Business
From purchasing at the source
to selling on the ground.
We handle Japanese products from purchase in the producing region, through export, to sale in the destination market. We also support production and invest in the businesses that carry a product from the growing region to the point of sale.
Our view
Returning the value of the Japanese name to the regions that earn it
Across Southeast Asia, the Japanese name is already established. A few characters of Japanese on a package are enough to signal quality and good taste. Pick the product up, however, and much of it turns out to have been made in China. Our president saw this at first hand while working in Vietnam and Malaysia and travelling the region.
Matcha is going the same way. Demand is growing quickly, and in Southeast Asia in particular a great deal of what sells under the name is a cheaper product from outside Japan. In the volume-driven foodservice market, price alone is steadily displacing Japanese origin, and large-scale production is being built out in China and elsewhere year after year.
Japanese food has become a culture in these markets, and yet most of the value it creates goes to those who have moved faster in production and in trade. The quality and reputation that Japan's producing regions have built over generations are being worn down in a competition decided on price alone. This is a situation we view with real concern.
With the yen where it is, we see an opportunity for Japan's producing regions to send good products out into the world and be properly paid for them. Delivering Japanese products to overseas shop floors with their origin and grade stated, and continuing to buy on terms that leave a margin in the region, is in our view how these products will survive. That is why we handle every step from purchase through to sale ourselves.
The stages we work in
Producing region
We buy from tea farms and tencha processing plants.
Processing
We support processing and manufacturing plants in improving their operations.
Export
We handle customs clearance and shipping arrangements.
Sale
We deliver to customers directly through our own outlets.
We are engaged as a business in all four of these stages.
Six lines of business
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01
Export
We purchase goods and export them on our own account. Documentation, customs clearance and shipping arrangements are handled in house.
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02
Export agency
We negotiate with overseas buyers and handle export procedures on behalf of producers, working through the arrangements an overseas transaction requires alongside them.
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03
Production support
We help processing and manufacturing plants improve their operations, including adapting their processes to the standards and applications of the destination market.
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04
Retail and food service
We operate our own outlets in the markets we serve. The first is a matcha café in Da Nang, Vietnam.
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05
Business investment
We invest in the companies that carry a product from the growing region to the point of sale, contributing people, capital and the experience we have built up, rather than a trading relationship alone.
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06
Operational improvement through technology
We build the systems behind ordering, inventory management and overseas sales. Work that has been done by hand is replaced with systems, with artificial intelligence applied where it helps, to lighten the daily workload.
This is carried out as a joint business with NativeAI Inc.
More on this service (in Japanese)
Markets
From Vietnam to Southeast Asia
Vietnam is our first market. Our group has a subsidiary there in another line of business, and our president has worked in the country for many years. Our familiarity with local commercial practice and with the people we work alongside is why we began here.
We entered Vietnam in the first place because its ties with Japan continue to deepen and because its economy is still on the way up. Both the receptiveness to Japanese products and the purchasing power to come are present in this market.
Within Vietnam we chose Da Nang for our first outlet. A port city on the central coast with an international airport and a long stretch of coastline, Da Nang is emerging as an international tourism destination and is among the fastest developing areas in Southeast Asia.
Other countries in Southeast Asia will follow. Alongside delivering good Japanese products, our purpose is to carry Japanese culture itself through them.
Contact
We would be glad to hear from you
We welcome enquiries about purchasing, sales and any other matter. Please feel free to get in touch.
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