TO THE
JAPANESE MARKET

A specialty store of world‘s teas and herbs, named “Tea Boutique”, was opened in luxury district, Aoyama, Tokyo. It was the first shop in Japan to sell various herbs, blended teas by weight, which was a very rare sales system at that time. As well as the import products, our own developed products were also at the stores.

Inauguration of Japan Herb Association for sound development of the herb market. The Association has been conducting study meetings by top level qualities and making efforts for enlightenment and development of whole herbs. Our activities have been evaluated highly domestically and overseas.

As one of the world’s most common beverages, we introduced Mate from South America to the market. In this year, Japan Mate Tea Association was established to promote Mate in Japan and furthermore deepen the relationship between Japan and Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, the production countries of Mate in South America.

We received request from Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Japan, and started importing Argan oil for the first time in the country to contribute to environmental issues and society in Morocco.

Our own Cherry blossom tea “flowered” in the space – our tea was used in a floating experiment in the Space shuttle Endeavor by Dr. Mamoru Mori, the first Japanese astronaut. The cherry blossom tea, Sweet Sakura Tea, was developed after 20 years of trials to make flower teas with a traditional Japanese flowers, neither salted pickles of cherry blossom nor slated pickles chrysanthemum.

Our tea salon “Cha Yū” was opened to introduce the world of full-scale Chinese teas at Shinjuku Takashimaya department store in Tokyo. The shop name means communication through tea. In the atmosphere of the mixture of the West and East connected by tea road, we serve teas from all around the world, of course including Chinese tea, with our original dishes and sweets using tea leaves and Argan oil.

Japan Chinese Tea Association was established in cooperation with related companies for enlightenment of attractions and culture of diverse Chinese tea. We organize Learning courses for Chinese tea instructors and annual tea meetings.

We support the Pink ribbon campaign that is raising awareness of breast cancer. We paid courtesy call on Japan Cancer Society on April 21st and donated a part of the sales to "Hohoemi (smile) fund" of the association.

Under the crisis after the devastating earthquake in March 2011, we donated 12,000 canisters of JANE’S Krazy Mixed-Up Salt. We have been making efforts for various social contribution activities.

Visiting Paraguay with aim of expanding import volume of Yerba Mate. Because of this visit, import of Mate to Japan was drastically increased. It was a symbolic event that leads to Mate big hit in Japan.

Inducted into the U.S.-Japan Agricultural Trade Hall of Fame, in Recognition of Years Importing American Agricultural Goods. President Kitajima and the company's name were engraved into a commemorative plate, on display at the U.S. Embassy.

On November 20, 2019, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our founding, with thanks to the support and friendship from all over the world. A new challenge has begun for us, as we look out over the next 50 years.