understanding of this French culture, we would like to place more focus on the B2C business.
In order to accurately disseminate the culture, we have to expand both horizontally and vertically, and we need to strike a balance between the horizontal and vertical lines. We have to create a large net to communicate that culture, but right now, I have a kind of crisis that the horizontal line has extended too much. Our mission is to communicate French culture to Japanese people and to do so, I think offering the product directly to the customer plays a really important role.
How do you plan to do that?
Next April, we are planning to set up a new company that is dedicated to the direct B2C business, and on top of that, we already have existing Maison Leroux, wine, chocolate, and ice cream shops, so we would like to expand French taste from morning to night. To do so, we are trying to open more shops in Kobe and have each of these shops be within a 10-minute walk from each other. We are also planning to expand e-commerce so that the customers will have a richer experience.
I am also thinking about offering workshops for sweets, wine, or table settings at an atelier. We have that kind of venue, and using all these platforms, we would like to deepen the customers’ understanding of French food culture.
You mentioned wine. In fact, in 2018, you acquired a winery in the Loire region of France. You also now have your Nofasa wine bar and a specialist wine website. What role do you see the wine business playing as part of your business expansion?
When we started the business, we focused on bread, and now we deal with wine, which is another symbol of the French food culture. People around the table typically share wine, which is a very important element of French food that is comparable to bread, and we assign it an important role.
The other reason I think wine is important is because as I look at people who use high-quality cutlery, dishes, or tablecloths, or those who love art or music or gourmet food, they have something in common, which is that they like wine. For example, when there is an art exhibition in a small gallery near here, or when there is a small music concert near here, those who attend often come to Nofasa to enjoy wine. That’s how I found that common element, so I think wine is something that connects art and music. Therefore, I would like to expand the wine culture through this kind of connection or the sharing nature of wine.
We bought the winery and started expanding the wine business, but the starting point is a little different. We have imported French agricultural crops and fruits, including fruit puree and chestnuts, but as I mentioned, I am concerned about the extreme horizontal expansion of the business, which may cause a lot of French foods or culture to become a commodity. Because of that, some customers make too much demand for our products, and these products are made of agricultural crops or fruits, so they are cultivated only once a year, and based on the volume that is cultivated, we can only make a certain amount of products. That means there is a limitation for that volume, but customer demand sometimes exceeds the volume that we can supply. Since that demand is so high, our sales team cannot easily refuse that customer demand, so we would like to reset that kind of thinking, and that’s why we have started this wine business.
Wine is something that takes a longer time to make than the other products, from cultivation to the shelves. You can actually appreciate nature through the winemaking process. That’s why we purchased the winery and do the manufacturing of wines so that our employees can also experience that process.
You’ve been doing French cuisine in Japan for over 50 years, and you have built up a huge amount of know-how. As you said, it’s almost become like a mass market here, and you’re looking to scale back, but if we look at growing markets like Southeast Asia, I think there’s a growing demand, perhaps similar to the way Japan was 30 or 40 years ago; it’s just starting there. Do you see an opportunity as a Japanese company with your French partners to introduce your business model and your products in overseas markets?
That is not actually something I’m focusing on right now because, looking at the speed of market development in Southeast Asia, that’s much faster than we experienced in Japan. These days, people want to see results immediately, but in the past, Japanese people used to go to France and learn how to cook French food or confectioneries, and they brought that knowledge back to Japan. They tried to spread that knowledge to other Japanese people, but today, the demand is totally different. People have a lot of access to the news or French culture online, and everybody can look at actual French food, and they immediately want it if it appeals to them.
Having said that, we are now preparing to export chocolate ice cream and wine to those countries, and we already have key leads for potential customers. Demand is rising rapidly in that region, but it will still take time for the French confectionery culture to permeate the markets. Chocolate is a tricky issue because it is very difficult to train manufacturers to make it, but since chocolate is small, you can easily transport it to other countries. That’s why we are trying to export it from Japan to those countries. Of course, those countries already have some similar products in the market, but we would like to export something that is of high quality and easy to transport.
Regarding wine, we are planning to export Japanese wine to Asian countries because it is of a very high quality. There is also an opportunity to export our selection of French wines to Taiwan because they don’t have the know-how to select the proper wines. Therefore, they want to use our selection. Taiwan has several nice bars, but their wine selection and availability are lacking. However, there are many people who are interested in the category of natural wine rather than the high-class Bordeaux or Burgundy wines.
You partner with a number of French brands. Are you looking to work with new brands to help introduce them here in Japan?
We are always looking for new potential partners, but the first filter we have is whether the products or the ingredients are available to make confectioneries. From that perspective, I think we are dealing with most of the prerequisites for making confectioneries, but gradually, these traditional products are getting replaced by plant-based, ethical, or sustainable products, so we are looking toward those kinds of options.
We are also facing the social issue of the declining population, so the makers don’t have a lot of labor available to make their products. Therefore, we are looking for products that can help solve that labor shortage issue. Otherwise, the confectionery industry will shrink, and without the confectionery, we cannot distribute luxury or high-end products. We see tart shells as one product that can help solve the labor shortage, and we are going to expand the use of these kinds of problem-solving products.
Another thing is the rare ingredients or products. For example, some things like cacao or fruits needed for fruit puree can only be cultivated in a particular area. Although we can only make a limited volume, we are trying to introduce such rare products to the top Japanese patisseries so that they can make limited products. I am always thinking about horizontal and vertical expansion.
If you were to have your last confectionery or patisserie item, what would you choose?
It would be a flan.
If we were to interview you again on the last day of your presidency, what would you like to achieve by that day?
I would like to create a platform where the customers can experience a bit of France. I have known Nichifutsu Shoji for a long time, even before the company grew to this level. When we were small, we used to have a lot of passion for creating one loaf of bread, and when we made authentic French bread, everybody became very excited that it was really delicious. I really enjoyed that time, so I would like to bring back that kind of moment where everybody enjoys their piece of bread in the morning. I wish I could share that kind of moment with Asian people. I think it might be too late, but if I have the chance, I would like to try.
For more information, please visit their website at: https://www.nichifutsu.co.jp/en/
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