Day04-Tokyo:KIKKOMAN

We take our first plant in KIKKOMAN soy sauce company. Soy sauce is necessary seasoning in Asian food culture, which was used in everyday meal in my family. KIKKOMAN is the only soy sauce I use to cook in America because I have not yet found the actually Chinese soy sauce in East Lansing. It is amazing for me how a little bottle of KIKKOMAN soy sauce becomes more and more popular in the world. Which then made me think how Japanese soy sauces became so popular in the world, but Chinese soy sauces did not. By considering these questions, my objectives of this plant tour are clear.

In the morning, we arrived in the factory of KIKKOMAN and managers very welcoming for us. First of all, there was a presentation for us which introduced the history of soy sauce. KIKKOMAN was found in the 17th century in Tokyo. The soy sauce was accepted by western people with the internalization of Sushi. As intergradient of Japanese dishes, people eat sushi with soy sauce. Obviously, prevalence of Sushi is one of important factors leading popularity of soy sauces. KIKKOMAN, the most popular soy sauce in the world, not only did they focus on growth of firm, but also the development of Japaneses food industry. Although soy sauce is a little part of intergradient in cooking, KIKKOMAN make a great contribution in promotion of Japanese food in the world. If more and more people accept soy sauces in the world, the revenue of firm then will increase. This is why KIKKOMAN engages in promoting food culture of Japan in the world. Japanese companies always think the development of firms in long term, which brings great differences from Chinese companies. Every firm should make contribution for their industries.

Soy sauce is made by ingredients of soybeans, salt, wheat and water. After 4 different steps of soy sauces making: Shoy koji culturing, fermentation, pressing and boiling, soy sauces are brought into market. After purchasing the soybeans from distributions in Japan, fermentation process will happen under the monitor by computer system. The temperature and humanity in fermentation are controlled by computer. These soybeans are storage in 40,300 gallons tanks and the whole process of fermentation requires 6 months. The following steps are pressing and boiling.

After lunch, we went to the headquarter of KIKKOMAN for presentation of supply chain management. Beside the research on soy sauces, KIKKOMAN also emphasize innovation in supply chain management. For example, it condenses down 5 distribution center and set up 40 transfer center, which reduce the cost of logistics. The innovation on logistic management may be an important reason why Japanese companies are highly competitive in the world. They minimize their cost by using advanced supply chain management.