HIGASHI-OSAKA, Osaka Prefecture--Long ago, many residents of this Osaka area loathed natto, or fermented soybeans, which they derided as “rotten food.”

With such an aversion now a thing of the past, the chair of a natto manufacturer has enlisted the assistance of university students to reinvent the product, such as using it as a curry topping.  

HIDING THE TRUTH

Mitsuharu Sato, the chair of a natto manufacturer based in the western prefecture, said when he was a boy, he did everything he could to hide that he is the son of a natto maker, despite how much he loved the food.

On a visitors’ day at a kindergarten Sato attended, the students were told to make speeches about their fathers’ jobs. When it was Sato’s turn, he blurted out: “My father is making pickles with a big machine.”

His mother scolded him when he went home that day, but he doesn’t remember having ever been rebuked by his father.

Years passed, and the natto-hating people of Osaka were supposed to have turned into an “urban legend” of sorts.

Sato took over his family’s business as a natto maker and went on to found Eiko Shokuhin, a natto manufacturing company based in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, in 2008.

The family business struggled with fewer and fewer customers, however.

They had business connections with shopping arcade stores and neighborhood tofu shops, but such stores were being replaced by supermarkets and other volume retailers.

Sato established his current company after he realized that keeping up with the times was the only way to pass on quality natto to posterity.

He sold natto products under the brand name of Kiwahikari, which combines the Japanese verbs “kiwameru” (get to the bottom of something) and “hikaru” (be brilliant), with the goal of “getting to the bottom” of natto-making until the products taste “brilliant.”

He also shifted his main business connections to supermarkets, department stores and other outlets, but his company struggled to increase its name recognition and develop new sales channels.

HELP FROM YOUNGER GENERATION

Then, four years ago he was introduced to a lab seminar supervised by Yukio Kodono, a professor with Kindai University’s Faculty of Business Administration.

Sato decided to bet on young people’s imaginative power, and he commissioned Kodono to engage in the joint development of new natto products.

Students in Kodono’s lab seminar took part in the development work. Among them were three senior-year students who are Osaka Prefecture natives.

Suzu Hara, 21, is from Sakai. She said she eats natto to be healthy.

Oju Nakayama, 22, from Kaizuka, said he has always liked natto since he was a child.

Nana Hayashida, 21, is from the prefectural capital of Osaka. She said while she doesn’t eat natto very often, she doesn’t hate it.

The trio racked their brains over the past two years about products that could expand the potential and horizon of Eiko Shokuhin’s natto lineup.

They have so far developed, among other items, the Natto & Granola, a good choice for breakfast, and the Kin Chocolate for vegans, which contains natto.

The students worked out and put into practice all the steps needed to launch the products, such as product development, marketing and advertising on social media.

Sato felt bewildered by words such as “granola” and “vegans,” but he refrained from meddling.

“Everything would have stayed the same if I had intervened,” he said. “That would have made it meaningless to seek help from young people.”

MORE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR

The latest product, “Nattoya-san no Natto Curry” (Natto maker’s natto curry), went on sale in June.

It combines a pouch of curry with a bag of dried natto to use as a topping. The spicy curry tastes great with the crunchy texture added.

The product comes in 150-gram packs, each costing 850 yen ($6.09), including tax. It can be purchased on Kindai University’s campus in Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, at an online shop that specializes in natto, and elsewhere.

The curry product was a culmination of the natto project for the three students, who will be busy working on their graduation theses during the months to come.

They said the development went so well because natto was so good in the first place.

Close to 100 packs of the curry product have been sold on the university campus alone.

“We did get a good response,” Kodono said.

“I didn’t believe that natto would ever be a mainstream product in the Osaka area,” Sato said. “But word of our natto products has spread and has carved out new possibilities. That has given me enough confidence to continue to pursue making natto in the Osaka area for years to come.”

He added, “I just hope the young people who helped me also learned something from this that they can apply to their own lives.”

An Asahi Shimbun reporter asked the trio what they had gotten out of the project.

“This project helped me discover that I like planning and design,” Hara said. “I now see my future goals more clearly.”

Nakayama said, “The project gave me precious opportunities to interact with working adults through sales and other activities.”

“I have learned I am probably good at providing support to others,” Hayashida said. “I will continue to draw on that lesson in my adult life to come.”

Sato should be assured the project was a success for all involved.