Monthly Archives: January 2018

The Voices of Zojirushi – Seitaro

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We’re so excited to introduce you to Seitaro, a Manager in our Technical Support Department, and a team member who embodies Zojirushi’s founding belief that we succeed when we improve our customers’ quality of life through our daily work. The Technical Support Department is primarily responsible for repairing products, but also manages an inventory of spare parts, conducts product testing, and manages service centers in North America.

Seitaro joined Zojirushi two years ago, and we found time to talk to him as part of our Centennial Anniversary celebrations!

Tell us a bit about your background? Where is your hometown? What are your favorite foods? And what do you love about Japan and Japanese culture?

I’m from Hiroshima, Japan, and of course my favorite foods are Japanese! I love onigiri, miso soup, tamagoyaki (Japanese egg omelet), mezashi (dried sardines skewered together in a neat row), surumeika (dried squid), grilled ika (squid), chawanmushi, yakitori and sushi!

A favorite lunch, nigiri sushi bento

I find that the Japanese dedication to craftsmanship and the dedication to studying foods—even existing ones—are inspiring. And also the precision, the durability of Japanese machinery products, and their almost obsessive dedication to ease-of-use, too.

Was that what inspired you to work at Zojirushi?

Yes. Zojirushi contributes to society by providing electric products to consumers regardless of their race, sex or age. And I wanted to do something that made me feel useful in society, and I thought I would be able to do that at a long-established manufacturer like Zojirushi.

Our corporate philosophy is Creating a Quality of Life. How does your position at Zojirushi create a better quality of life for our customers?

By repairing products, we help reduce trash waste for the environment and monetary waste for our customers. Zojirushi continues to design products that are lasting and customer centric, and our dedication to customers by continuing to operate a repair department means we really invest in quality of life for our customers.

A customer’s rice cooker undergoes testing

What is your most memorable Zojirushi moment?

I received a repair request for a Zojirushi product that was over 30 years old, and I was genuinely surprised to see how carefully and lovingly the product had been used over the years.

Our corporate slogan is “Inspirations from everyday life.” What in your everyday life has inspired you to provide better service to your customers?

When I go on business trips or when I go on vacation, I note the hotel or restaurant facilities, furniture or equipment they use, and the way they treat and interact with customers, and use these experiences to make our customer experiences better.

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Seitaro’s joy in creating better customer experiences is one of the reasons we believe he embodies Zojirushi’s philosophy. We hope you enjoyed learning about his perspectives. Stay tuned next month to meet another Zojirushi star!

An Acquired Taste of Japan – Natto!

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We all know that Japanese food is delicious, that it’s based on a culinary tradition that produces such delicacies as sushi and ramen, kaiseki ryori and shojin ryori, that reveres the umami and inherent goodness of food.

But do you know about the more unique foods of Japan?

We start off 2018 with a new series about Japanese food—all about the dishes that perhaps take some time to be loved! Natto is one of those dishes, and is a food that any child raised in Japan is familiar with.

Natto is a dish made of fermented soybeans, full of probiotics, B & K vitamins, fiber and minerals. It’s traditionally eaten along with rice for breakfast… and is a most acquired taste!

There are multiple varieties of natto produced in Japan, and the most commonly prepared type is called itohiki natto, or “stringy natto”. The strings are a result of how the soybeans are prepared. Raw beans are first soaked for several hours, and then steamed until softened. The beans are inoculated with either Bacillus natto or Bacillus subtilis and then allowed to ferment for about 24 hours at around 104°F. When removed from the fermentation container, the beans have a pungent aroma, similar to mild ammonia, and are surrounded by gossamer threads of biofilm, giving them a sticky, slippery texture.

Slippery and slimy. It’s no wonder that legends abound about its origin! Some say that natto was discovered accidentally about 1000 years ago, when warm, cooked soybeans were placed in a sack made of rice straw and transported by horseback. The warmth of the animal fermented the cooked beans, and when the sack was opened at its destination, natto was inside!

Natto is being studied by modern food scientists and microbiologists because of its superfood properties and long-term health benefits experienced by people who traditionally eat this unique food. Dr. Ralph Holsworth, a biomedical researcher, has coauthored several studies about the enzyme nattokinase, a byproduct of the fermentation process, that have shown that the enzyme assists in the prevention of arterial plaque formation. Dr. Ann Yonetani, a food scientist and microbiologist, has also studied the benefits of natto on the human microbiome, stating that although more scientific data needs to be generated, the probiotics found in natto are more likely to survive through the digestive tract and colonize the intestines with beneficial bacteria, compared to other probiotics.

Japan isn’t the only country that lays claim to natto, although it may be where the dish comes from. A version of natto is found in the “natto triangle”, including Thailand, Northeastern India, Korea and parts of China. Commercial manufacturers and artisanal cooks make natto in the US and numerous varieties can be found at Japanese markets.

Natto is a must-try unique dish of Japan! Check it out and tell us what you think!

Product Inspirations – Travel Mug (SM-YAE48)

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We’re excited to showcase our Travel Mug (SM-YAE48) as our first Product Inspiration of 2018!

This mug is a stylish and convenient way to take your favorite tea, coffee or other beverage with you whenever you’re commuting or on the go. We’ve designed it with travel-friendly features, like a generous 16-ounce capacity, a design that rests more securely in car cup holders and can fit beneath most single cup brewers, and superior vacuum insulation to keep drinks hot or cold for hours.

The exterior comes in four great colors—Lime Green, Cherry Red, Dark Cocoa and Stainless—while the interior features Zojirushi’s SlickSteel® electro-polished stainless steel, which uses an electrically charged polishing process to treat and finish the interior, without adding any nonstick coating. The result is a corrosion resistant surface that repels odors, foreign substances and stains. The wide mouth opening makes it easy to pour liquids into the mug and clean the inside, and the interior fill line markings help to prevent overfilling, which could cause leakage. Plus, all parts that come into contact with your beverage are BPA-free.

The Travel Mug also has an ingeniously crafted lid, with a safety lock that makes it leak-proof, a sipping area that comfortably fits the contours of your face, and an air vent design on the opening which allows for beverages to flow out smoothly. Best of all, the lid gaskets are removeable for easy cleaning!

Our customers love that the same trick that can be used with our insulated food jars can be used with this mug—pre-cool the interior with icy cold water before filling with a cold beverage, or pre-heat with boiling hot water before filling with a hot beverage and the temperature is kept even longer!

We’re so inspired by this travel mug and how our customers use it that we love to come up with great drinks for you. With cold winter weather upon us, we often like a warm drink, and our Cold Buster Smoothie is the best! And if you prefer something with a bit more kick to it, try out our Shake It and Take It Matcha. And of course, for those who love coffee drinks, try out our Oh So Soy Latte!

No matter what you drink, the Travel Mug (SM-YAE48) is ideal for enjoying your favorite drink when you’re on the go. And you know that the SM-YAE48 is our very own Jesse’s favorite! We hope you love it and our recipes as much as we do, and don’t forget to tell us how you use it!

Good Vibrations in 2018

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Good, good, good, good vibrations!
—The Beach Boys

So this is my one resolution this year: stay positive! Each year my family asks me, “What’s your New Year’s Resolution this year, Dad?” And I try to come up with one, but only one, because I know how hard they are to keep. They’ve not always been successful, but I’ve got to set an example, right? I think I’ve grown more cynical as I get older, and that’s not good. As I get older, I figure I’ve earned the right to get crusty, but I don’t want to dry out and get crumbly…ha!

Too many haters out there today, and the problem is that everyone has a voice that can be heard everywhere, know what I mean? And this isn’t a positivity blog, so I’m not about to tell anyone what to do or offer suggestions. I will, however, tell you what I’m going to do to stay positive and invite good, good vibrations.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so let us all be thankful.”
—Buddha

How utterly Zen is that?

More Good Music
Listening to great music always puts me in the right frame of mind. and I don’t care what anyone else is listening to, because I’m listening to classic rock—the way songs were written when they were called tunes. The best songwriters can compose catchy melodies that are memorable, and combine them with meaningful lyrics that aren’t pretentious or sappy. To be fair, there are many contemporary bands that I listen to as well—good music is good music, after all. But music preference is generational, and I prefer the songs that speak to me. From one of the greatest songwriters of all time:

I’m not the kind of man
Who tends to socialize
I seem to lean on
Old familiar ways
And I ain’t no fool for love songs
That whisper in my ears
Still crazy after all these years
Still crazy after all these years
—Paul Simon

More Good Food
We got ourselves a Gourmet Sizzler griddle this year for Christmas. My wife wanted one so she could do some tabletop cooking with the family, and I thought it was a good idea. I’ve noticed that whenever we eat at home, we each have our little places to go to inside the house, so we grab a plate and scatter to watch our own TV shows or sit at the computer while we eat. As much as I cringe at the thought of dining out and paying for the expense, I feel like it’s worth it because we’re all in one place together and we actually talk. Believe me, this gets harder as the kids get older.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to doing some teppanyaki or Korean BBQ or okonomiyaki at home this year. Who knows, maybe we can turn it into a regular family activity. If you decide to get one, there are some easy starter recipes on the Zojirushi site, so look them up. And if you’re interested, there’s some more information on griddle cooking here. I definitely wouldn’t have bought this if all I was going to do was make pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches—that’s not enough to bring the family together!

More Good Moments
The trick to experiencing the good moments in life is to be able to recognize them. I am notoriously bad at it, so I resolve to be more sensitive to my surroundings from now on. I have an Instagram account, but I’m not all that active on it. When I think of the hundreds of funny or interesting images that I see all the time, I think if only I stopped to take a photo and just comment on my IG page, I’d probably have a decent collection of moments that I could have shared. These days we can do that so much easier than we used to—all we have to do is whip out our phones. It’s a matter of looking at things through our own unique lens, you know? Here’s an example of what I mean. This was taken when we went to go get breakfast at a local diner called Phanny’s. Excellent breakfast burritos, BTW.

A resolution to eat healthy—forgotten at the bus stop.

This year I’m going to see More Good Movies, write More Good Stories, read More Good Books and feel More Good Vibrations! What are you gonna do?

 

images: Good Vibes by P&J Productions, Buddha by Gaijin Pot, all others by Zojirushi and Bert Tanimoto

 

The Voices of Zojirushi – Jesse

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2018 marks our 100th anniversary! Zojirushi started as the Ichikawa Brothers Trading Company in 1918 in Osaka, Japan, and since then, we haven’t stopped!

We were founded on the deep belief that we succeed when we work to improve our customer’s quality of life through the creation of innovative products. Our employees are such an important part of fulfilling our mission, and we’d love for you to get to know them!

Jesus is one of our friendly Customer Service Representatives based out of our offices in Torrance, California. He goes by Jesse, and has been with Zojirushi for a whopping 24 years! Jesse embodies our company’s mission, and we caught up with him to talk about what he likes about working with customers and what inspires him about Zojirushi.

Customer service always has a variety of Zojirushi products on hand nearby to help walk customers through the use and care of them

Zojirushi believes in putting their customers first, and as a Customer Service Representative, what motivates you to be customer-focused?

I enjoy assisting people, interacting with them and striving to make a positive difference in their day. I would say working at Zojirushi provides me with the opportunity to help new people, and that is something that motivates me. My children also inspire me. I see them doing their best in whatever they do—homework, sports—and that motivates me to do my best and provide the best customer service possible.

Our corporate philosophy is Creating a Quality of Life. How does your position at Zojirushi create a better quality of life for our customers?

Our customers have a better quality of life when I’m able to solve a problem they’re having with one of our products or just by answering their baking questions during the holidays. One less thing to worry about!

Much of our product design focuses on practicality, quality, craftsmanship, sustainability and stylishness. Do you have a favorite Zojirushi product that you believe embodies these qualities, and how do you believe we embody those qualities in our services?

Safety, usability, practicality, quality, craftsmanship and stylishness. That describes the Travel Mug (SM-YAE48) to me! Also, we really believe in self-improvement and honesty. We’re always trying to improve our products and when we have an issue with the product, we do our best to correct any problem. That shows that we really care.

Zojirushi Travel Mug SM-YAE48

What’s the best dish you’ve made using one of our products, and if you could dream up your own perfect Zojirushi product, what would it be?

I would like to see a Zojirushi waffle maker! It would be so much fun if it could make waffles in the shape of our elephant logo. I’d love it as much as I love to make pork chops with roasted vegetables in the Gourmet d’Expert® Electric Skillet (EP-PBC10). They turned out really good!

Zojirushi isn’t just about products. It’s about our company’s values and the wonderful Japanese culture that informs what we do. Have you been inspired by Japan during your tenure here?

I have never been to Japan, but I would love to see the cherry blossom trees and see people wearing kimonos, the ones made with beautiful silk colors.

Finally, if you could tell people one great thing about Zojirushi, what would it be?

I have been here for over 20 years so it’s hard to narrow it down to just one moment – let’s just say I have a few! Meeting Mr. Ichikawa, the President & CEO of Zojirushi, is definitely up there. I look forward to coming to work and I’m happy to be here at Zojirushi America. I feel appreciated, acknowledged and rewarded.

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Jesse is such a great team member, and we hope you enjoyed learning about his perspectives. Stay tuned next month to meet another Zojirushi star!