Along with society

Japan: Athlete Support Project, Victory Project_®

Medal-Winning Support in the Form of Food and Amino Acids to Athletes of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, including Hifumi Abe, Uta Abe

For more than 20 years, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has supported the conditioning of top athletes through our expertise in food and amino acids. One culmination of these efforts is the Olympic and Paralympic Games, held once every four years. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. supports TEAM JAPAN, led by Hifumi and Uta Abe, at the Paris 2024 Games. We provides unique support activities fusing the umami taste that originated in Japan with the Parisian flavor of the Games.

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has been an official partner of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) since 2003, and of the Japanese Para Sports Association (JPSA) since 2015, providing conditioning support through food and amino acids to the Japanese national team and team candidates. The core of our support is the Victory Project_®.
We launched this program in 2003 jointly with the JOC, aiming to improve the international competitiveness of top athletes and increase the number of medals taken home. In 2016, we began working with the Japanese Paralympic Committee (JPC). We have provided support to Olympic athletes since the Athens 2004 Games and Paralympic athletes since the Rio 2016 Games.

• *Currently an official sponsor with the JPC.

The Victory Project_® works with the G-Road Station, a nutrition support base the JOC has provided on-site since the Rio 2016 Games. G-Road Station is a support booth set up to help the members of TEAM JAPAN maintain good physical condition in the moments leading up to competition.
At the Paris 2024 Games, G-Road Station offered Dashi Chazuke, Gudakusan Shirumono and other umami-rich foods to TEAM JAPAN athletes. Eating these easily digestible and familiar light Japanese meals helped the athletes become energized in body and spirit in their quest toward self-actualization. As part of this effort, we developed Kachimeshi_® Umami Soup Paris Special under the supervision of Ryuji Teshima, a Japanese chef working in Paris. For the first time ever, we worked with the JPC to provide Café Du Dashi on-site for the Japanese Paralympic athletes. Café Du Dashi offered dashi soup and a space for Paralympic athletes to relax. The objective of this facility was to help maintain the conditioning of athletes and ensure ultimate performance during their competition.

The Kachimeshi_® nutrition program is designed to improve the nutritional environment of athletes, supporting their athletic endeavors. This program is a product of the expertise developed long-term through the Victory Project_® and sports nutrition.
Kachimeshi_® consists of three meals a day and supplemental foods offering the nutritional balance necessary for athletes. The main focus is what to eat for, rather than what to eat, helping top athletes achieve world-class conditioning through amino acids. This combination allows Ajinomoto Co., Inc. to respond to the individual conditioning needs of athletes, which change day to day. We support these athletes, helping them perform at their best at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, held once every four years.

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. appointed Takeshi Matsuda, Olympian swimmer and Kachimeshi_® Ambassador, to lead a cheering section at the Olympic Games. We are also soliciting messages of support for athletes from our customers. In this way, we cheered on TEAM JAPAN, together with customers, at the Games. We also sponsored the campaign on SNS to send messages of support to the athletes.
Japan Airlines (JAL) is also an official airline supporter of TEAM JAPAN. We worked with JAL to develop Kachimeshi_® in-flight meals based on the recovery meals we designed for Hifumi and Uta Abe. Between July 1 and September 10, 2024, partner companies have conducted customer-focused activities, joining in supporting the dreams of our athletes as members of TEAM JAPAN.

The founding aspiration of Eat well, Live well, lives on today across the Ajinomoto Group, and is the basis for our various corporate activities.
The Ajinomoto Company will always respect the aspirations of athletes and their diverse personalities, supporting mental and physical well-being through ”AminoScience”. And we use the expertise gained through these efforts to contribute to the well-being of our customers.

• *Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is an official sponsor of JOC and JPC (contracted categories: Seasonings, dried soups, nutritional supplements, frozen foods, coffee beans).