The soy sauce miracle: Japan condiment factory marks rebirth for region

The March 11, 2011, tsunami killed nearly 19,000 people and set off meltdowns at a nuclear plant also destroyed the Yagisawa Shoten Company — a nine-generation operation in business since 1807. When all was thought lost, Yagisawa president Michihiro Kono got some good news about some of the the original cultures — they were in storage at a university medical research laboratory, and even though the lab was destroyed, the containers housing the cultures were found intact nearby. After sitting for two years to flavor, soy sauce sales are already 70 percent of pre-disaster levels, and there’s signs of light for Kono and his 38 employees, who he’s been paying since the disaster in a money-losing operation.

If you don’t give up, no matter how painful it gets, there will always be a way.

Michihiro Kono

The company has had some help along the way. The company was crowdsourced, with 150 million yen ($1.5 million) coming from sympathizers across the nation. Each supporter gave 10,000 yen ($100), half of it as investment and half as a straight donation. The company also got some government aid.

World tsunami