USSEC Japan participated in the second Japan Tofu Shop Summit held in Miyagi Prefecture of Tohoku Region.  More than 70 tofu companies and soybean wholesalers from all over Japan attended the event organized by Zentoren, the National Federation of Tofu Commerce and Industry Trade Association.  USSEC consultant Masako Tateishi delivered the opening remarks at the summit.  Ms. Tateishi was followed by a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, along with the Chairman of Zentoren, who once again expressed appreciation for United Soybean Board’s relief efforts at the time of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake & tsunami.

This event offered younger leaders in Japan’s tofu industry the opportunity to interact with each other and learn about products and business plans in an effort to educate the next generation of leaders.  The tofu tasting portion of the event featured 45 different types of tofu from various regions of Japan.  The newly established Tofu Master Approval System was also presented with the goal of training 10,000 future tofu masters for sustainability of the tofu industry.  Zentoren announced that the 3^rd & 4^th Tofu Shop Summits will be held in Shikoku (June 2013) and Okinawa (2014), respectively.
Japan, a major consumer of tofu products, used 481,000 metric tons (MT) of non-biotech soybeans in 2011.  Over 40 percent of the soybeans used for tofu in Japan are from the United States.  USSEC Japan, therefore, will continue to support Japan’s tofu industry to maximize the sales of U.S. IP Soy.