About KOKUBU
number of sites / as of March 2025
KOKUBU with a long history.
Established since 1712.
Kanbei Kokubu IV set up a retail store, Daikokuya, at Nihonbashi-honcho in Edo. It is recorded that he was dealing with the Kimono trade as well as started the soy sauce brewing at the period of establishment.
Later, it converted to a foodstuff-wholesaling while withdrawing from the soy sauce brewing in 1880, and it is running till now. The driving force of the KOKUBU Group is our heart to the valuable trust and the ability of response to the environmental changes.
Heisei no Chomoku
Since the time of our founding, KOKUBU has had standards of behavior codified as corporate rules in the form of a “Shikimoku (Code of Conduct)” and “Jomoku (Rules).” These are collectively called “Chomoku,” and although they have been rewritten over the years, their spirit continues to this day.
It is thanks to each employee, in every era, following the spirit inscribed in our “Chomoku” as a guiding principle for clear business ethics that we have been able to continue our activities for over 300 years since our founding to the present.
KOKUBU Group as a food-wholesaler
As a food wholesaler, we deliver foods across the whole Japan.
There are a large number of retail stores and food manufacturers in Japan, thereby, we can meet the various needs of the consumers, no matter what the regional diversity and the seasonal changes are. Food wholesaler is the connection between manufacturers and the retailers. We have been richly assorted the domestic and overseas merchandise and the ones developed in-house, and we can stably deliver to meet the needs of our customers.
Food wholesaler has diverse functions, such as the logistics for delivering goods accurately and promptly, the sales floor support with the merchandise project proposals, and the well-stocked utlizing all the informations, etc. It plays an important role in the streamlining and the optimization for the food distribution.
KOKUBU as a manufacturer
Different face, KOKUBU as a manufacturer.
The KOKUBU Group ran the soy sauce brewing business from the foundation till the early Meiji period. After that, while we were dealing with the merchandise from the manufacturers as a food wholesaling, as well as started to develop KOKUBU brand “K&K” and carried on selling. Currently, commencing with the brand merchandise K&K, tabete, paulownia mark and create, we are dealing with a variety of merchandise, such as side dishes, etc. In addition, we collaborate with the manufacturers, hand down the traditional regional culture and are promoting to develop the merchandise utilizing the materials.