Our Member Profile

Professional members

Right: Representative Shiro Ikeda

Left: Inventor / Development Manager of Asahi Super Dry, Former Senior Managing Director & Marketing Manager of Asahi Breweries, Ltd .: Mr. Yasuo Matsui

Representative ：Shiro Ikeda Joined Asahi Breweries, Ltd. after graduating from university. After a year of beer brewing, he moved to the Central Research Institute and engaged in soft drink research and development for 12 years. After that, he has been engaged in product planning and marketing of coffee drinks, tea drinks and sports drinks for 7 years in the marketing department of Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd. since 1993, and achieved the hit of non-sugar drinks and canned coffee "Wanda". Since 2000, he has been the first director of the Cultural Research Institute of the Customer Lifestyle and Culture Research Institute, the first consumer research institute of Asahi Breweries, Ltd., and has been conducting behavioral research on consumer food and health for six years.Since 2006, he has been the general manager of product development at Asahi Breweries, Ltd.'s Marketing Headquarters.Introduced "Clear Asahi" and Asahi Dry Zero, the No. 1 non-alcoholic beer, to the market and succeeded in establishing the market as a hit product.In addition, he carries out campaigns to improve brand value, such as Asahi Super Dry's flagship product, Asahi Super Dry's extra cold drinking method proposal. Since 2012, as a managing director of Asahi Group Holdings, he has been in charge of overseas business and achieved the No. 1 imported beer brand in South Korea. In this way, He has improved the overseas brand power of Asahi Super Dry, increased sales volume, and made the international business profitable.Since 2016, he has been assigned to the Indonesian beverage company as a managing executive officer of AGHD and representative of Indonesia.

From 2018 to 2021 Chuo Ad Shinsha Co., Ltd. Chairman of the Board

Outside Director of Orion Breweries, Ltd. from 2019

Lecturer in charge of marketing special lecture of Tokyo University of Science adult MOT from 2020 Is working.

Tetsuya Ishihara

Executive Partner

Marketer ：Tetsuya Ishihara Joined Asahi Breweries, Ltd. in 1987 after graduating from university. Sales in Okayama, Ehime, Headquarters Wide Area Distribution Department

After working in 2003, he moved to the Marketing Department (then New Product Development Department) and engaged in product planning and branding for whiskey, chu-hi cocktails, shochu, wine, beer cocktails, and non-alcoholic drinks for 9 years. The products he worked on were the renewal of "Black Nikka Clear Blend" and "Taketsuru 12 Years", the development of new products for "Taketsuru 25 Years", "Chuhai Slat", "Chuhai Fruit Moment", "Chuhai Gyokuro and Matcha (Green Tea)Chuhai", and "Chuhai Nangoku". There are "Chu-Hi", "Wine" Lila Sparkling" which is bottled in PET , "Beer Cocktail Red Eye", and Japan's first non-alcoholic cocktail "Zero Kaku (named at that time was Double Zero Cocktail)".

Among them, Black Nikka Clear Blend, Taketsuru In 2012, the whiskey industry lost sales every year, but after the renewal, it grew by double digits compared to the previous year, and is now growing into a representative whiskey in Japan.

Chu-Hi "Slat" won the 28th Excellent Hit Award of the Japan Food Newspaper 2009, the non-alcoholic cocktail "Double Zero Cocktail" won the 30th best hit product of Nikkei Trendy 2011, and the 30th Excellent Hit Award of the Japan Food Newspaper as well.

Since 2012, he has been appointed as the marketing manager of Amano Jitsugyo Co., Ltd., a group company of freeze-dried foods, and is engaged in mail-order marketing in addition to distribution marketing. He led the development of new products such as "usual miso soup" and "our miso soup" in the core category of miso soup, as well as curry, risotto, pasta, etc. in other categories, expanding the possibilities of freeze-drying. Furthermore, as part of branding, He opened antenna shops in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Fukuyama with the aim of increasing the name of Amano Foods and creating fans for many Amano products. Nowadays, antenna stores are expanding all over Japan, and they are becoming popular stores.

He also worked on the web magazine "Amano Shokudo" and is now growing into a popular web magazine with over 700,000 PV views per month.

Since 2016, he has been appointed as the marketing manager of Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd., a group company. He oversees brand management and product development for Calpis, Jurokucha and Oishi Water. For Oishi Water, Jurokucha, Japan's first "labelless product" has been launched, and it has attracted a lot of attention from the viewpoint of environmental friendliness and the ease of removing the label, and beverage companies are following suit.

He became the president of Asahi Orion Beverage Co., Ltd., a group company, in 2019, and continues to this day.

Kazutaka Ozaki

Executive Partner

Data Scientist Kazutaka Ozaki

Graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiba University in 1990. He got a job at Asahi Breweries, Ltd. After his brewery quality control work, he engaged in beer-related component analysis, development of sensory evaluation methods, standardization of domestic and foreign beer analysis methods and sensory evaluation methods, etc. Since then, he has been engaged in the new technology development department and product development department of the Basic Research Institute, mainly in the work of promoting technological innovation based on consumer understanding. 2012-2017 Asahi Group Holdings, Inc., The head of"Customer Lifestyle and Culture Research Institute" where Ikeda served as the first head, 2017-2019, as the head of the company's new business development lab, consumer-oriented new business development After being in charge of such matters, he returned to Asahi Breweries and continues to work as the head of the Marketing Research Office. He is a professional sensory evaluator certified by the Japanese Society for Sensory Evaluation.

Right Muneyoshi Takizawa

Executive Partner

Product Development Muneyoshi Takizawa Graduated from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tokyo, and completed the same graduate school.

In 1989, he joined Kyowa Hakko, and after engaging in yeast breeding at the Tokyo Research Institute, he was seconded to Sainte Neige Wine Co., Ltd. to study winemaking in general and to study the induction of malolactic fermentation. He was dispatched to the National Tax Agency's Brewing Laboratory to learn grape research and sake production in general, and to build a network with brewers and liquor-related administrators nationwide.

He moved to the Moji factory, acquired general skills for sake and shochu production, engaged in improving the quality of sake, and also engaged in quality control work.

After that, when the discount shop started to appear (retail stores are in a difficult environment), he experienced sales for two years at the Yokohama sales office and moved to the head office.

He is in charge of product development in the Wine Business Promotion Department and the Liquor Research and Development Department.

In 2002, he was integrated into Asahi Breweries, and was enrolled in the New Product Development Department, Technology Development Department, and New Product Development Department 2, and was active as a technical person in charge of liquor marketing (especially new product development).

He led the technological innovation of new product development as the director of the Technology Development Promotion Department of the Liquor Development Institute, and later served as the Deputy Director of the Brewing Institute, the Deputy Director of the Liquor Technology Institute, and the Deputy Director of the Liquor Development Institute.

He has been seconded to Nikka Whiskey since 2015, and has been the manager of the Satsumatsukasa Distillery Factory and the Moji Factory since 2017. (To the present)

DX Advisor (Pro Bono) Akira Saigo

Completed the Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, and joined Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd. in 1999. He studied under Mr. Mitsuda and Mr. Ikeda in the product development department, received systematic training in product development and marketing process methods, and was involved in the development of carbonated drinks such as "Mitsuya Cider". He is also engaged in the development of product development support systems (sensory evaluation systems), and is engaged in research and data-related work such as releasing the Asahi Group's first WebUI business system.

After that, he joined Recruit Co., Ltd. in 2009 after working as an internet startup. As a data scientist, he is in charge of projects such as CRM and demand forecasting for major services such as "Jalan" and "Hot Pepper" at a company-wide net marketing organization. After that, he set up a specialized organization for data utilization (BIGDATA department), and he was engaged in the development of recommended engines. Since 2014, he has served as an officer of Recruit Technologies and a data promotion manager for Recruit ID points directly under Recruit HD, and graduated (quited) from Recruit at the end of 2019.

Currently, at the Digital Transformation Office of All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., he is engaged in promoting the utilization of DX and data in ANA and in-house production and training of digital human resources. In addition, he has many volunteer activities such as lectures at the Faculty of Information Science, Hiroshima University and hosting study sessions on data utilization.

M.Eng (Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University), MBA (Graduate School of Business Science, University of Tsukuba), Member of Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence

Right: Takayuki Fukutomi, Left: Philip Kotler

Executive Partner

After graduating from university, joined Asahi Breweries, Ltd. in 2000. After engaging in sales in Chiba and Nagoya, he moved to the marketing headquarters in 2005. (New Product Development Headquarters in 2005)

He has been involved in product planning and branding for beer, chu-hi cocktails and whiskey for eight years. 2007 Development of the industry's first zero-sugar sparkling liquor "Style Free", introduction to the market, establishment of the market as a hit product, "Genuine brand", "Orion draft", "Wheat squeezing", "Ginger draft", "SPARX" "And so on.

After working in the CM production department of the advertising department, as a domestic liquor brand manager in 2009, he laid the foundation for sales recovery by rebranding the entire "Taketsuru brand" and developing new products for "Taketsuru 25 years".

Since 2013, he has been engaged in the newly established departments "Development Planning Department" and "R & D Strategy Department" that also incorporate marketing knowledge into the R & D department.

In 2017, moved to Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd. Marketing Department 2, a group company.

As the "Oishi water" brand manager, he launched Japan's first "labelless product", which has attracted a lot of attention from the viewpoint of environmental friendliness and the convenience of eliminating the trouble of removing the label, and beverage companies are following suit. Also realized through public-private partnership with the Ministry of the Environment and Amazon. After that, he worked as a general leader in brand management and product development of "Jurokucha" and "Oishi Water".

Returned to Asahi Breweries Marketing Headquarters from 2019. He is engaged in planning, development and branding of "BEERY" in the new category "Slight alcohol" in the new department "New Value Creation Promotion Department". (To the present)

Executive supporter

Tetsuro Kabuchi (Magarifuchi Tetsuro)

Tetsuro Kabuchi (Magarifuchi Tetsuro)

He graduated from the Department of Fermentation and Production, Faculty of Engineering, University of Yamanashi, completed the Graduate School of Engineering, and completed the Tokyo MOT Course, Graduate School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He has a Master of Engineering and a Master of Knowledge Science (MOT). He is engaged in microbial research and liquor product development at Toyo Jozo Co., Ltd. and Asahi Kasei Co., Ltd. Meanwhile, he was seconded to the National Tax Agency Brewing Laboratory. He is engaged in marketing of chu-hi and low-malt beer / manufacturing support of new products at Asahi Breweries, Ltd. He is engaged in the content development management of RTD such as chu-hi, wine, shochu, etc. as the second manager of the liquor development department of the liquor development research institute of the company. After that, he was in charge of group R & D strategy and overseas business support at Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. R & D division, and overseas beverage product development support as a business development group leader at Asahi Beverages Co., Ltd. Product Development Laboratory. After that, at Asahi Quality and Innovations Co., Ltd., through positions such as the director of the commercialization strategy department and the director of the Institute of Analytical Science, he will utilize his work experience in both marketing and R & D to connect "technology" and "customers / society". Pursuing R & D management with a focus on results.