OUR STORY

06

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE CULTURE OF TRADITION

The data shows that compared to other manufacturing industries, the percentage of elderly people are high in the ceramic industry including the studios of traditional Japanese tableware. This means that only a small number of young people have joined in this industry. No matter how great our traditions are, it may be extremely difficult for young people to get into this industry unless they find hope that they can make a living in the industry. Sales of Japanese tableware have declined 75% over the past 20 years, though we saw a temporary upturn at some point.

On the flip side, we believe that young people can become more interested in the ceramic industry if we can reverse this 20-year trend. In order to make this happen, we need to stimulate demand for traditional Japanese tableware.

With the support of the Japanese government and local governments, a number of programs have been carried out to stimulate the demand. Although we have seen some great programs, we think any of those programs were unfortunately not successful in turning this trend around.

However, some of those programs had notions of tapping the market potential through sharing ideas on how to use the tableware in everyday life, rather than just selling products in the global market. This suggests that they had clear visions of what needed to be done, but it seems they could not turn it around because of the industry-specific obstacles and lack of resources.

At Musubi Kiln, we are committed to stimulating demand on our own, then we will rebuild the 20-year-old outdated information systems and distribution systems. We will make every effort to share know-how with our partners who can stimulate the industry together.

Traditions passed down through the ages within the beautiful Japanese culture are absolutely inimitable and unique to Japan. We believe that developing strong traditional industries is one of the keys to the bright future of Japan.