About Us

Message

Toshihiro Harada Representative director
Harada foods Co., Ltd

Harada foods Co., Ltd. has a history of nearly 100 years since its foundation in 1924. This is the result of the patronage of our many customers across generations and the hard work of our pioneers in each era who supported the company. And this is the fruit of the support and cooperation of our suppliers, our employees, and the local residents as well.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of these people.
The eras have changed drastically from the era of its foundation to the present era. From now on, even more remarkable changes will emerge – it is a hunch I have. However, we have three beliefs that we must keep no matter how our society changes:

"Pursuing good work that makes our customers happy,"
"Contributing to a healthy and rich diet," and
"Achieving physical and mental happiness of all our employees."

With these beliefs in mind, I pledge that we will constantly challenge.

The year 2024 to come will be the 100th anniversary of the foundation of our company. We depart to the next 100 years ahead, devoting ourselves step by step from now on so that we can better contribute to a healthy and rich diet for people not only in Japan but also around the world.
We look forward to your continued support and patronage.

Company Profile

Company Name: Harada foods Co., Ltd.
Locations: Headquarters: 2-32 Shin-ichi, Yanai City, Yamaguchi Prefecture 742-0009, Japan.
Shuto Factory: 1901-1 Kamikubara, Shutomachi, Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture 742-0413, Japan
TEL: +81-827-84-2300 FAX: +81-827-84-2255
Foundation: 1924
Establishment: March 1, 1964 as Harada Shouten Co., Ltd.
August 17, 1988, reorganized to Harada Foods Co., Ltd.
Capital: 54,968,000 yen
Representative: Toshihiro Harada, Representative director
Businesses: Manufacturing and sales of konjac, tokorotenn and raw arrowroot starch noodles; sales of konjac powder, seaweeds powder and other food items.
Banks: Yanai Branch of THE YAMAGUCHI BANK, Ltd., Shimonoseki Branch of Japan Finance Corporation for Small and Medium Enterprise
Major Customers: CGC Japan Co., Ltd., IZUMI Co., Ltd., Marukyu Co., Ltd., MAXVALU NISHINIHON CO., LTD., ORIHIRO Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Shokuhin Co., Ltd., NIPPON ACCESS, INC., YAMAEHISANO Co., Ltd., etc.

History

1924: Matsusuke Harada founded a konjac manufacturing and sales business in Kitahama, Yanai City.
1946: Relocated to Shin-ichi, Yanai City, the current location of the headquarters.
1964: Established Harada Shoten Co., Ltd. with the capital of 2,000,000 yen, and Yoshito Harada was appointed as the representative director at the same time.
1980: Started manufacturing and sales of seaweed powder.
1985: Increased the capital to 5,000,000 yen.
1987: Started manufacturing tokoroten.
1988: Increased the capital to 10,000,000 yen and changed organization to Harada Foods Co., Ltd. Started manufacturing raw arrowroot starch noodles.
1991: Established Jinseki-an Co., Ltd. in Jinseki-gun, Hiroshima Prefecture.
1994: Awarded as an exemplary company by the Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency.
1995: Increased the capital to 30,000,000 yen.
1996: Shuto Factory completed.
2001: Toshihiro Harada was appointed as the representative director, and the capital was increased to 47,250,000 yen.
2002: Shuto Factory was granted the organic JAS certification.
2005: Invested in Jiangsu Province, China and started developing and importing products in a collaborative way.
2007: The Chinese factory completed.
2008: Started importing konjac powder developed and manufactured in Myanmar.
2009: Established Yamaguchi Kirara Foods Co., Ltd.
2013: Increased capital to 54,968,000 yen.
2018: implemented improvement on the production line for raw arrowroot starch noodles.
2019: Introduced automatic continuous production line for large-size konjac.

Five Features of Harada foods Co., Ltd.

A history and trust of 100 years since our foundation

The history of Harada Foods Co., Ltd. began in 1924 with the founder, Matsusuke Harada.
He started konjac manufacturing and selling business at a place, now Kitahama, Yanai City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. We hear that, at that time there was no mechanical equipment like those available today, and konjac was made by hand, sold in his store and delivered by bicycles.
In 1946, just after the end of World War 2, he moved the business to the current location of the headquarters (Shin-ichi, Yanai City). In 1964, Matsusuke's second son, Yoshito, succeeded to the business as the second generation and incorporated it as a limited company. After that, the company greatly increased the production volume of konjac by substantially mechanizing the konjac manufacturing as well as expanded the business operation by actively working on diversification such as manufacturing and wholesale of ice creams, milling seaweeds, and manufacturing tokoroten and raw arrowroot starch noodles. In 1996, a new factory, Shuto Factory, was built in Shutomachi, Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture as a result of searching for a large land area and clean water. In 2001, Matsusuke's grandson, Toshihiro Harada, succeeded to the business as the third generation.
The average life expectancy of companies in Japan is said to be 23.3 years (according to a survey by TOKYO SHOKO RESEARCH, LTD. in 2021) and it tends to decrease year by year. Under such circumstance, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of our foundation in the year 2024 to come. We have a strong relationship of trust with our customers and suppliers which we have cultivated over a long history. This is our greatest strength.

History

Security and Safety proven by organic JAS certification

The organic JAS is a certification system established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for organic foods. Under this system, foods can be indicated as organic processed foods, if they use organic agricultural products (cultivated in fields that have been organically controlled for more than two years without using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, genetic modification technology, etc.) 95% or more and are manufactured so as not to include chemicals or non-organic raw materials and products. Shuto Factory was granted the organic JAS certification in 2002. We will continue to work harder on manufacturing secure and safety foods under our management philosophy, "contributing to a healthy and rich diet."

Commitment to "water"

Kusei Basin (located in Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), where Shuto Factory is built, is an alluvial fan formed by the accumulation of gravel carried by water flow of a river. Abundant river-bed water flows underground of Kusei Basin. At Shuto Factory, the abundant and clean river-bed water (soft water) is collected. The water is treated into weakly alkaline ionized water for use in our food manufacturing. Water quality is a very important factor for the quality of konjac. Shuto Factory was built at this location as a result of searching for quality water.

Products development meeting needs

Commercial products

We have the following measures in response to the feedback from the field of food processing:

Supporting various products sizes to reduce the number of working processes at the customers,
Providing processed products that can save the labor in working processes at the customers, and
Supporting high-mix, low-volume production according to customers’ requests.

Consumer products

Our sales personnel visit retail stores, such as supermarkets, to sell our products in-store and collect the real opinions of consumers by themselves while behaving like sales promoters. The collected opinions are used in our consumer products planning. However, the COVID-19 is refraining from this activity, and the main activity to collect such information is interviewing our customers.

Development and introduction of new technologies

In addition to the craftsmanship developed by our manufacturing experience for nearly 100 years, we are actively developing and introducing new technologies. For example, the following products are manufactured by them:

Shirataki noodles twined with delicious pot soup

Each noodle is unevenly structured by bonding six thin thread konjac together, and this structure is devised to allow pot soup to deliciously entwine around the noodle. (Design registered) 商品の詳細はこちら

Sukiyaki meat potato konjac

The konjac is unevenly structured by bonding three thin thread konjac together, the structure is devised to allow the taste to entwine around the konjac easier. 商品の詳細はこちら

Global business development (China, Myanmar, and USA)

We have two manufacturing sites overseas: one is China factory (in Jiangsu province), completed in 2007, with a production line for plate and thread type konjac; another one is Myanmar factory, started its operation in 2008, which is an affiliated factory for konjac powder refining. Both factories have high level quality control systems in place thanks to instructions given by our experts dispatched to them. They have excellent manufacturing experience for more than 10 years.
Furthermore, we jointly developed retort ramen using konjac noodles with a local company in the United States, and we are engaged in manufacturing the ramen. Konjac products are attracting attention as healthy foods worldwide. We will aggressively continue to challenge to globalizing konjac products.