Soy sauce brewery
Shihoyuen A facility equipped with the latest technology
Our soy sauce brewery called Shihoyuen was constructed in 1976 in the City of Omura, Nagasaki on a 16-acre (65,000m²) plot of land surrounded by greenery and pristine creeks.
At our brewery you can catch a glimpse of our state of the art equipment, including an automated rotating circular Koji producer, a raw produce fermentation tank, a bottling assembly line and automated storage system.
Furthermore there is the Worcester studio, where vinegar and Worcester sauce is produced.
raw ingredients silo
This machine can suck up between 500 and 600kg of soybeans, naked barley, barley or rice and output various types of miso.
It is also capable of sorting the ingredients by size, quality, and color and can filter out unwanted objects such as stones. (Unfortunately this machine is not open to public viewing)
Koji (malted rice) chamber
This chamber consists of two stories, the top floor consists of a stainless floor in which the base ingredients are stored and the first floor is filled with air, which through a membrane is able to enter the second floor.
The whole process for Koji creation takes three days to complete.
A computer automatically regulates the temperature and humidity in the chamber during this period.
Outdoor fermentation tank
This is where koji and saline water are combined and fermented.
Assembly line
At our facility we have three assembly lines, of which one serves a dual purpose filling both glass bottles and PET bottles.
This line is able to fill bottles from 500ml up to 1.8L and has a capacity of 7200 bottles an hour.
This line is also self-feeding and uses sterilized air and water to self-clean. In addition it also automatically handles capping, labeling, packing, stacking of pallets and transportation to storage. The whole line takes just four people to operate.
The two other lines are able to fill up 500ml, 1L and 1,5L PET bottles and are also used for smaller bottles produced in lesser quantities. All lines are equipped with automated transportation to storage.
Automated storage
Our storage room is 6 pallets wide, 30 pallets deep and 12 pallets high, allowing storage of up to 2148 pallets. A device called a mono-lift stacks the pallets one by one in the space available. A computer does all of this automatically without the need for manpower. In addition the system can extract products based on their stacking order, meaning older products can be shipped first. When full this storage can contain up to 1 million 1L pet bottles.
Testing laboratory
This laboratory analyses samples from the produced products to confirm standards. Especially the products, which have received a JAS certification, are checked meticulously. All products passing to the consumer have been thoroughly checked so they can be consumed without worries.
This laboratory is also the place where research on soy sauce is done and new products are developed.