It's Time to Eat

For eleven consecutive years, food-related exports have registered record-breaking numbers, reaching JPY 1.45 trillion in 2023. This trend is also being reflected on a global scale, with the number of Japanese restaurants overseas tripling from 55,000 in 2013 to nearly 200,000 today. How do you account for the continued rise in record-breaking levels of Japanese food exports, as well as the growth and popularity of Japanese cuisine in recent years?

Speaking of Japanese food culture, I think it’s unique and intricate, and the uncompromising craftsmanship contributes to its high quality. That is based on the attention to detail and meticulousness.

Due to climate change, things have been changing, but Japan traditionally has a very clear distinction between four different seasons, which created a rich nature. That has contributed to the growth of high-quality food like vegetables and seafood. That was the foundation of Japanese food culture, and the essence of Japanese food culture is to make the most of the good quality and the good taste of the ingredients.

In its nature, due to this rich environment and the ingredients that it generated, Japanese food already had diversity in its food culture. It started with authentic sushi, and udon. Those are considered to be fast food in Japan, but because of its rich nature and quality, this food has attracted foreign consumers.

Over the next fifteen years, Japan expects significant demographic shifts characterized by both an aging and declining population. This will cause both a labor shortage and a shrinking domestic market. Can you talk about some challenges and the opportunities this creates for your company?

Regarding the labor shortage and how it may affect our production, compared to other food manufacturers, we don't automate that much. Our basic policy for manufacturing is to spend time and effort to make delicious food, so there are many processes that require human intervention rather than fully automating them. Therefore, this shrinking population issue will directly affect our business operations.

It’s very interesting that you are less automated than other food companies because you spend time and effort making delicious food. Could you give a few examples of how less automation helps to create delicious food?

This is the key differentiating factor between our products and those of other manufacturers’ food products. In our manufacturing operation, we have many steps and processes that require human intervention, and those are things that cannot be replaced by robots.

For example, we have a soy-based sauce that is used to make soup for udon noodles and other things, and the key ingredient is the dashi or broth. Other manufacturers simply purchase extract for the dashi and dilute it with water, but we don’t do that. We actually use ingredients like bonito flakes and boil them in a big pot to make the dashi ourselves. Another example is our chili oil (Karasoude karakunai sukoshikarai ra-yu). For that, we extract and simmer hot peppers within our factory rather than purchase them from suppliers. The same is true for fried garlic, which we fry within our factories. We cherry-pick the key ingredients by ourselves and we make the raw flavor with them with our in-house facilities and workforce.

Zasai product

It can take two years to manufacture our Zasai product, including harvesting, natural drying, and a three-step fermentation process, one step of which takes more than a year by itself. We are the only company that puts in this kind of time and effort, and this level of tireless effort with uncompromising steps ensures the high quality of our products. We have a strict standard operating procedure in our manufacturing process and the priority is always quality. Of course, efficiency is also important, so we try to automate as much as possible. However, we never compromise our quality.

Of course, it’s important to secure the headcount in our manufacturing process while we face a labor shortage in Japan. However, it’s also important for us to pass on the craftsmanship to the next generation of workers. We also have a plant in China, and they follow our principle of putting the highest priority on quality, so if we do not have enough workers in Japan in the future, then the option may be to go abroad.

Your products like the Gohan desu yo! lines are very popular in Japan, but you also sell to other countries, including the United States and China. Can you talk about the success in selling your products outside of Japan and what you are doing to achieve that success?

Gohan desu yo! product

Our top-selling product outside of Japan is in the US and Europe, but the highest growth rate is in Europe. The kimchi base product in particular is very popular overseas. A typical recipe is a sushi roll with marinated tuna, which is especially popular on the West Coast. A spicy tuna sushi roll is popular in Europe and is sold as ready-made food in supermarket chains there.

Is there anything you’re doing to your products to cater to different tastes around the world?

We export the portfolio of products we have in Japan as they are, so no, we currently do not localize our flavor. However, when I visited Spain recently, there was many of restaurants I witnessed. One in particular caught my eye and I saw a Spanish chef using our kimchi base for their sauce, mixing it with mayonnaise. I believe Spain has a more traditional food culture, but that chef is using our product to come up with a new taste and flavor.

Is local collaboration with chefs to integrate your products into local dishes and reinterpret your traditional Japanese or Chinese foods something you’d like to pursue further?

We have a recipe book for using our products, and we want to use it to help promote our products in overseas markets.

Are Europe and the United States the main regions you are targeting, or are you targeting any other regions around the world?

In Western nations, Kikkoman soy sauce has been very successful, so that’s a good test case for us. If we put in the time and effort to manufacture a high-quality product, it’s easier to cover the cost of doing so in Western nations like the US and Europe, whereas East Asia nations expect inexpensive products; their consumers are price sensitive. We see the possibility in Asian countries in the future if the GDP per capita improves.

One of the interesting things your company specializes in is spicy products, including your kimchi base and your spicy chili oil. One of your standout creations is the delicious Pepper sauce, a unique Japanese condiment developed through years of accumulated research. This sauce combines the Japanese hawk’s claw pepper with the Western habanero, blended with apples, vegetables, and a carefully selected mix of other ingredients. What are your strengths that allow you to create spicy food products like this?

There are different flavors like umami sweetness and spiciness, and among the spicy seasonings, I think the most popular ones are Tabasco and mustard. In Western culture, there are also hot peppers, but I believe Tabasco and mustard are the two major spicy condiments. With this in mind, we tried to pursue unique Japanese spicy seasonings, mixing umami and spicy tastes.

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to promote environmental sustainability, which sets a long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, a commitment to which Japan actively contributes. Momoya also supports sustainability through its own initiatives, such as recycling glass bottles. What is the motivation behind the recycling initiative, and what other steps are being taken towards environmental sustainability within your company?

About 75% of our products use recyclable glass so that we can avoid plastic waste. In that sense, we believe we are contributing to sustainability goals. In many cases, like our Gohan desu yo! line, if it’s only used as a topping for rice, it’s difficult to consume everything before the best-used date, so some become waste and food loss. To help reduce this food loss, we offer different recipes for how to use our product as more than just a topping. The product warning says that after opening the product, it should be consumed within two weeks, but it’s difficult to consume everything in that time if just using it as a topping, so that’s why we want to expand its uses to reduce food waste.

Partnerships play an important role in the food industry, whether it’s finding local distributors to help drive sales and open new markets or seeking new producers to diversify the supply chain. One of your notable recent collaborations is with Lawson. Can you talk about any partnerships you’re seeing on the international stage?

We often receive offers for collaboration from other companies, so in the domestic market, we have a lot of collaborations. In the future, it’s possible that we could collaborate with international partners.

Returning to the topic of international opportunities, you have overseas operations in China, and you export products throughout the world. Can you talk about some of the specific countries and specific regions you’re targeting? And what are some of your strategies for marketing your products in these specific regions?

We will mainly continue to target the US and Europe. We still see room to grow in those markets since we have only tapped into a small portion of them. I already mentioned our recipe book, which has about 450 different recipes, so I would like to seek collaboration opportunities with local chefs to use these recipes.

You might have heard about the Don Quixote chain of discount stores. Many inbound tourists go to Don Quixote as part of their vacation, and many of them, especially people from South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, buy our chili oil (Karasoude karakunai sukoshikarai ra-yu) there. Sometimes, they buy ten or more units as souvenirs to give to their friends, so maybe we will see further opportunities related to this.

Your company will celebrate its 110th anniversary in 2030. Please imagine that we will come back to interview you again then. What would you like to have achieved as the president by that point?

What we’re trying to focus on is promoting the diverse use of our condiments, not just their use as a food topping. We want our products to be used as condiments and as seasonings for cooking. Many customers simply use some of our products as toppings, so based on typical user perceptions, the value that they understand of our products is very limited. Our products can be used for different cooking applications, like soup and pasta and others, so we believe the value of our product can increase five or even ten times.

We did a survey of 30,000 users to understand how they’re using our products and how much brand loyalty they have, and we found that those who use our products for their cooking have much stronger brand loyalty because they understand the true value of our products. In contrast, those who only use our products as toppings have less brand loyalty. The key point we want to make known is that you can use only our condiments for seasoning and to add flavor with no need to use any other condiments. You can enjoy a good cooking experience with delicious food using only one of our products, so which provides assurance and convenience.

Even before cooking, our products have been prepared with time and effort, so for any cooking that requires time and effort to do well, our part of the process has already been done. That’s our unique strength and what sets us apart from others.

For more information, visit their website at: https://www.momoya.co.jp/corporate/