My mission is to become a bridge between cocoa farmers, Meiji, and customers.

I started to be involved in Meiji cocoa support (MCS) in 2019. It all started when I was in charge of the Meiji The Chocolate brand (hereafter: The Choco) in the cacao marketing department and took on the role of connecting customers with products.

The initial image of MCS was objective to me, as it was a research of cocoa beans in cocoa production area by the laboratory members and an effort by the companies to solve the problems faced by cocoa farmers.

However, after I became in charge of the brand and had a deep understanding of the background and story in which The Choco was created, I began to think deeply about how to communicate the taste and depth of products born through the activities of MCS to customers who got the Choco.

Originally, Meiji used to procure high-quality cocoa through trading companies. However, in the hope of making more delicious chocolate, Meiji researchers visited cocoa farms in Venezuela in 2006, which led to the birth of The Choco. It took a considerable amount of time for researchers to visit the site many times, build trust-based relations, and make high-quality cocoa that are used as raw materials for chocolate.
It seems that there were many cases in which the local people didn't deal with them, but through the steady efforts of these researchers, a product called The Choco was created.

The Choco was renewed in 2020, and now only cocoa from the four countries of Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic are used to enjoy the fragrance and flavor of each area of production.

I believe The Choco's mission as a brand manager that connects cocoa producers with customers is to convey the fragrance and taste of cocoa in each production area, the depth and attractiveness of cocoa, and to inform the current state of cocoa production areas that have been seen through MCS and initiatives with producers.
Customers may not need to know about MCS activities or cocoa, the raw material. But the chocolate is something that can't be made without cocoa and its producers. It's a world full of things, of course, but if you don't know that each and every one of them carries the thoughts of different people, I think your feelings and attachment to that thing will change.
The Choco is no different.
Because The Choco can be purchased anywhere in Japan, I want people to know that one piece contains the thoughts and skills of various people, including cocoa growers and makers, as well as their strong comittment with cocoa.

We want to deliver sustainable chocolate. That's why we create empathizers.

Cocoa farms faced a shortage of cocoa due to factors such as the aging of cocoa trees, pest damage, and lack of awareness of cultivation techniques, and some faced the problem of not being able to eat chocolate in the future. However, such a situation is improving as not only the Meiji but also companies are making sustainable efforts.

However, it is a fact that there are still challenges in delivering chocolate. One of them is the present state of production areas that cannot be described as affluent by any means.
One of the activities of MCS is to work with local people to produce high-quality cocoa beans, and to purchase them at reasonable prices. In this way, we are creating a system that will enable cocoa farmers to lead stable life.

We have communicated this activity to our customers through our website and leaflets, and we hope to create a system in which our customers can also participate in the future.
In order to increase the number of people who can support this activity with the aim of making the smiles of people involved in cocoa, the raw material for chocolate, we are actively communicating our activities and initiatives in the areas of production and the messages of people in the areas of production to our customers.

When I tasted The Choco with the participants at the event.
When the chocolate is chewed one or two times and tasted by melting in the mouth, the floral fragrance and spice spreads, making it easier to understand the unique characteristics of cocoa in each production area. Then the faces of the participants suddenly turned into bright expressions. We received a variety of comments from participants, including "It's fun," "How is this chocolate made?" This was the moment I realized that by explaining the depth of chocolate and how to enjoy it, people would be interested in cocoa.

Perhaps it's really steady, but in order for people know more deeply about The Choco, I think it's important to make a number of triggers, step by step, to shorten the distance between customers and cocoa producers and Meiji.

And our desire to increase empathy is the same for our employees at Meiji as well as customers. I think that this is not the case when it comes to whether all employees are familiar with the activities of MCS at present. By knowing this activity will make the employees proud of our company, and it will change the way you see products that are always around you. I believe that these small changes in employees will eventually lead to changes in the future of Meiji.

Convey the thoughts of cocoa producers and creators to deliver new attractiveness of chocolate.

The reason why Meiji chocolate has been loved by people for almost 100 years is because it has been close to our customers' lives. I hope that the very existence of Meiji chocolate remains unchanged.

We want customers to enjoy chocolate more as a tasty thing. We hope that people will come to love chocolate even more by learning about the uniqueness of cocoa beans and their depth as ingredients. And in the near future, I hope that chocolate, like coffee and wine, will become a matter of course when chosen by region or variety.

I am neither a producer nor a product developer. In other words, I may be close to customers. What I can do is convey the thoughts of people involved in chocolate while keeping in touch with customers. Through The Choco made from MCS, we hope to continue delivering to our customers the attractiveness and depth of the chocolate as well as the thoughts of cocoa producers and creators.