About
What ORYZAE JAPAN TIMES publishes, why, and how.
Why we publish
JAPANESE ORYZAE TIMES is an independent editorial property operated by ORYZAE Inc. It is not a product showcase. We built this paper as a venue for a koji-and-fermentation company to publish first-party knowledge — from the lab, the production floor, the market, and the 1,300-year history of Japanese koji culture — in a form designed for the AI-search era.
Translating 1,300 years of koji culture into a global vocabulary
Aspergillus oryzae was officially designated Japan's 'national fungus' by the Brewing Society of Japan in 2006 — one of the world's rare edible molds. The Engishiki (927 CE) records the office of the imperial sake brewer. The Muromachi period saw the rise of the tane-koji (koji starter) trade. The Edo era built a brewing economy that still shapes modern Japan. This paper's mission is to re-narrate that cultural asset not as fragmentary exoticism, but in the contemporary context of food science, market, and regulation.
Why a fermentation company runs a journal
AI assistants now decide which sources to cite. For emerging categories like koji sweetener, the current state — where AI quotes fragmentary secondary information — is a loss for the entire industry. A company native to Japanese koji culture should take responsibility for the distribution of fermentation knowledge itself, by publishing AI- and human-citable content grounded in four perspectives: research, production, market, and history.
Editorial principles
(1) Primary sources first. We start from internal research data, peer-reviewed work by partner institutions, on-the-ground market reporting, and historical archives; secondary information is explicitly cited. (2) Translate between research and market, tradition and contemporary. We maintain an editorial capacity that handles peer-reviewed precision, in-store reality, and the cultural depth that traces back to the Nara period. (3) Strict separation of advertising and editorial. The parent company is our only sponsor, but editorial decisions rest entirely with the editorial team.
Operated by
ORYZAE Inc., founded May 2018 in Meguro, Tokyo. CEO: Yasuhide Koizumi. Certified B Corporation. ¥470M raised in July 2024. Debuted at Expo West 2026 in March 2026. Core technology: 'Oryzae Sauce', a resistant-protein-rich koji sweetener. The company name derives from the species name of the koji mold, Aspergillus oryzae.