OREANDA-NEWS. Sojitz Corporation has entered into a contract to assist in management of the Japan Food Town project and operation of its facilities. The Japan Food Town project aims to support small and medium-sized Japanese food service companies moving into Singapore through the development support and facility management services.

The Japanese Association of Overseas Promotion for Food and Restaurants (Located: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Makoto Yoshikawa; “JAOF”) and several supporting companies including Sojitz have established an investment fund called JAOF Investment (Located: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Makoto Yoshikawa). Both JAOFI and the Cool Japan Fund (Located: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Nobuyuki Ota), part of the Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan Strategy’, then established Japan Food Town Development Pte. Ltd. (Located: Singapore; Representative Director: Makoto Yoshikawa, “JFTD”) which will act as the primary company for the project.

JFTD will open Japan Food Town (name TBD) within Isetan Orchard around the end of 2015, aiming to bring in 3 – 4 billion yen in sales for its first year as well as establish a model for the spread of Japanese food culture abroad. They will create and manage a platform to help food service companies clear their toughest hurdles to overseas development, such as the local procurement of ingredients, securing of personnel, and acquisition of real estate for stores. Furthermore, by assisting in the Japanese food service industry’s expansion overseas, the project will contribute to the spread of Japanese food culture worldwide.

Sojitz’s role will be to assist with project management. Before JFT’s opening, Sojitz will manage progress on the project, negotiate and oversee all matters related to the facilities’ creation, and help with sales promotion planning; while after the opening, we will operate the facility.

Sojitz entered the shopping mall business in 1997, having since entered into management contracts for facilities such as suburban shopping malls and complexes at countryside train station hubs in 12 locations within Japan. We successfully helped to revitalize Japan’s countryside by steadily raising the value of these shops in concert with the facilities’ owners, and we hope to utilize this expertise to assist in management of this project, our first time participating in a shopping mall business overseas.

In the future, Sojitz will continue to strengthen its shopping mall investment and operation business both inside and outside of Japan, and enhance its function-oriented business platform based on promotion, sales, and logistics for brand-name products, as well as travel services in the ASEAN region. In turn, this will contribute to the expansion of ‘Cool Japan’ in the ASEAN region and help revitalize Japan’s countryside by giving rise to inbound demand from these countries.