CEO Message

From origins in amino acid research, the Ajinomoto Group has continued to grow through our strengths in “AminoScience”*.

Our story began in 1908, when Dr. Kikunae Ikeda, who wanted to improve the nutrition of the Japanese people, discovered umami, and company founder Saburosuke Suzuki II commercialized this discovery as the product AJI-NO-MOTO_® in 1909. Even now, over a century later, the founding aspiration of “Eat well, Live well.” is being carried forward in the form of Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value (ASV), an initiative aimed at co-creating both social value and economic value through our businesses while helping to resolve social issues.

In the rapidly changing and unpredictable business environment of today, the Purpose in which we are grounded is becoming all the more important. This Purpose is by no means limited to the beliefs of our management, but rather reflects the spontaneous aspirations of the Ajinomoto Group employees around the world and our determination to meet the expectations of our many and diverse stakeholders, including the Sustainability Advisory Council.

At the core of Ajinomoto Group ASV management is our pursuit of sustainability. In April 2021, we established the Sustainability Advisory Council. In 2023, we defined important issues (materiality) in connection with our vision as a company, long-term corporate value growth, and after dialogues with various stakeholders. We engage with materiality as a group to resolve social issues and create sustainable value. Based on materiality, we summarized the Material Themes to address now and specific action plans related to Material Themes.

Our 2030 target outcome is to reduce our environmental impact by 50%, particularly greenhouse gas emissions. For the Group, it is very important to reduce the negative impacts of our own Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. We can also contribute significantly to positive impacts on customers and society through the Group’s technology, expertise, products, and services. For example, we work with major dairy companies and regional livestock producers to reduce GHG emissions from cows worldwide through our AjiPro_®-L amino acid product for animal nutrition. It is clear in the agricultural sector, that biostimulants, agricultural materials different from conventional fertilizers and pesticides have the potential for a significant positive impact on increased food production, the efficient use of agricultural land, and reduced GHG emissions. At the same time, we take on the challenge to further clarify specific measures in response to materiality for the Ajinomoto Group and the impact path toward generating results. We are currently creating visualizations for several easy-to-understand examples. Our challenge is to scale up and speed up our clarification of this impact path to organization-wide efforts at the Ajinomoto Group.

Our corporate slogan, "Eat Well, Live Well." is an expression of the Ajinomoto Group's determination not only to deliver even better taste to people around the world, but also to contribute with “AminoScience” to health through daily meals, to solutions for food, medical, and environmental challenges faced by humankind, and to the creation of Smart Society. To achieve “Eat Well, Live Well.” by contributing to the well-being of all human beings, our society, and our planet with “AminoScience”, we continue to pursue ASV management and engage in sustainability, driven by the diverse stakeholders who share the purpose and heartfelt passion of our employees.