Clean Chemical Co., Ltd.: Pioneering Sustainable Cleaning Solutions for the Medical and Industrial Sectors

Clean Chemical was founded in 1975 and specializes in industrial and medical cleaning agents. Over the decades the company has become renowned for its expertise in developing specialized detergents, supporting hospitals, research institutions, and manufacturers with innovative cleaning solutions. Can you run us through the strengths which your company has leveraged to become what it is today?

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of our company. At the time our company began operations, most of the cleaning solutions used in hospitals and research laboratories were liquid mixtures of hexavalent chromium and chromic acid. Additionally, phosphates, which were used as auxiliary agents in some cleaning solutions, became a social issue as they were a contributing factor to red tide occurrences.  Therefore, we developed a new type of liquid cleaning agent called "CLEAN99L" as an alternative to conventional detergents. "CLEAN99L" is an alkaline cleaning agent that contains no phosphorus compounds. At the time, it was a groundbreaking product with excellent environmental performance and ease of use, earning high satisfaction from our customers.

Laboratory

After CLEAN 99L really took off, we started developing other products, which included the launch of CLEAN 99 K-100, a chlorine-based alkaline detergent designed for medical and scientific use. This product was produced out of the needs of customers and sold very well, making us a lot of profit. Therefore, our strength lies in being a pioneering manufacturer that actively develops products while considering not only human health but also environmental impact. Another key strength lies in our unwavering commitment to prioritizing our customers’ voices above all else. Guided by this philosophy, we have consistently invested in development, maintaining this mindset for over 30 years now. We started as a very small operation, but over time we have achieved success and steadily grown into what we are today.

About 10 to 15 years ago, thanks to the experiences I had accumulated, I realized that we need to make a shift in the company. I myself have never majored in chemistry. As the company continued to grow, I knew that we would be taking on more high-performing technicians and technology specialists. It was at this point I realized my limit, so I made the decision to focus on creating an environment for professional specialists with my role to support all of these specialists and engineers. I wanted to make the best use of their abilities. This is where I am now. These professional engineers have developed really great products, and their efforts really support the company’s growth. It was throughout this process that I also felt that this company has had good fortune and is blessed. Therefore, our strength lies not only in making proactive investments in research and development facilities but also in focusing on talent development.

In 2024 we finished building our new Takatsuki Core Center in Osaka, something we also consider very fortunate. As a small company, we wanted to establish ourselves as a real maker of products. In March 2025 we will finally complete the installation of full-scale equipment. With full scale production with advanced systems for logistics, we have realized my dream of becoming a proper manufacturing company. If I compare 2025 with the first year of our company, the value has changed dramatically. This year marks our first start as a real manufacturer.

From our understanding, your Takatsuki Core Center will enhance your production, R&D, and logistics capabilities. How will this shape your global strategy and market positioning for the future? 

Basically, what we are aiming at remains unchanged. Consumers want a versatile cleaning agent that they only need to purchase one of and use for all purposes because if they need a few agents that would be costly. This tendency lasted for a long time, but fortunately now, the mindset has changed, and consumers understand to some extent that different situations require different cleaning agents. Each cleaning agent is uniquely tailored to a particular application. However, in order to meet that requirement you need to pursue smaller lots and a larger portfolio of different products. Large scale companies don’t want to pursue this, but we are happy to take those orders. I liken our company to a yacht, a speedy boat that is able to make tight sudden adjustments much easier than a larger vessel like a ferry. We want to swiftly move towards our customers’ requests to keep up with current trends. This approach remains unchanged, even in a global market.

This business is really mysterious. The best solutions can only be found by humans. In this field, despite the advancements in AI or robotics, human 'five senses' remain even more essential.  That is the area we are pursuing. Our technology is actually rather primitive compared to other areas, but I think we have chosen a very good market for this business.  As a company we will continue to listen to the demands of both domestic and international customers and find them relevant solutions.

Takatsuki Core Center

From our understanding, we saw that your company is moving into new markets including precision equipment, heavy machinery, and printing. How is Clean Chemical adapting its solutions to meet the needs of these segments in the future?

There are a lot of different cleaning agents, so in that context we are now looking at three new key markets for our business. Some of them are close to medical but others are close to industrial. Whatever the market, however, we always aim for the same goal; to develop a cleaning agent that has high value and can only be produced by Clean Chemical. Therefore, it is very important to find the needs of customers in these markets. Since we are now a larger corporation, we now face more competition, and if we focus purely on price competition, we will surely lose. We need to stick to our philosophy and remain agile. Since we have such talented young staff here at Clean Chemical, we need to leverage that talent to come up with strategies to tackle the market.

There are many that say that a company is like a human, a living and breathing thing, and I really believe this is true. We actually recently hired some fourth-generation employees to our company, bringing some youthful energy to our operations. These young workers have different goals and talents than people of my generation. Some want to learn English, while others want to build up a skill base with certain technologies. We are supporting these young talented individuals in all of their pursuits, since we understand that their growth will lead to company growth.

In 2024 we established the Group of Universe, an eight-member group within the company that has a lot of curiosity and ambitions. We are too bogged down by position, gender, or any other characteristics, instead, we want them to just have free conversations because these will be the leaders of our company in future generations.

Clean Chemical has ISO IEC 17025-2017 which is the global benchmark for laboratory testing accreditation. It is our understanding that earning this certification is incredibly demanding, requiring strict quality control and full compliance with international testing protocols. For hospitals and medical manufacturers, it guarantees them that your products meet the highest global standards for safety and effectiveness. Despite its significance, only a few institutions in Japan have achieved ISO/IEC 17025 certification for cleaning medical instruments. Your company holds this certification. What challenges did you face when applying for this certification? Since no other institution in Japan or Asia-Pacific holds it, what opportunities does it present for your company?  

Back in 2017 we had a partnership with a company called Intuitive Surgical in the United States, which specializes in surgery assisting robots. We provided them with agents for cleaning but that company told us that it would be better if we were ISO IEC 17025-2017 since the results of cleaning would be more credible. This was the catalyst for us to pursue this certification.

The certification helped raise our credibility, particularly on a global scale. There are a lot of medical equipment makers both in Japan and overseas, so to be competitive in this field we require ISO IEC 17025-2017 certification. Based on this certification, we would like to expand our customer base to a lot of markets globally including Asia.

Asia in particular is experiencing massive growth in medtech, and last year when we interviewed you, your company emphasised the importance of Asia-Pacific to your business. Can you tell us the progress you’ve made since last year?

Over the past few years, the global situation has changed significantly, making it very difficult to approach that market, and we have yet to make much progress. However, we are continuing our efforts to expand into the Asian region.

When entering an overseas market, we don’t just want to bring good products, rather, we want to sell our technology to overseas makers, creating a collaboration with those overseas makers. We are fortunate that through OEM, our products are already present in many overseas markets.

Imagine that we come back in 2030 and have this interview again. What goals or dreams do you hope to achieve by then?

I think Japan is a wonderful nation and we want to be one of shining examples of Japanese companies to come from this wonderful nation, representing our country as a cleaning agent manufacturer. By the time 2030 rolls around, I will be 90 years old, so I hope that by then I will have passed the baton onto the next generation of Clean Chemical executives. I hope that the next generation will continue the great spirit of our company.

For more information, please visit their website at: http://www.cleanchemical.co.jp/en/

To read more about Clean Chemical, check out this article about them.