モデル事例 - CJPF | Cool Japan Public-Private Partnership Platform

Kita-Kanto

11 Toraya—Aiming for the Future as an Establishment Steeped in History and Tradition

#Ryotei & Restaurants
#Producers
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Agriculture
#Overseas Expansion

Since its founding in the late Muromachi period about 500 years ago, confection manufacturer Toraya has continued to carry forward the history and culture of wagashi—or traditional Japanese confections—and today is an established name both in Japan and abroad. Toraya became a purveyor to the Imperial Court during the reign of Emperor Go-Yozei (1586–1611), and for centuries has catered to the needs of its patrons. The company has also continued to develop new wagashi for overseas markets and to further extend the reach of its delicious flavors and unique charms. With the aim of taking over Toraya, Mitsuharu Kurokawa, the 18th and current head of the company, crossed over to study in the US while still at high school, and followed this up by accumulating vast experience in a range of settings, including wagashi production sites, the company’s boutique in Paris, and external roles in foreign trade. Here we speak to Kurokawa, who assumed the role of president in 2020, about the company’s management philosophy— to share the pleasures of traditional Japanese sweets（wagashi ）—maintaining traditions as a long-established store, his forward-looking strategies for the future, and various other initiatives.

#Ryotei & Restaurants
#Producers
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Agriculture
#Overseas Expansion

Overseas

10 Developing a Dried Sweet Potato Export Business in Africa

#Producers
#Technology
#Japanese Food Culture
#Overseas Expansion

Recently, dried sweet potatoes have again grown in popularity for their simple, delicious taste and their benefits as a health food. With a history that can be traced back to the Edo period, techniques for the production of dried sweet potatoes have existed for around 200 years. Matoborwa, a company established in Tanzania in East Africa, is currently hard at work to create a new dried sweet potato export business. It is doing so with support from Terunuma, a long-standing sweet potato store from Ibaraki Prefecture. Key to the project’s success is the introduction of the Tamayutaka sweet potato variety from Japan—optimally suited to the production of dried sweet potatoes—and the creation of a collaborative cultivation system with local contracted farmers. Despite the long distance between Japan and Tanzania and their two varying dried sweet potato cultures, both are working together to launch a new business. Below, we hear from Matoborwa representative Tatsuo Hasegawa about agribusinesses and food processing businesses in Africa, the background to this new venture, and its future possibilities.

#Producers
#Technology
#Japanese Food Culture
#Overseas Expansion

Minami-Kanto

8 Hand down the process of soy sauce from each region worldwide

#Producers
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Japanese Food Culture
#Overseas Expansion
#Fermentation

Founded in 1854. The wooden tub that has been used for 170 years since the Edo period has kept the traditional soy sauce brewing made in the wooden tub over time. While inheriting the tradition, Kyosuke Iida, the current president, is constantly making new efforts. Currently, there are about 1150 soy sauce makers in Japan. Six major companies account for about 60% of sales, followed by nine second-tier companies, which are the top 15 companies, accounting for about 75% of the oligopoly industry. President Iida had a strong sense of crisis that we would not grow if we were doing the same things as major and second-tier companies. As one of the breakthrough measures, we have taken on the challenge of full-scale overseas expansion business since the 1960s.

#Producers
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Japanese Food Culture
#Overseas Expansion
#Fermentation

Kita-Kanto

7 Become a Kurabito. Enhancing the Value of Japanese Sake through a New Form of Sake Brewery Tourism

#Lodging/Hotels
#Producers
#City Planning
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Experience
#Overseas Expansion
#Sake
#Community Revitalization

KURABITO STAY and Kitsukura Shuzo have teamed up to offer a completely new sake tourism program within the grounds of a 330-year-old sake brewery. This new program enables visitors to stay at a renovated, century-old lodging that was used by former kurabito, or sake brewers, at the Kitsukura Shuzo sake brewery in Saku, Nagano Prefecture. In addition to enjoying locally produced sake and delicious local dishes during their stay, guests can take part in the sake brewing process. It is an activity that fans of Japanese sake will want to experience at least once. Held on weekends only, since its launch in March 2020, the special program has been so popular among guests that some have even come back for more. KURABITO STAY, Inc. is the company responsible for developing and running the program. President Marika Tazawa’s aim is to boost sake-related tourism, engage in new branding activities for sake breweries, and promote tourism that brings joy to everyone involved.

#Lodging/Hotels
#Producers
#City Planning
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Experience
#Overseas Expansion
#Sake
#Community Revitalization

Kita-Kanto

6 Year-long Grape Production in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to Transform Japanese Agriculture and Create New Lifestyles

#Producers
#Technology
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese Food Culture
#Experience
#Overseas Expansion
#Community Revitalization

Japanese fruits are world-renowned for their high quality. Behind the scenes, however, the fruit industry in Japan is facing numerous challenges, such as the aging and ensuing decline in number of producers and the rise in competition with other countries. GREENCOLLAR, an in-house venture company from Mitsui Fudosan, was established in 2019 as part of Mitsui Fudosan group’s new business proposal system, MAG!C. GREENCOLLAR’s business is to cultivate Japanese table grapes in Japan and New Zealand, two countries with opposite seasons, and to sell them around the world. In addition to tackling social challenges through its business, GREENCOLLAR is proposing a completely new lifestyle that is neither white collar nor blue collar, but “green collar”.

#Producers
#Technology
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese Food Culture
#Experience
#Overseas Expansion
#Community Revitalization

Kita-Kanto

5 Local Tochigi Culture and Ingredients at The Ritz-Carlton, Nikko

#Ryotei & Restaurants
#Lodging/Hotels
#Producers
#Gastronomy and Culinary
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Japanese Food Culture
#Local production for local consumption
#Experience
#Community Revitalization

The Ritz-Carlton, Nikko opened in July 2020 on the shores of Lake Chuzenji in Okunikko. The luxury hotel sits in an area that is home to the shrines and temples of the Nikko area—where also have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site—abundant natural surroundings, rich culture, and ancient history and tradition. Today, it has grown into one of Japan’s leading and often fully-booked hotels. Interestingly, Okunikko in Tochigi Prefecture is recognized to be Japan’s oldest holiday resort, and is now host to a cutting-edge facility in The Ritz-Carlton, Nikko. In addition to its globally acclaimed level of service, the hotel has garnered attention for the thorough harmony and coexistence it has sought to achieve with the area through the creation of business ecosystem, be it in the food, guest activities, or the interior design and finer details.

#Ryotei & Restaurants
#Lodging/Hotels
#Producers
#Gastronomy and Culinary
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Japanese Food Culture
#Local production for local consumption
#Experience
#Community Revitalization

Innovation Meets History at Wataya Besso

Kyushu

3 Innovation Meets History at Wataya Besso

#Lodging/Hotels
#Producers
#City Planning
#Gastronomy and Culinary
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Japanese Food Culture
#Local production for local consumption
#Experience
#Community Revitalization

Straddling the Shiota River in Ureshino, Saga Prefecture, the Wataya Besso hotel complex spreads across the 66,000-square-meter property to offer several hot spring baths, restaurants, and a large number of luxurious guest rooms. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, long-established onsen ryokan (traditional hot-spring inns) across Japan had been struggling to survive changes in society and people’s tastes. Faced with these challenges, Wataya Besso’s industry-leading initiatives are gaining attention. We talked with CEO Yoshimoto Kohara, the visionary behind innovative projects which extend beyond normal ryokan operations, including a new workcation office program that integrates all the best aspects of the ryokan, and an initiative in which the hotel serves as a hub for promoting the charm of the local area.

#Lodging/Hotels
#Producers
#City Planning
#Gastronomy and Culinary
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Japanese Food Culture
#Local production for local consumption
#Experience
#Community Revitalization

Hokuriku

2 Brewing the Future of Sake

#Producers
#City Planning
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Overseas Expansion
#Fermentation
#Public-private partnerships and collaborations
#Sake
#Community Revitalization

“If we let ourselves be too restricted by the perceived value of traditions worth preserving, we will be unable to move forward, and we will remain stagnant,” says Ryuichiro Masuda, the fifth head of Masuda Sake Brewery in Toyama Prefecture. Masuda is also a collaborator in the groundbreaking IWA sake project founded by Richard Geoffroy, who served as the fifth chef de cave (cellar master) of Dom Pérignon. Sake has a history of over a thousand years, but Masuda believes that the industry suffers from “a lack of branding power and strategy.” His business philosophy of “Do what needs to be done right now” has guided his efforts in big projects now coming to fruition: the IWA project, which is breathing a fresh sense of value into sake, and a town revival project to attract artists, breweries, and exciting new shops to the beautiful old neighborhood of Iwase, where he grew up, in the city of Toyama.

#Producers
#City Planning
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese history and traditional culture
#Overseas Expansion
#Fermentation
#Public-private partnerships and collaborations
#Sake
#Community Revitalization

Developing the Potential of Japan’s Satoyama Culture

Minami-Kanto

1 Developing the Potential of Japan’s Satoyama Culture

#Ryotei & Restaurants
#Producers
#Gastronomy and Culinary
#Japanese Nature
#Japanese Food Culture

Yoshihiro Narisawa, the owner-chef of restaurant NARISAWA in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, is one of Japan’s world-class chefs and an artist dedicated to crafting a variety of innovative food creations. For more than 20 years, Narisawa has been focused on the culture found in rural foothill villages of Japan, called satoyama culture, where people coexist closely with nature. He explores the rich food culture and the ancestral wisdom passed down there, and expresses it through his uniquely creative cooking style—establishing a new genre he calls “innovative satoyama cuisine.” His work demonstrates his philosophy of “beneficial and sustainable gastronomy,” environmentally-conscious gourmet dining that shows respect for nature while nourishing body and mind. Narisawa shows his commitment to preserving satoyama culture through his activities in Japan and around the world, and by sharing his message, as he continues to search for the ideal future of food culture.