Japan for
the world.
A trading company that buys Japanese food in Japan, in Japanese, from the people who grow and catch it, and sells it to importers and distributors who have never been able to reach them.
A world of Japanese products
remains to be discovered.
Japan ships about 355 tonnes of real wasabi in a year, for the whole country, and its entire beef export is under 11,000. The best of what this country makes is made in quantities a large distributor cannot be interested in, which is the actual reason it never reaches you. We are built for that scale.
The problem
Between a Japanese producer and a Western distributor there are usually three or four sales. Each one takes a margin, and each one loses a name. By the time it reaches you it is Product of Japan and nothing more.
The method
We buy at the first of those sales. In person, in Japanese, from the producer, with the grade agreed in writing before anything is packed.
The model
One desk owns the whole route: the purchase, the export documents, the cold chain and the conversation with you. There is nobody to refer your question to.
We answer the same six questions
about every single line.
Not a tasting note. The six things that decide whether a line can actually be traded, researched before it goes on this site, and published whether the answer flatters us or not. Open any product page and you can check every one of them.
Supply
Who grows or catches it, where, and how much of it exists in a year.
Cost
What it costs us at the farm or the boat, which is the number most suppliers will not show you.
Price
What the market actually pays, from published trade statistics rather than from a competitor's website.
Regulatory
What it takes to land it in your country, per destination, including the duty position this month.
Buyers
Who already buys it here, and who already sells it, because an incumbent is information and not a secret.
Margin
Whether the trade works at all once the first five are known. If it does not, we say so.
A premium list
of quality products.
A product needs to deliver on more than its label. Its characteristics, specifications, availability, and intended use all matter when deciding whether it is right for you.
We take those details seriously, so you can look beyond the description and make a choice based on the product itself.
Lines, each researched to the same depth, with its open questions published.
Regions of Japan, traced to the prefecture on the map.
From the producer, never through a trading house.
Grade, count, glaze and temperature, before anything moves.
Four steps, and a trial
before anything starts.
Nobody should move their business on a first conversation. A trial exists so you can judge the quality, the paperwork and the service on a share of what you already buy.
- Step one
You tell us the specification
The grade, the pack, the monthly volume, the destination port and the price you need to work. Not "scallops": 3S, IQF, 10 by 1 kg, delivered Milan.
- Step two
We quote against a named producer
With the prefecture and the method stated, and the trade term on the quote so freight and duty are never assumed.
- Step three
You take a trial
Usually ten to twenty percent of what you already buy, so nothing is at risk while you judge it.
- Step four
We buy forward against your schedule
Which is what holds a price steady in a market where the catch is falling.
Four things we will not do,
whatever the order is worth.
A standard is only worth stating where it costs something. Each of these has already cost us an order or will.
We will not quote a line we cannot ship
Two of the lines on this site say so on their own page. Sake is not open until the American licence exists, and the American apple route needs an agreement between two governments. Both stay on the page with the obstacle named, rather than being quoted and explained later.
We will not pass on a certification we have not seen
Organic JAS, a grading certificate, a plant listing. If the number and the certifier are not in our hands, the claim does not go on your quote. A certification repeated from a supplier's email is not a certification.
We will not sell you a line in its wrong month
Wasabi grown through a hot summer carries disease loss, and somebody pays for it. We would rather lose four months of orders than be the reason a chef stops trusting the product.
We will not quote a duty we have not checked
The same box can land eleven points apart in two countries, and a tariff quota can close in the first week of January. We check the position for your destination before the offer, not after the container is on the water.
Information our buyers ask for
before they work with a
new supplier.
| Who you deal with | One desk, in Japan, that owns the purchase and the export. Your questions do not get forwarded. |
| Minimum order | Set per line and stated on the quote. It is a pallet or a pack size, not a policy. |
| Trade terms | FOB or CIF, named on every quote, so freight and duty are never assumed into the price. |
| Payment | Thirty percent on order confirmation, the balance against shipping documents, until a trading history exists to change it. |
| Samples | Drawn from the grade you would actually buy. A sample of anything else proves nothing to either of us. |
| Claims | Photographed on arrival, raised within forty eight hours, and settled against the written specification rather than against memory. |
Ask us what we
have actually shipped.
It is the fastest way to find out whether this is worth your time. Send one line of specification and we will come back with a named producer, a grade and a trade term.