Tour of Yubari Tsumura

The company hosted a tour of Yubari Tsumura on 16-17 September. We had the opportunity to visit the company's farms (where it grows and harvests crude drugs) and processing facilities in Yubari and Kawanishi-cho, Obihiro in Hokkaido, and observe its efforts to implement ingenuous cultivation techniques and increase output in Japan. The company procures around 90% of its crude drugs from China and the remaining 10% or so from Japan and Laos, with Japan accounting for around 5-6%. Crude drug output and sales volumes in Japan have roughly tripled over the past 20 years, and while they remain on an upward trajectory, companywide sales of kampo medicines is growing so there have been no major changes in the percentages. The company has six production bases in Japan, with Hokkaido accounting for around 50%;