The history of the Takara Group’s core alcoholic beverages and seasonings business goes back to 1842. For more than 160 years, it has been our mission to provide dependable products that are in tune with the changing times and diversifying customer tastes and values, and are backed by our ingenuity and proven technologies.

Takara Shuzo’s products span a broad range of categories, including shochu, sake, light-alcohol refreshers, wine, whisky, Chinese alcoholic beverages, seasonings and raw alcohol. It operates not only in Japan but also globally through subsidiaries in the United States, China and Scotland (UK).
( → Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. web site )

［ Shochu ］
Utilizing an extensive range of proprietary distillation and aging technologies that it has developed over many years, Takara Shuzo has helped foster the shochu market by pioneering new market segments and by striving to offer shochu products that meet the changing needs of customers. In the ko-type shochu category, the company has maintained the leading market share thanks to its lineup of high-quality brands. These include Takara Shochu Jun, a long-selling shochu that has been marketed for over 30 years, and Takara Shochu, the top shochu brand in Japan in terms of popularity thanks to its consistent quality and traditional appeal. Based on the company’s unique technologies,Takara Shuzo is also building a strong position in the honkaku shochu market by launching and nurturing a range of shochu products that offers superior quality, which are distilled from various ingredients. For example, Ikkomon is a 100% sweet-potato-based shochu, and Shirashinken is a honkaku barley shochu that accentuates a rich barley flavor.

［ Sake ］
The Sho-Chiku-Bai brand has built a strong position as a leading brand in the special occasion and gift sake market segment, with growth bolstered by its high-quality image as the “sake for celebrations.” In the soft-pack market, Sho-Chiku-Bai Ten has gained popularity among a large number of customers for its rich, clear flavor that is created by a two-step yeast fermentation process. We manufacture Sho-Chiku-Bai Shirakabe-gura Kimoto Junmai and other premium sake centering on the Shirakabe-gura Brewery located in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. Such products are manufactured through combining state-of-the-art facilities for recreating traditional, artisan-inspired brewing techniques and sake brewing done by hand. In the Company’s unrelenting quest for delicious, high-quality sake, we will remain faithful to the best ingredients and brewing methods as we strive to offer distinctive, superior-quality products to satisfy customers.

［ Light-Alcohol Refreshers ］
Takara Can Chu-Hi, Japan’s first canned chu-hi product, made its remarkable debut in 1984. Since then, it has led the canned chu-hi market as an era-defining product. Takara Can Chu-Hi has won strong customer support thanks to superior product quality that is achieved by carefully selecting shochu, fruit juice and water and then processing these using our proven technologies. The company continues to develop and foster a broad lineup of quality products to meet diverse customer tastes. These include Takara Can Chu-Hi Jika-Shibori, which captures delicious fruit flavors by using cloudy, not-from-concentrate fruit juices; Takara Shochu High Ball, which provides the distinctively dry chu-hi flavor that has long been popular in neighborhood bars in downtown Tokyo; and Oishii Chu-Hi, which features 50% fruit juice content and no added sugars.

［ Seasonings ］
Takara Shuzo produces a broad array of sake-based seasonings that enhance mealtimes based on the motto of “delicious food through the products derived from traditional sake brewing techniques.” Takara Hon Mirin has played an integral role in the evolution and development of Japan’s food culture as the leading brand of hon mirin. Ryori-no-Tame-no Seishu softens cooking odors and brings out rich flavors in dishes. For the growing home-meal replacement market, Takara Shuzo offers a lineup of seasoning products aimed at commercial customers, including our Kyo Takara brand. These sake-based seasonings and soup stocks are tailored to the needs of ready-prepared meal manufacturers and food processors. We also work with commercial customers in such areas as food analysis, alcohol-related cooking research and recipe development to find solutions to a diverse range of issues. We will continue to strive to meet the needs of all customers while supporting the creation of new value in the area of food preparation.

［ Overseas Activities ］
With the rise in popularity of Japanese cuisine around the world, our products, including Sho-Chiku-Bai sake, are now sold in more than 40 countries across Europe, the United States and Asia. Our global network comprises four main companies: Takara Sake USA Inc. produces and sells sake, hon mirin and other products for the U.S. and European markets; Age International Inc., of the United States, handles the Blanton’s label of bourbon whiskies; the Tomatin Distillery Co., Ltd., of Scotland, distills and sells Scotch whisky; and Chinese subsidiary Takara Shuzo Foods Co., Ltd. produces and sells sake, hon mirin and shochu. This network works to develop complementary strengths and an effective global marketing chain as we aggressively pursue our international business strategy.

The mission of the Takara Group’s biotechnology business is to contribute to the health of mankind by developing revolutionary biomedical technologies such as gene therapy. The gene medicines that spring from our biotechnology research are intended to protect the health and lives of human beings. To make this a reality, the Takara Bio Group is growing the Genetic engineering research segment that is the basis for both its technology and earnings. It is also fostering the AgriBio segment as a second source of steady income and working to commercialize gene therapies and cell therapies by investing resources in the Gene medicine segment.
( → Takara Bio Inc. web site ) 

［ Genetic Engineering Research ］
The Genetic engineering research segment manufactures and sells research reagents and scientific instruments used by biotechnology researchers around the world as well as provides contract research services to these researchers.

In the area of research reagents and scientific instruments, Takara Bio has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to the PCR method, which is widely used as a gene amplification method. It is continuing to develop and supply products worldwide that meet market needs, such as PCR enzymes that provide a high fidelity along with superior elongation and reliability as well as reverse transcriptases with superior elongation. In September 2005, Takara Bio acquired U.S.-based research reagent manufacturer Clontech Laboratories, Inc., thereby greatly expanding and enhancing its lineup of research reagents. Further, by transferring the production of Clontech’s products from the United States to China, Takara Bio is seeing the benefits in increased profitability due to an improvement in the cost of sales ratio.

Takara Bio’s extensive lineup of research reagents is manufactured by Takara Biotechnology (Dalian) Co., Ltd. By marketing these products not only in Japan but globally through the Takara Bio Group’s international network of subsidiaries, the group is striving to build a solid position in the global marketplace.

In the contract research services business, focusing on the Dragon Genomics Center, the Takara Bio Group provides comprehensive contract research services, handling not only genome sequencing analysis but also high-speed sequence analysis using next-generation technologies and gene expression analysis using DNA chips. The Takara Bio Group plans to continue rolling out new services in the future as it rapidly responds to fast-evolving technological advancement in the biomedical research field.

［ AgriBio ］
Takara Bio reexamines traditional Japanese food ingredients from a biotechnology perspective, analyzes their functionality and brings them to customers as health-oriented food products. It is also developing a business that takes advantage of technologies for the large-scale production of mushrooms that we have perfected over many years.

In the health food business, Takara Bio has been researching the bioactive properties of kombu (kelp) “fucoidan,” agar (vegetable gelatin) “agaoligo,” Ashitaba (angelica herb) “chalcone,” mushroom “terpene,” herb (Peucedanum japonicum) and yam (Dioscorea esculenta), and has been developing and producing health foods incorporating these active ingredients. These products are marketed through Takara Healthcare Inc.

In the mushroom business, Takara Bio was the first in the world to achieve success in the development of largescale production technology for Bunashimeji mushrooms, which are now widely available at most supermarkets. At present, Takara Bio licenses the cultivation and largescale production technology for Bunashimeji mushrooms to entities including JA ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations) Nagano and Yukiguni Maitake Co., Ltd. The Takara Bio Group is also involved in the production and sale of Hatakeshimeji and Honshimeji mushrooms. Finally, Takara Bio is working to develop new cultivation methods for high-value-added mushrooms using the Matsutake mushroom genome.

［ Gene Medicine ］
Takara Bio is developing and aims to commercialize the core technologies that are essential to gene medicine (gene therapy and cell therapy), by using the technologies developed in the Genetic engineering research segment.

One of Takara Bio’s core technologies for gene medicine is an efficient retroviral transduction method—the RetroNectin® Method—that was developed in collaboration with Indiana University in the United States. Takara Bio holds exclusive rights for worldwide applications of this powerful technology, which is used in ex vivo gene therapy to enable efficient transduction of genes into hematopoietic stem cells and other blood cells. Before the advent of the RetroNectin® Method, this process was considered difficult. Our RetroNectin® Method is used by various public medical institutions conducting clinical research in gene therapy as well as in several privately funded clinical trials. We hope to encourage the acceptance of this technology and boost earnings by actively working toward licensing out the method in countries worldwide.

In gene therapy, as a proprietary project, Takara Bio has entered into a joint clinical trials agreement with the National Cancer Center of Japan and has commenced clinical trials for ex vivo gene therapy for relapsed leukemia at the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo. These are the first such trials of this type to be held in Japan. In cell therapy, Takara Bio is moving ahead on the clinical development of cancer immunotherapy using the RetroNectin® expansion-culture system that is the company’s second core technology and is also developing a business providing support services for this cancer cell immunotherapy.

Takara Healthcare will take advantage of the Takara Group’s unique ingredients and technologies to provide its customers with safe and reliable health foods through direct marketing channels, thereby helping people to live healthy and active lives. After Takara Bio has conducted R&D on ingredients and collected research data, the two companies will jointly conduct product development. Takara Bio will then supply the products to Takara Healthcare, which will handle marketing activities and mail-order sales. By taking advantage of synergies between the two companies, the Takara Group aims to accelerate the growth of the health foods business.