Chairman’s Message

Background of foundation of Zensho Holdings
　Zensho Holdings Co., Ltd. (“Zensho”) was founded in 1982 with five million yen in capital. At that time, there were unceasing disputes in the world in spite of the experience of World War II, and one third of the population did not have access to sufficient food. With such historical background, we founded Zensho, believing that eradicating hunger and poverty from the world is the issue of humankind in entirety and intending to resolve the issue by utilizing the ability of a stock company. This was our starting point. At first, Zensho was a mere small company like dust in the wind. However, so many members who share the vision of eradicating hunger and poverty from the world came to us, expanding the business scale and forming the structure for realizing our philosophy.

Reason why Zensho has grown to the current scale
　Zensho has scaled up to 1,136.6 billion yen in sales (as of fiscal year ending March 2025) and 15,419 retail locations around the world, making it the number one food service company in Japan in terms of sales and one of the top 10 worldwide. This is due to many of our employees who have truly shared our vision since foundation of eradicating hunger and poverty from the world and work with passion to create a new epoch in human history.
　However, in order to truly change the world, Zensho needs to further expand its scale. We will build a shared understanding with more people around the world and gather more members who will work together toward the realization of our vision.

Evolution in our corporate philosophy
　In 2023, we have taken our corporate philosophy to the next level. Through food, we take responsibility for the stability and development of human society, helping eradicate hunger and poverty from the world. While believing that Zensho is gaining a certain level of impact on society, I have a growing sense of urgency regarding the growing instability in the world. International, tribal and ethnic conflicts erupting in various parts of the world are causing great damage to human society. We cannot stand outside looking in on this situation. Instead, we must recognize our responsibility in tackling the various issues we face and work to contribute to social stability and development.
　Zensho has created the mass merchandising system (MMD) to plan, design and operate everything from raw material procurement to manufacturing, processing, logistics and sales. This is a system to provide safe and delicious food at affordable prices to people around the world. By developing the MMD worldwide, we aim at building food infrastructure that will support humankind by enabling us to provide a stable food supply even when unforeseen circumstances arise. In the sense of achieving stability and development of the world through food, our work to accomplish our mission is still in its infancy.

Toward realizing the philosophy
　Looking back through history, we find many cases in the world where succession of local food production structures and traditional culture was discontinued by colonial domination and plantations, where production items were limited by the arbitrary decision of the ruling countries. Zensho is working to change this negative trajectory. We must realize a society in which all people around the world can get sufficient food, educational opportunities are ensured for all children, and all people can live with pride in their culture, tradition, and technologies.
　We believe that there is dichotomous way of thinking (dialectic way of thinking) that underlies the Western philosophy behind the global instability. If we try to understand various conflicts that have been developed in the long history from the perspective of “good or evil,” we will never be able to eradicate conflicts. To overcome these issues, a shift to new ways of thinking would be necessary.
　Harmony is the greatest of virtues. This Japanese saying symbolizes the non-dichotomous way of thinking inherent in Japanese culture, and we believe that this way of thinking will form the foundation of stability of humankind. People with different cultures should understand, respect, and feel empathy with the background of each other. We believe that having such a way of thinking will be the key to changing the current world of unceasing disputes and conflicts.
　In 2023, Zensho opened Zensho Japanese Culture Center in Kyoto, where the best of the Japanese cultural assets gathers, as a place for our employees to appreciate authentic Japanese culture and deepen their understanding of the underlying ideas. In the training program to expose employees to Japanese culture held there, trainees are working to deepen their understanding of the culture of their own country through experience of Japanese arts such as flower arrangement and calligraphy, as the first step to form the foundation for understanding the cultures of other countries. We firmly believe that these activities will contribute to the development of human resources, or human capital, who can build a shared understanding with people around the world.
　As a company originated in Japan taking responsibility for helping to achieve the stability and development of human society, Zensho is committed to build food infrastructure by expanding the circle of shared understanding around the world.