Kikkoman

Kikkoman Corporation

Native name	キッコーマン株式会社
Company type	Kabushiki kaisha
ISIN	JP3240400006
Industry	Food
Founded	7 December 1917[1]
Headquarters	Noda , Japan
Key people	Yuzaburo Mogi, COB[2] Shozaburo Nakano, CEO[3]
Revenue	709 billion JPY[4] (2025)
Number of employees	7,716[4] (2025)
Website	www.kikkoman.com

Kikkoman Corporation is a Japanese company. It makes soy sauce. The company's shares are traded on the Nikkei 225 stock market. Its main office is in Noda, in Chiba Prefecture.

People in Noda began making soy sauce as early as 1630,^[5] or maybe 1661.^[1] Two families, the Mogis and the Takanashis, made and sold soy sauce there. In 1781, the soy sauce makers of Noda formed a group.^[6] This group helped members work together. In 1838, the family business began using the name "Kikkoman." That same year, the shōgun's government started buying soy sauce from them. In 1873, people showed the soy sauce at the Vienna World's Fair. In 1883, it won a gold medal at the International Colonial and Export Exhibition in Amsterdam. By 1910, six breweries were working together to make and sell the soy sauce.^[1]

In 1917, the Mogi and Takanashi families put eight small family businesses together. They made one new company. Its name was Noda Shōyu KK.^[6] In 1925, the company bought three more breweries. It built a seventh factory the next year.^[1] In 1936, the company finished a new factory. This factory made Worcestershire sauce. In 1946, people could start buying shares in the company. In 1939, the company also opened a special brewery on a small island. There, workers made soy sauce in the old way. This soy sauce was only for the Japanese Emperor's family.^[1]

In the 1950s, a man named Yuzaburo Mogi helped the company grow bigger.^[5] He later became the company's top leader. Mogi studied in Japan and in the United States. In 1961, he became the first Japanese person to get a dregree as a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University in New York.^[7][8] In 1964, the company changed its name to Kikkōman Shōyu KK.^[1] In 1972, the company began building its first factory in the United States. This factory opened in 1973, in Walworth, Wisconsin. Kikkoman was the first Japanese company to have a factory in the US.^[5][1] Between 1972 and 1974, the company also opened an office in Germany. It opened a Japanese restaurant there too.^[1] In 1980, the company changed its name one more time. The new name was Kikkōman KK.^[9]

In 1997, the company opened a factory in the Netherlands. This factory now makes soy sauce for people in Europe.^[7][9] In Japan, people eat less soy sauce than before. So sales in Japan have gone down. But the company still grows in other countries.^[10] Since 2006, a company called Develey has sold Kikkoman products in Germany.^[11]

Kikkoman is the biggest soy sauce maker in the world.^[10] It has 11 factories. These factories are in Japan, the United States, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, China, and, since 2021, Brazil.^[12][13] Since 1997, a factory in the Netherlands has made soy sauce for Europe.^[9] A company called Kikkoman Trading Europe GmbH runs Kikkoman's business in Europe. It is based in Düsseldorf, Germany. In total, the Kikkoman group has 7,716 workers. These workers work in 56 different companies.^[4]

In 1990, Kikkoman got the right to sell Del Monte Foods products in Asia and Oceania.^[14] Kikkoman makes these products in Thailand and China.^[15]

The name "Kikkoman" comes from two Japanese words. Kikkō means "turtle shell." Man means "ten thousand." In an old Japanese story, a turtle can live for ten thousand years. So people think of turtles as a sign of luck, wealth, and a long life. The word kikkō also means a six-sided shape, because a turtle's shell looks like this. This is why the Kikkoman logo has a six-sided shape.^[7]

People all over the world know the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle. This bottle has a special top for pouring. A designer named Kenji Ekuan made this bottle in 1961. People have bought hundreds of millions of these bottles. People use them in homes and restaurants all over the world.^[16][17]

Kikkoman makes many kinds of soy sauce. It also makes ready-to-use Teriyaki sauce.^[18] The company first made this sauce in 1965. It made this sauce for people in the US, in Honolulu, Hawaii.^[9] Kikkoman also makes other sauces. These include Ponzu sauce and poke sauce. The company also makes sesame sauce, ramen soup base, and Worcestershire sauce.^[19]

Kikkoman also runs a hospital in Noda. In 1862, workers from the soy sauce breweries started a small doctor's office.^[20] In 1914, this became a real hospital. Kikkoman has run the hospital since 1918. In 1973, the hospital got its name today. In 2012, the hospital moved into a new building.^[21] It is the only hospital in Japan that a food company runs.^[22]

• Media related to Kikkoman at Wikimedia Commons
• Website of Kikkoman Corporation