It's not every day that in the pursuit of business for Britain, you get to go round a vinegar museum. Or find yourself on what looks uncannily like the set for a samurai movie. But then this was no ordinary company. Mizkan, Japan's leading vinegar maker, are unusually proud of their history, and in my experience unique in having preserved almost completely intact their vast, wooden, 19th-century vinegar factory in the Chubu region near Nagoya.
Since their origins in 1804, when the present owner's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather discovered how to make vinegar from sake lees (the waste rice left over from sake-brewing), Mizkan have expanded to no fewer than 27 factories in Japan, China, Thailand, the US and UK, producing not just vinegar but a variety of food products. But they're still making small amounts of vinegar on the original site, whence 200 years ago the product was shipped up the coast to satisfy the insatiable demand in Edo (the old name for Tokyo) for vinegar for the then newly-fashionable sushi rice.
Mizkan may be unique in preserving their old buildings, but they're far from unusual as an example of a Japanese firm with deep historical roots. The Edo period saw many entrepreneurs starting up innovative businesses, especially in the Kansai region around Osaka. While many of the companies started back then have grown into the multi-natiional Japanese corporations of today, many Japanese look at the dearth of entrepreneurs these days and wonder what happened to that pioneering spirit.
Japan has one of the world's fastest-ageing and shrinking populations, and firms here that have traditionally relied on the huge domestic market know they need to look for markets overseas. Mizkan are no exception. Having started their global expansion in America, in 2002 they acquired a Staffordshire vinegar maker. Now, with the help of UKTI Japan and RDA Think London, they're looking at a further significant UK expansion. One of the key roles of the UKTI Japan inward investment team is to steer these globalising Japanese companies to the UK.
From the traditional to the decidedly modern. Up the road in Gifu is the ultra-modern glass-and-steel snake that serves as the R&D headquarters of Amano Enzyme, the world's leading speciality enzyme manufacturer. It turns out it was designed by none other than Sir Richard Rogers, though CEO Amano-san says he'd never heard of him when he acquired the buiilding 10 years ago.
Enzymes are widely used in food-processing, pharmaceuticals, textiles and a range of other industries. We're whisked around a bewildering array of shiny high-tech equipment filled with mysterious bubbling liquids. Less mysterious are the home breadmaking machines, testing the effects of enzymes on fragrant rows of freshly-baked loaves.
Amano is another family company, founded by the current Amano-san's great grandfather. The company are touchingly appreciative of UKTI's support for their European HQ, complete with mini-R&D lab, in Oxfordshire. We encourage them to consider further expansion in Britain, and the possibility of collaborating with UK university research. Like Mizkan, Amano know they have no choice but to grow their overseas business. It's the UKTI Japan inward-investment team's job to make sure they choose the UK as the springboard for that growth.
Simon Fisher
Consul General, Osaka
simon.fisher@fco.gov.uk