2025 Japan Food & Food Additives Industry Field Research

Visit highlights: merchandise display and visual merchandising (lighting, arrangement, label design), pricing strategy (the premium logic behind high-end fruits such as Shizuoka melon and Shine Muscat), fruit museum and gallery, and meticulous service details. Key learning: value creation (how storytelling — origin stories, cultivation techniques — drives product premiums); customer experience (how tasting services and customized packaging, such as gift boxes, convert browsers into buyers). Founded in 1834, Sembikiya began as a fruit discount store and grew into Japan's most prestigious luxury fruit retailer.

The food hall of Ginza Mitsukoshi represents the pinnacle of Tokyo's premium retail food experience. Themed around conveying the value of "love," it offers seasonal ingredients and gourmet products, targeting an affluent local and international clientele through a "premium, experiential" retail approach. It showcases renowned and trending brands from across Japan. Three core features: curated selection (only acclaimed brands, heritage shops, or exclusive items); dynamic thematic display (adjusted seasonally, by festival, and by regional theme); and a tasting culture (virtually every counter offers samples to stimulate purchase). Ginza Mitsukoshi's food hall is a masterclass in "product excellence + experiential appeal + data-driven operations."

Tokyo Station's food retail is a must-study model of transportation hub commerce for food industry operators. As one of Japan's largest transport hubs with over 500,000 daily passengers, its food offering centers on "convenience + regional character + premium gifting." The three main zones are: GRANSTA (underground commercial street featuring bento, sweets, and souvenirs); Tokyo Station Ichiban-gai (anime IP collaborative food products and regional specialty stores); and in-station convenience stores (e.g., NewDays, for high-frequency everyday items). The essence of Tokyo Station food retail lies in "precise scenario matching" — commuters buy bento, tourists buy gifts, IP fans buy collaboration items.

Japan is one of the world's most advanced retail nations. Its supermarkets (AEON, Ito-Yokado) and convenience store chains (FamilyMart, Lawson, 7-Eleven) set global benchmarks in precision operations, product development, and supply chain management. They represent "ultimate efficiency + precise demand matching." Food industry operators can study high-turnover, low-waste supply chain management; innovative fresh food development and membership marketing; and optimized merchandise display and customer experience to improve repeat purchase rates. Visit highlights include: merchandise mix and selection strategy (layered precise positioning, regional assortment), fresh food supply chain (multiple daily deliveries, waste rate control), and private label development (e.g., 7-Eleven's "Seven Premium" series).

The Akagi Nyugyo Honjo Senbonzakura "5S" Factory in Saitama is Japan's largest ice cream production facility, with a maximum processing capacity of approximately 80,000 kl per year — around 10% of Japan's total ice cream production. Completed on February 13, 2010, it produces and sells frozen confectionery, ice bars, and general foods. Akagi Nyugyo upholds the philosophy of "see it, appreciate it, be captivated by it," offering visitors a tour of the production floor, including a view through a glass partition of in-room quality inspection activities. The "5S" standard refers to Seiri (sort), Seiton (set in order), Seiso (shine), Seiketsu (standardize), and Shitsuke (sustain).

Ezaki Glico is a century-old Japanese food giant renowned for innovation and global strategy, with its flagship product Pocky selling over 1 billion boxes per year. Since 1922, Glico has continuously launched original products beloved by consumers nationwide. Beyond snacks, the company has expanded into ice cream, yogurt and dairy, beverages, European-style confectionery, infant formula, processed foods, health products, retail and office mail order, and food ingredient businesses — active across 10 business domains. Core strengths include technological innovation (e.g., Pocky's precision coating process and automated production), precise market positioning, and deep brand culture.

Saitama Factory visit highlights: chocolate coating process (temperature control, uniformity); packaging automation (high-speed assembly line, foreign object detection). Key learning: product innovation (the logic behind regional Pocky variants); brand marketing (how advertising and IP collaborations sustain a young audience). Chiba Factory visit highlights: production management in ultra-low temperature environments (worker cold-weather measures); ice cream overrun rate and texture testing. Key learning: experiential marketing (how factory tours convert into brand loyalty, e.g., children's interactive zones); the management philosophy behind a century-old enterprise.