Overview

Kikkoman today is a $2-billion company, the world's largest soy sauce producer with 4,000 employees worldwide and sales in nearly 100 countries. It is the only Japanese company which has managed to expand in the drinks and seasonings sector internationally. In fact Kikkoman succeeded to make its soy sauce variants world condiments beyond the traditional confines of Japanese and Chinese cuisine.

The founding myth has it that Kikkoman soy branding started in Noda along the Edo River near Tokyo after Shige Maki, the clan's tough and resourceful ancestral mother made a narrow escape from besieged Osaka Castle in the 17th century civil wars. In any event, it is well documented that in 1661 the Mogi-Takanashi clan began brewing shoyu (natural soy sauce) in Noda, a small town in Chiba Prefecture. It was one of the typical rural industries developing in Tokugawa Japan, when urbanisation created increasing demand for rurally produced textiles, pottery and processed foods. (One should recall that in the 18th century, Tokyo had become the world's largest city.) Yet production patterns were distinctively premodern. Until the Meiji era (beginning 1868) the Mogi as owners hardly exercised any managerial functions. Toji (foremen) were in charge of the (decentralised) production, oyakata (labour recruiters) hired and paid the fluctuating day labourers, and a separate front office staff did clerical and sales work. This semi-autonomous and loosely coordinated production structure lasted well into the 20th century.

A first step towards a more consolidated owner-management system was taken in 1887 when a...