Business Outline

The Takara Group aims to increase its corporate value globally providing safe and reliable products and services backed by our technology, and contributing to medical progress and enriching the lives of people around the world.

Takara Holdings Inc. has authority over Takara Shuzo, which handles the Alcoholic Beverages Business and Seasonings Business in Japan, the Takara Shuzo International Group, which operates the Japanese Food Wholesale Business and the Alcoholic Beverages Business in overseas markets, and the Takara Bio Group, which promotes the Biomedical Business, and maximizes its business results by coordinating and controlling the management of all Group companies under its umbrella.

The history of the Takara Group’s core Alcoholic Beverages and Seasonings Business goes back to 1842. We have been providing for more than 170 years a wide variety of products underpinned by our creative and proven technology responding to the values and tastes of consumers. As one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of traditional Japanese alcoholic beverages and seasonings such as sake, shochu, or Hon mirin, we have built up our balanced product portfolio generated by our unique development capabilities of new technologies with the stable production system.

Proprietary brewing and storage technologies garnered over many years have enabled Takara Shuzo to contribute to the development of the shochu market through the pursuit of shochu products that satisfy changing consumer preferences and continually creating markets for shochu.
        For ko-type shochu, Takara Shuzo has built the largest share of the market based on brands of unique quality and flavor, including the traditional and reassuring No.1 ko-type shochu brand Takara Shochu. This brand includes Takara Shochu NIPPON, mixed with 3% of cherry barrel aged shochu, and Takara Shochu Jun, which continues to be an enduring seller more than 40 years after its launch. Moreover, in the honkaku shochu market, Takara Shuzo has launched and nurtured a range of unique shochu products for the discerning palate, particularly Ikkomon, which stresses its 100% sweet-potato-base and Shirashinken barley shochu, which accentuates the rich flavor of barley, as well as original products that use unique technology like Yokaichi, which is tailored for those who wish to enjoy shochu casually with their evening meal.

As the sake for celebrations, Sho Chiku Bai has become the foremost brand in the special occasion and gift sake market.
      Also, Takara Shuzo produces such quality sake as the new-concept sparkling sake Sho Chiku Bai Shirakabegura Mio and Sho Chiku Bai Shirakabegura Kimoto Junmai at a specially built facility.  Completed in 2001, the Shirakabegura Brewery combines leading-edge facilities that recreate traditional, artisan-inspired brewing techniques and sake brewing done by hand in order to comprehensively pursue what is truly authentic sake. In 2011, we launched Sho Chiku Bai Ten, which has a clean and dry feel from a two-stage brewing process utilizing two different strains of yeast, in a new pouch-pack container. We satisfy diverse customer needs. In the restaurant and bar market, Sho Chiku Bai Gokai enjoys strong customer endorsement. Going forward, we will continue to propose new products with a commitment to the workmanship and ingredients involved in Sho Chiku Bai.

Many people love the unique taste of products backed by our proven technology such as Takara Shochu High Ball, with its distinctively dry flavor that remains a favorite in the neighborhood bars of downtown Tokyo, and Takara Can Chu-Hi, Japan’s first canned chu-hi product that has been on the market for over 30 years since making its powerful debut in 1984.
      Moreover, we will continue to develop and nurture products that deliver delicious new value to customers such as the Takara Zero Jitate, Kajitsu na Kire which is an industry first chu-hi using fruit juice to achieve five zeros (zero carbs, zero purines, zero added sweeteners, zero aromatics, and zero coloring).

Aiming to provide delicious food through products derived from traditional sake brewing techniques, Takara Shuzo offers a wide range of alcohol-based seasonings that render dishes more delicious
and enrich meal times. These seasonings include Takara Hon Mirin, which as a leading brand has continually evolved in tandem with Japanese cuisine, and Ryori-no-Tame-no Seishu, a cooking sake
without added salt.
      In the food-processing market, for ready-prepared meals and processed food products Takara Shuzo offers a lineup of alcohol-based seasonings and soup stocks. Also, the company will continue to provide customers with solutions to diverse issues through food analysis, cooking research, and recipe development.

Takara Shuzo International Group operates the Japanese Food Wholesale Business in overseas markets, which sells Japanese food to Japanese restaurants and retail stores overseas, and the Overseas Alcoholic Beverage Business, which exports alcoholic beverages as well as manufacturing and selling them overseas amid the increasing popularity of Japanese food overseas in recent years brought about by rising health consciousness around the world and the registration of “Washoku” as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

FOODEX S.A.S. (France), Tazaki Foods Ltd. (U.K.), Cominport Distribución S.L. (Spain), and Keta Foods, Lda (Portugal) in Europe, Mutual Trading Co., Inc. in North America, and Nippon Food Supplies Company  Pty Ltd. in Australia have each been aggressively extending their respective businesses aiming at the expanding Japanese food market.

The business operates based on four companies, which are Takara Sake USA Inc., which manufactures and sells sake and mirin for the entire U.S. and in Europe, Takara Shuzo Foods Co., Ltd., which manufactures and sells sake, Hon Mirin, and shochu in China, Age International, Inc., which handles Blanton’s Bourbon whisky, and the Tomatin Distillery Co. Ltd., which manufactures and sells Scotch whisky.

The mission of the Takara Group’s Biomedical Business is to contribute to the health of humankind by developing revolutionary biomedical technologies such as gene therapy. The Takara Bio Group—whose role is to make this reality—is generating stable earnings from the Bioindustry Business, which forms the core of its technology base in addition to striving to develop the AgriBio Business as a secondary income business. We are working to achieve the early commercialization of gene therapies by investing the management  resources from these two businesses in the Gene Therapy Business.

This business supports life science research worldwide, in both the research support field and the CDMO business. The Group reflects market needs by developing and supplying research reagents and scientific instruments such as highly functional PCR enzymes and real-time PCR systems used for gene amplification, in addition to contract research services including next- generating sequencing and contract production services for iPS cells.

This business implements clinical development of gene therapies, primarily targeting cancer.

It is aiming for the early commercialization of oncolytic virus HF10 targeting malignant melanoma and pancreatic cancer, NY-ESO-1 siTCR gene therapy targeting synovial sarcoma, and CD19-CAR gene therapy targeting acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Takara Bio uses biotechnology to analyze the properties of food ingredients. It then uses the functionality of “fucoidan” derived from Gagome kombu (kelp), “isosamidin” derived from herb (Peucedanum japonicum) and other ingredients to develop and manufacture health food products.
Also, Takara Bio takes advantage of its technologies for large-scale cultivation of mushrooms in order to produce and sell Honshimeji and Hatakeshimeji among others.