Message Asahimatsu Foods President and Representative Director Hirotaka Kinoshita

Asahimatsu Foods has aimed since its founding in 1950 to contribute to society through food with the management principles of “Quality first”, “Employee participation” and “Individual challenges”. Following the addition of washoku—Japanese cuisine—to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013, its importance is being re-evaluated. As such, it is important to continue protecting the value of soybeans, the main ingredient of Kori-tofu, as a central element of washoku.

We think that a global perspective beyond Japan will be required for the future development of Kori-tofu products. Towards that, Asahimatsu Foods needs to continue making the same tasty Kori-tofu. We also think that research focused on the health component of our products is important. For example, in order to answer the needs of our consumers, we rethought the manufacturing process of our Kori-tofu after almost 40 years and were able to achieve a lower salt-content product by replacing sodium bicarbonate with potassium carbonate. Asahimatsu Foods is now focusing its efforts on the process of compiling its research results on Kori-tofu in order to transmit this information worldwide. A new health benefit of Kori-tofu has been discovered, revealing that it has lowering effects on Haemoglobin A1c—the index for diabetes.

There is seriousness and perseverance at Asahimatsu Foods, as we have been diligently researching the health value of Kori-tofu for 40 years. We will continue our experiments in pursuit of additional effects and benefits of our products in order to increase the number of Kori-tofu fans and offer a helping hand through our food to support of our consumers' health.