Wako International Corporation

A New York based Japanese company, with various business interests including Japanese restaurants in New York, a catering operation supplying airlines, sports stars and celebrities, a buckwheat farm in Canada, and real estate in Tokyo. The chairman Mr Nobuyoshi Kuraoka appointed Stewart Miller to help the company identify and recruit a Scottish salmon producer to lightly smoke salmon for sushi. This became the first product that was piloted for an International Buyers Consortium, selling directly to chefs, sushi bars, restaurants and hotels in Japan. Stewart also participated in a roadshow programme held over many weeks in six cities in Japan, which included the British Embassy in Tokyo, visited by the then Prime Minister of Japan Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto. Chefs and buyers from the discerning Japanese food service sector were invited to try the salmon sushi at the events, and the consortium recruited over 200 buyers in year one. Mr Kuraoka was awarded “The Order of the Rising Sun” by the Japanese Government for his global contributions to the promotion of Japanese culture through Japanese food. For example, he was the first businessman to open an authentic Japanese restaurant in the US – Restaurant Nippon in New York in 1963.