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Mr. Motoya Okada
CEO, AEON Co., Ltd.
Accepting the award for AEON is Mr. Yasuhide
Chikazawa, Vice President, Merchandising Reform Officer |
Mr. Shuji Ito
President & COO, Calbee Corporation |
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AEON is the largest retailer in Japan and has been very
supportive of U.S. products over the years.
They hold the largest American Fair every May to
coincide with the arrival of cherries from California.
http://www.aeon.info/en/
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Calbee is a pioneer in importing fresh potatoes from the
United States.
Calbee worked with the U.S. potato industry and USDA to
open the Japanese market for U.S. fresh potatoes for
chipping. Imports
of fresh potatoes for chipping from the United States
have been increasing every year.
http://www.calbee.co.jp/english/
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Mr. Shuji Abe
President,
Yoshinoya Co., Ltd. |
Mr. Hiroshi Ogino
President, Nihon Hotel Co., Ltd. |
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Yoshinoya is synonymous with beef bowls.
With over 1,100 restaurants in Japan, it is the
single largest user of U.S. beef in Japan.
After the BSE incident in the U.S., Yoshinoya was
the first major restaurant to resume using U.S. beef
when the Japanese market reopened. Mr. Abe, who also
serves as the Senior Vice Chairman of the Japan
Foodservice Association, has consistently voiced the
need for Japan to establish a science-based food safety
regulatory system.
http://www.yoshinoya.com/
company/index.html
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Mr. Ogino was highly supportive of the Office of Ag
Affairs support Partner’s in Agriculture project in 2010
and helped arranged special bento boxes using Iowa pork
and U.S. vegetables for Secretary Vilsack’s train to
Yamanashi.
http://www.jre-hotels.jp/e/index.html
http://www.nre.co.jp/
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Mr. Ichiro Honda, President of Shoei Food Corporation
Accepting the award for Shoei is
Mr. Hidemitsu
Honda, Vice President
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Mr. Robert Susaki
President, Nishimoto Trading Co., Ltd. |
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Shoei is one of the major importers
of U.S. dried fruit and nuts, and is
a leader in processing dried fruit and nuts in
Japan, preparing ready-to-use products for confectionary
stores and bakers.
Shoei has processing facilities in the U.S. and
China and has worked with USDA to maintain access for
U.S. products into Japan.
http://www.shoeifoods.co.jp/
index.php
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Nishimoto Trading is a pioneer of citrus imports from
the United States.
Nishimoto was Sunkist’s sole agent (importer) in
Japan for many years and today Nishimoto imports about
70% of Sunkist products in Japan.
http://www.ntcltd.com
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Dr. Hideaki Karaki
Vice Chairman of the Science Council of Japan*
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Dr. Karaki has been instrumental in promoting sound
science-based food
safety regulatory systems in Japan. His leadership has
helped save the
integrity of Japan’s biotech approval process, a
collapse of which could
have resulted in a disaster for the U.S. grain trade in
2010.
*Dr. Karaki was not present at the induction ceremony as
he was out of
the country on that day. He completed his assignment as
Vice Chairman of the Science
Council of Japan at the end of September and is now
President of Kurashiki University of Science and
the Arts.
http://www.scj.go.jp
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