About Soul of Japan

Background to Establishment

To showcase Japan’s food to the world as the Team of Japan, a group of 39 distinguished chefs from a variety of culinary backgrounds and genres traveled to California Campus of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) located in beautiful Napa Valley. The group traveled there in order to participate in the Worlds of Flavor (WOF) Conference that was held in November of 2010. During the subsequent three-day program that attracted numerous top chefs from both within the United States and from around the world, the Team of Japan’s presentations were highly regarded, and it could be said that their efforts further enhanced the worldwide reputation of both Japan’s culinary traditions and the chefs who created and continued them. Additionally, the occasion also gave the participating chefs an opportunity to further develop relationships with one another that exceeded the boundaries of individual culinary genres.

A few months after the event, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck with all its fury in March of 2011. Confronted by the unprecedented scale of the disaster, chefs who had participated just a few months previously in the WOF in Napa Valley, arose a choir of voices and showed the desire to “do something.” Those voices reached the ears of Mr. Hiroo Chikaraishi, the Japanese Ambassador to CIA who, had worked tirelessly to assemble the Team of Japan to California. Subsequently, in order to act as a body that was capable of both receiving and acting upon all the kind intentions that had been expressed, the Soul of Japan Foundation was established in April 2011.

Following on from its founding, on an ongoing basis for approximately three years, the foundation undertook activities within Japan including the preparation of meals in support of people who resided in areas of the country impacted by the Great East Japan Earthquake and its aftermath. Since such responsibilities for those activities shifted to a recognized non-profit organization, the Soul of Japan itself evolved to become an advocate “to help realize a platform for Japanese food.” Having done so, to this day, the foundation works to support both numerous Japanese chefs and their activities within Japan and abroad. along with a number of food industry-related companies.

What is CIA(Culinary Institute of America) and WOF(World of Flavor)

  • 39 Japanese Chefs from Team of Japan participated in 2010 WOF(as of October 2010)
  • Yoshihiro Murata
  • Kiyomi Mikuni
  • Yousuke Imada
  • Ikuro Mizuno
  • Masahiro Kurisu
  • Kunio Tokuoka
  • Shigeo Araki
  • Motoi Kurisu
  • Motokazu Nakamura
  • Masayasu Yonemura
  • Takuji Takahashi
  • Hideki Shimoguchi
  • Hisato Nakahigashi
  • Yoshihiro Takahashi
  • Kihachi Kumagai
  • Yoji Satake
  • Mineya Mori
  • Shigeru Tohyama
  • Yoshinori Horii
  • Kaname Ogawa
  • Ivan Orkin
  • Katsunori Yashima
  • Akihiko Saka
  • Hirofumi Ohta
  • Takashi Sakamoto
  • Hitoshi Arai
  • Yasuji Morizumi
  • Daisuke Nomura
  • Jeff Ramsey
  • Naoyuki Yanagihara
  • Yoshihiro Maeda
  • Shoichi Samoto
  • Mitsuharu Kurokawa
  • Shirou Komaki
  • Takehiro Motokurumada
  • Katsumi Kashihara
  • Shinichiro Takagi
  • Tamotsu Yabiku
  • Taro Abe
    • Moderator
    • Yukio Hattori
    • Yoshiki Tsuji
    • Izumi Okabe
    • Takeshi Kohjima
    • Hisashi Furuichi
    • Susumu Ohta
    • Syujiro Kusumoto

Soul of Japan Profile

Official Name General Incorporated Foundation Soul of Japan
Establishment April 20, 2011
Address 6th Floor Akasaka TO Building, 4-9-19, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052
Tel. /Fax. (+81)03-5786-3204
Management Team
  • Representative Director: Hiroo Chikaraishi
  • Director: Yuji Tsutsumi / Izumi Okabe / Tadao Kikuchi
  • Counselor: Mitsuhiro Kurokawa / Makio Koga / Takeshi Niinami / Takaharu Hirose
  • Auditor: Motohiro Sakurai
  • Adviser:Hiroyuki Suematsu
  • Senior Advisor: Russell Wiese
Principles In going beyond national borders while sharing “a sense of gratitude” with regard to nature’s bounty and the people’s efforts, our principles give birth to both new dialogues and creativeness, through which we further enrich both Japan’s and the world’s culinary cultures; and work to pass them onto future generations.
Policies As its main focus, the Soul of Japan aims to become a platform for Japanese food that acts to both pass Japan’s culinary culture onto future generations and to promote it internationally.
Plans
  1. Advocating Japanese food culture and culinary traditions
  2. Providing Japanese culinary experiences to visitors to Japan and supporting the development of human resources
  3. Support preservation of traditional Japanese ingredients and flavors
  4. Establishment of culinary educational institutions
Advisery
Board Member
  • Koutaro Ueda / Benesse Holdings, Inc : Corporate Senior Vice President
  • Seiichiro Kasuya / Click : Representative Director
  • Eri Kato / LOTUS LOTUS : Representative Director
  • Kazuhiko Kawahara / Hakuhodo Inc.
  • Masahisa Kogure / Table For Two : Representative chairman
  • Kazuoki Saito / Indigo blue : Representative Director
  • Yuji Sawada / SD : Representative Director
  • Norihiko Shimizu / Graduate School of Hitotsubashi University : Professor
  • Yoshiki Tsuji / Tsuji Culinary Institute : Principal
  • Kayoko Nakanishi / Landscape and Partnership Co.,Ltd. : Representative Director
  • Yasuhiro Maeda / The Secretary of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency
  • Toshiko Mandokoro / GEN Inc. : Representative Director
  • Sachiko Miyashita / Yuit Inc. : Representative Director
  • Sadayuki Murayama / The Graduate School of Project Design

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